by: R Ibanez, VIVIsectVI, and dronebot
Cheng DaoYuan – Apeiron
WV Sorcerer
Taiwan has a rich and diverse experimental/noise/industrial/ambient scene with the likes of POTOW, Chia-Chun Xu, Lica, High Hard, Kozma Philo Liu, Moxina, Dermal Stretching, Bunker, and many others offering cutting edge sound art that raises the profile of the Asian experimental scene.
Cheng Daoyuan is another name on that killer roster. His new album out on the top international experimental label WV Sorcerer provides harsh noise, industrial, power electronics, and dark ambient to saturate your brains with various frequences and mini-frequencies.
There are grating industrial sounds with dark ambient sequences and field recordings or samples of hidden urban spots. Suddenly, hard blip sounds and slow, eroding drones envelop the entire audio field with darkness. They progress to yet another realm full of pulsating, electro-slasher sounds.
These well-composed yet unpredictable shifts in frequency-riding makes Apeiron one of the top engaging listens of 2024. And this is just disc one of this 2CD set with gorgeous art packaging that includes a photo and art booklet with writings and a triple panel foldout spread that mimics a thick 7″ vinyl package. WV Sorcerer fellow sound explorers Mong Tong appear on track 8 for an added psyche touch.
Disc 2 is the remix of the album, offering sonic experiment treatments from the top names in international experimental scenes around the globe: Yearning Kru, Yunhao, Wa?ste, a dub mix from A.P.R.A., Nerve, Coalminer, and Torturing Nurse. These top tier artists reenvision the Apeiron sound, expanding the possibilities of its character while presenting the unique aural perspectives of each global sound merchant. Each is a fresh take on what is already a great record.
KANOR – Tirador Ng Balo
Independent Release
No one, and I mean no can predict what’s in store when gazing at the artwork of this new band from the mystickal Anugal regions. The only knowledge you may have of this album is knowing that one of the top local drumkit devastators, Vic Jarlego Jr., is behind the kit to do some pulverizing drums.
With unconventional cover art and a bastardized Kreator logo (hehe) intended to confuse then surprise the listener, that’s where all preconceived notions end once you hit play, and at full volume. Is it grindcore, death metal, or doom? Nope. Kanor is Vic and the gang’s side project that is much different from all the brutal, technical, doomed, or oldschool death metal platforms he’s been active with since the turn of the millenium.
This is their vehicle for some agressive, pissed off, and unapologetic hardcore/crossover/crust/punk/grind that doesn’t take themselves too seriously yet provides a bunch of very short killer songs for energetic yet drunkass pit thrashing, while having a good laugh at the subject matter.
There are also some well placed speed/thrash riffs here and there, and funny local samples to set the mood for each track. And I believe their vocalist is going mad as the album progresses to the end, as his punk death ramblings and splatter vocals take you to the fn edge. Urggghhhhh.
The playing remains tight and confrontational, with the right amount of punk rock rawness for a good old rocking time. I am a fan of Vic’s bands, and this one is definitely another addition to my collection. After some minutes of full throttle fun, it’s over. It’s time to take another double shot of Emperador or some lambanog and then hit play again.
Dagtum
Revered Decadence
Malevolent Sound Studios
Revered Decadence’s ultra dissonant, avantgarde, and proggish approach to death metal marks their killer debut record. Recently issued on gold vinyl from the USA, Dagtum’s overall sound isn’t your typical, all-out brutal death metal marred by unforgiving blastbeats and nonstop killing spree riffs. It’s a more methodical, calculated attack that lets the atmosphere and tension build up, then attack your from different sides.
While they also carry these key DM elements, Dagtum focuses on disjointed, oddtime death with creeping, cavernous vocals from AC. Most of it builds from different dynamics and screeching, menacing guitars, that also carry doses of dark, negative psyche and prog applied to their idiosyncratic sonic experimentation. It works. Think of mid-era Immolation with some Gorguts thrown in, but with weirder, proggy-style riff writing and arrangements.
You’ll also notice ambiences here and there that appear like ghoulish spectres, as the Vivo brothers and AC suddenly lead to blasting and hyperblasting sick passages. A lot of these details are easily noticeable due to the very clear engineering and mastering of Nel, also the main man from the infamous Sound Carpentry Studios. This eases most of the common blurry whirlwind of many rawer death metal albums, in favor of clearer and detailed presentation, and also adds to their unique sound. Watch out for their upcoming gigs in 2025.
Lapida
The Macabre Possession
Davao Hellbangers/Obscure Sound Records
If merciless death is what you seek, it is what you will find in Lapida’s new wreckord. This is a prime example of lethal, semi-technical Davao death metal that balances some oldschool riff madness with late 90s to early 2000 era blastridden semi-tech death obscurity for killer results.
The stench and disdain for human life via the infamous Davao Death Squad, at least in musical form, effervesces from the very beginning of the disc. The sick, face melting radiation sickness riffs never let up, paired with abyssal and wild lead solos from beyond the grave.
Their rhythm section is more than capable of handling and providing a solid foundation for all the chaotic death that ensues, making the overall sound tight and hellish. The above average productions also makes it possible to achieve a level of clarity with the all the brutal tones and frequencies.
These elements provide varied textural sounds of death, combining heavy low-end, midpaced busy chugs, sick riff runs, double bass domination with breakneck speed, and oddtime and syncopated fills, sometimes with evil brooding slowdowns of doomdeath. They are all held together by evil low inhuman growls that pepper this disc with the rotten stench of the lower planes.
Of special note is the CD tray art, which is one of the last pieces created by Norman Trinidad of Trident Nation zine, and of kvlt local black metal band Kambing with a sick logo by Joel Santiago. The appropriate sigilized artworks perfectly adorns this disc with sick cover art by Mark Sagadal adds to the brutality of this album.
SWINESLAUGHTER/ABANGLUPA split CD
Perpetual Grip On Power
Sound Carpentry Recordings
Two of the best rampaging local grindcore/brutal hardcore bands finally get to share a powerful split CD that destroys musically while addressing political and social ills of this wasteland we call Pilipinas.
Abanglupa returns to wreck everything with incensed brutal hardcore/metal/grind on their new material. Joining the Vivo Brothers on these tracks are vocalist Ben Baladad and bassist James Lawrence Ocampo in their debut recording, and it destroys as usual. These short and to the point tracks are at boiling point rage, with tracks 2 and 3 (“Sakim” & “Posas”) in tagalog, adding to the local sentiment of the tired, pissed-off, and fed up working class. It’s an invitation to wake up, revolt, and fight back, set to brutal, gargantuan downtuned grooves and annihilating blasts. You can toke to the heavy tunes as well.
Swineslaughter needs no introduction to any local fan of grindcore. They played with Wormrot and Full of Hell this year and released a killer album. If in case you’re a grindhead or punk who lives in a cave without internet or Wi-Fi: a really HEAVY grindcore band with brutal punk, hardcore, and death metal influences that confronts and scares off DDS and BBMs to their death, or at least in the brutal moshpit, and assails all senses. Words fail to describe, and it’s best to hear and experience them live first, and on record second.
Everything is organized and detailed with the unmistakeable Sound Carpentry engineering and production. Just the right amount of dirt and rawness, with proper clear production and heavy tones make this the perfect local split record. The album launch that spanned key locations from Ingay Likha (RIP) to Mows devastated anyone who was there to witness and withstand the brutality.
Towards Harmonious Civilization Zine 
Leave a comment