Wolfbastard - Wolfbastard

(Words by Griefmonger, K.I.N.G. ov thy trvest sounds)

Grim, inappropriate, catchy and scathing - these are the first things that come to mind for describing Wolfbastard’s debut. Self-proclaimed as d-beat black metal, don’t expect later Darkthrone worship as this little 21:41 minutes of fuck you has more in common with Discharge-meets-Carpathian Forest than F.O.A.D. It’s a bastard (forgive the pun) of two thirds of blackened death Mancs Burial (more blackened nowadays). The first four tracks have a very grim feel and you can hear the black metal run true with a loose right hand, a fast d-beat and a scream that gives a little bit of a goat blood flavour.

As for the rest of the album, you can hear where the cult live-gig-crowd are gonna chime in and fucking love it. From then on, you know: "Sick In The Bath". "F.R.P.B" ( Fat Romanian Punch Bag anyone!?), "Fuck The Pope" and "Die Bastard Die" are going to be chanted live by those who have learned the chorus. There's no lyric sheet, but there's no need though, as you can hear the expletives and that’s all we need, right? It's nasty, filthy and it shall appeal to crusties, black metal heads and some of the more extreme punk crowd alike. The artwork is pretty cool, too; buxom scarred beauties engaging in foreplay with wolves - what’s not to love? "Sick in the Bath"! You are all gonna be singing it sooner or later.

Darkthrone - The Cult Is Alive

Just quickly gonna put dibs on a review of this seeing as there's three of us writing now (four if Kristian gets off his ass and follows up with more). Darkthrone's The Cult Is Alive marked a turning point in the band's career; effectively buffeting their sails with a healthy second wind that easily saw them extending their legacy by another ten years or so. Let's face it, by the late 90s / early 2000s, Darkthrone's output was lacking somewhat. Nothing particularly terrible surfaced, but there was an awful lot of old shit coming out and being re-packaged, and then that was followed by records that were, dare I say it, almost like Darkthrone's attempts at nu-metal (or should that be the effects of the dire 90s rubbing off even on one of metal's most innovating bands). Again, not particularly bad, but albums like Hate Them and Sardonic Wrath lacked the freezing fire that Under A Funeral Moon and Transylvanian Hunger had.

But I digress. Moving swiftly along to the mid 00s, and Darkthrone dropped this fucker, seemingly out of nowhere, hitting the refresh button on their career. If someone told me 15 years ago that Darkthrone were a punk band I'd have a good chuckle at their genre-defining-ineptitude (actually I probably would have asked you who Darkthrone are, but there you go). Moving black metal into crust punk territories has been done a thousand times over, but let's face it; Darkthrone opened this type of shit up to a whole new generation of metalheads who hadn't quite made it to checking out Hellhammer yet. 

"Cult Of Goliath" is the ferocious opener, and the single off here (if that terminology is correct) is "Too Old, Too Cold"; a bitter and almost tired number, whose malice carries the nonchalant crust along sufficiently enough as not to become boring. "Graveyard Slut" has Fenriz taking on vocal duties in lieu of everyone's favourite grim and frostbitten school teacher, Nocturno Culto, and is also one of the greatest songs in the history of time. "Shut Up" is also another amazing stand out track with some fantastic lyrics ("begging for this and asking for that / shut up, fucking twat!"), as is the crusty-favourite, "Whiskey Funeral". 

This record proved so immensely successful that the next four Darkthrone records essentially followed the same template (although the latest one to date was a bit King Diamond-y for me). Strongly recommended listening!

Malignant Tumour - Burninhell

I've had this album for years, and I can't remember where I got it from. Anyways, I got it and was expecting some nasty goregrind but instead was met with some metallic punk sound so I fucked it off and forgot that I had it. It wasn't until I saw Malignant Tumour live in Obscene Extreme Festival 2013 that I remembered I had this 12"; Gumpy said something about really enjoying them and wanting to get some albums and I just clicked that I already had one somewhere. Sure, Burninhell isn't as polished or as rock'n'roll as later, more accessable material by the band but it's still a pretty cool d-beat influenced metal record. To me it sounds like Motorhead, Discharge and Agathocles crossed over in a modern studio. I can get behind that!

Opener, "Clearance of Century" has a huge punk feel to it, whilst second track "Here We Are" brings the grind that I love so much. The ferocity here is totally non-stop; the vocals are super savage and really match the hybrid sound perfectly. "Commands from the Oval Throne" on side B is another favourite of mine. The whole thing closes out with "Oseriost som fan", which is crusty as absolute fucking fuck, before ending with some epic chanting shit. This has been out for some time now on CD and vinyl thanks to Insane Society Records. Czech it out in the link below!

Fukpig - Bad Fucking Dickhead

When I heard that Fukpig were returning with another 7" I welcomed the news with open arms. Bad Fucking Dickhead looks absolutely fucking amazing...shit...just look at it! And thankfully, after the slightly off-key release of 3, Fukpig are back on track; Bad Fucking Dickhead sounds as fucking amazing as it looks. I can't really understand what is being said but there is a lot of swearing and a lot of screaming, which is always a good thing.

 

THAT vicious guitar tone is back, as is the haunting synth over the top of everything that gives Fukpig their unique vibe. The B Side, "The Place That We Called Home" opens with a much more classic Fukpig vibe...the d-beat style drumming and the wailing guitars are fucking everywhere, making this a tune that is not only goddamn awesome, but makes me want to get out Belief Is The Death Of Intelligence and spin that bastard as well.

Fukpig are such an under-rated band. There can be no denying that they are absolutely fucking excellent, and their under-exposure is puzzling. Everyone listen to this shit and then go and buy the 7", then all the albums. I'm not asking....I'm telling! Self-released on the brilliant Devizes Records, and limited to 250 copies, all of which are the fantastic transparent yellow with black splatter. I have number 27. Amazing!

Jig-Ai - Jig-Ai

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Regurgitate - Effortless Regurgitation of Bright Red Blood / Concrete Human Torture

This here is the fantastic repress on Power It Up Records. Mine, unfortunately, is not the edition with the bonus 7" (I didn't know it existed when I bought this, which is a shame as I wouldn't have minded paying a bit extra for the whole set). This set contains Effortless Regurgitation... on one slab of wax, and the Concrete Human Torture tape plastered onto a single side of another slab of wax. Adorning side D is a brilliant etching of the old spiky Regurgitate logo. What a brilliant set this is! Shame about the 7", as that too contains an old demo/split thing and it would have been nice to round off this package of old Regurgitate shits.

  

The intro to Effortless.... is one of the most harrowing things ever, and it really sets the mood for the excruciating mix of Discharge meets early Carcass that is to come. I love Regurgitate's blast'n'd-beat approach to goregrind (although the d-beat isn't as prominent here as it is on later records), the mix is perfect! The vocals here aren't as high up on the scale of toilet-bowl-goodness as later albums but they are still shifted to hell and disturbing as fuck. The drumming is dirty and relentless, the guitar work is muddy and the bass is fuzzy and non-existent almost, but this record is fecking awesome!

 

Concrete Human Torture suprised me by having a slightly better production job; I always assumed it was a shitty demo, being one of thier first released tapes and all. But, no! Everything is wrapped up in a crisper world here. The drums are much clearer and things seem a lot tighter, mainly because there is less muddiness in the mix.

The price on this set is absolutely criminal, currently averaging £15 on Discogs. I highly recommend it, especially the version with the extra 7", as it is a bloody good bargain and you get three early Regurgitate releases in one go, all on lovely jubbly vinyl. The only downer I can find with this release is that the gore pictures on the front and back cover seem a little stretched, giving the artwork a bit of a cheap feel, but that really is the minor downer here, this set is fucking amazing!