Archagathus / Haggus - Split Tape

Haggus are easily one of my favourite bands right now, simply for having the perfect blend of dank mincegore nailed down to a fucking tee. I love goregrind that you can dance to that also doesn't have songs about penises and bondage. Each to their own, and I do like a lot of groovy goregrind stuff, but it is currently over-saturated to fuck with a legion of shit bands. Haggus is brutal, yet with that mince/crust approach that brings with it the reality of death; the stench of gore! Fucking hanging!

Archagathus are now at the forefront of their particular niche of mincecore/goregrind, pushing that slightly restrictive variant of grind forward with a whole farmyard of bizarre vocals, not to mention perplexing and deeply, satisfyingly weird grind.

Out on cassette, and thanks to Grindfather for throwing a copy in when I bought a shirt a few months ago.

Tollund Men - Autoerotik

There is something about this release that I find very hypnotic and mesmerizing; there is definitely a sense of mystery here, which I absolutely love - it isn't something you see all to often in these glory days of the information age! Couple the fact that this cassette release meanders within itself as much as it leads with hypnotic rhythms, and you have the perfect recipe for pulsating electronic work. The "cassette" quality sound of the sound make it hard to differentiate whether this has been composed on analogue or digital equipment, but the density of the tape sound really adds to the overall atmospheric. Beautiful stuff. If you can track down an original tape, I strongly recommend that you snap it up.

Haggus - Mince The Meat Monger

 Something tells me that the members of Haggus may possibly be vegetarians, or even vegans. I'm not sure what it is; I really can't put my finger on it...

Anyways, sarcasm aside, this is some top notch mincecore. Like, seriously good shit. Like, better than 95% of the shit out there. Better than 95% of Agathocles splits. I love the new wave of gory mincecore/grind/whatever coming from America and Canada, and this fits perfectly into that new wave, joining Archagathus and Hyperemesis as some of the sickest shit ever.

The vocals on this are phenomenally watery and gooey, and the bass sounds like an industrial-sized cabbage grinder, leading this gargling mess over the precipice into a mincing oblivion of stomping beats, 2-steps and blasting explosions. This only appears to have ever been available on cassette, released on a co-op between Fuck Your Life and Mullet Death Records, but as always, someone has uploaded it to YouTube, so check it out. It's awesome.

Nagelfar - Jagd

This was a totally random listen for me, and holy shit, did it pay off. I've recently started playing Elder Scrolls Online in the days I'm off  as I'm on a shift pattern now, and the best thing to accompany games like that is old dungeon music, dark ambient, and a smattering of black metal. This was a random YouTube pick of an old demo from a band that has a name suspiciously similar to the seemingly more well known Naglfar (they started around the same time). This tape is either highly sought after or highly commended, as prices exceed £30+ on Discogs for an original copy of the cassette, at the time of writing.

To describe Nagelfar quickly to the more casual listener, I would compare to Hvis Lyset Tar Oss-era Burzum, only taken to new heights, with very Nordic (TES forever!) singing passages and moody, non-black metal instrumental downtime with a folky twist. This has definitely opened up a whole new tin of worms as I cannot wait to explore this band's discography further (edit: I've listened to a few albums and this is by far the best of the bunch).

Easily the best black metal record I have heard since.... I dunno, but in a bloody long time! An absolutely fantastic hidden gem.

Gore Beyond Necropsy - I Recommend You... Amputation!

Gore Beyond Necropsy are nothing short of legendary on the noise/grind underground for a multitude of reasons (the hilariously titled split/collab with Merzbow springs to mind). They have long since changed their name and disappeared into total obscurity, but for a short while they kinda flew the flag for this kinda noisy shit, and this 12 minute EP showcases a slightly different side to the band's infamous noisy grindcore.

It all starts off with horror samples and down-tuned, dirty guitar playing, but then the drums kick in after the slow intro with this over-arching industrial feel, it's like the drums are purposefully programmed in a machine-like way - as they blast away there's a ticking mechanical heart to the proceedings; a clanking abdominal creation keeping the beating heart of this shit alive inside it's exposed chest and eviscerated gore. Imagine Godflesh and Carcass melding as one in the mid/late 80s, for a ridiculous ballpark idea! 

Vomitoma / Hyperemesis - Split Tape

Vomitoma have been around for a while, and whilst their sound varies a bit from time to time, their material on this split sounds like a mix between Libido Airbag and something altogether more traditional-drum-machine-goregrind (lol), like, I dunno, Dehydrated Tissues? Either way this is boss as fuck and should fill all of your lo-fi dirgy goregrind needs.

Hyperemesis just get better and better and every single thing I hear by them just cements them as one of my favourite goregrind projects ever. Even whilst sporting one of the worst snare sounds in the history of time on this release, they still absolutely fucking slay it. This tape was limited to 30 pieces but thankfully it's been uploaded to Youtube (seemingly against the wishes of the label) for the rest of us to hear.

Urine Cop / Vomir - Split Tape

When I heard of Urine Cop being a collaboration between Adam Jennings of Winters In Osaka and Putrefaction In Progress-era LDOH vocalist Erwin De Groot, I got very, very excited. I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't a little disappointed with what is on show here. Bass, noise and LDOH vocals sounds fucking class in my book, but you literally can't hear a thing here. You've basically got 8 minutes of distorted blastbeats, with the odd De Groot roar farting through the mix. Any noise or bass or whatever the other contribution is, is virtually inaudible. I guess I set myself up for the fall, but hey, I calls 'em how I sees 'em (or hears 'em, in this case)!

Vomir is all about what Vomir is about. Dim fuckio aroundio, as us Welsh folk say. Straight up, to the point, psychosis-inducing harsh noise wall for the whole family to enjoy. Child playing fuck? Smash on this tape. Eldery family member tired of living a pointless life, forgotten about by your children and grandchildren? Smash on this tape. 

Slightly off-topic but I would love it if Stalaggh (or Gulaggh nowadays) did some sort of collaboration with Vomir. Although, that would probably cave my head in permanently.

Gabara - 20,000 Tons Of Mince

This is a super short demo tape from mincing goregrind outfit Gabara. It's barely a few minutes in length but it sounds so fuckin' good that I just had to share it with you guys. Basically it takes everything that is good about early Agathocles and mashes in a bit of goregrind sound. Slap some weirdly-fitting Godzilla-looking artwork on the cover and you can just conjure up visions of this beast smashing cities to bits with this tape playing as the soundtrack.

I can't really say more because it's so short so I'll just leave a link to stream this motherfucker right here for you, and be on my merry way. See you tomorrow, freaks.

Reekorrhoea / Urologist - Split Tape

I recently did another Reekorrhoea review (for the band's demo tape) but I can't get enough of this crusty mincecore-meets-goregrind crossover sound that's going on here. Mr. Andy is a goregrind genius, and whilst this doesn't exactly sound a million miles away from his Hyperemesis shit, it doesn't really fucking matter at all, because this shit fucking rules. Reekorrhoea's part of this split also includes a Dismembered Fetus cover, but I'm not familiar with that band to compare it to the original.

A creepy sample later, Urologist are pulverizing my eardrums like the Mortician of badly-recorded drum machine goregrind. The vokills are fucking mankin' (to quote a Welsh chav on the subject), as is the fuzzy guitar tone. The cheaper-than-krokodil drum machine does get on my nerves a bit, but hey, what are you gonna do?

All in all a great split from both bands and I look forward to hearing more of both of these acts at some point. You can stream the entire split on the Necrotic Jejunostomy Productions (yes, that's a real name) Bandcamp page.