Vektor - Terminal Redux

Ahhh, the twisted and wonderful world of Vektor; coming across like a mix between Voivod and Dragonforce, and packing a vocalist that sounds like Chuck Schuldiner on crystal meth. I'm not really into this breed of hyper-thrash, but the sci-fi elements and the incredible density to the proceedings really adds a whole new edge to things. This is incredibly precise, dream-like yet lightening-fast metal, as if Devin Townsend drank too much coffee and smoked heroin at the same time.

Terminal Redux is a concept album. Personally, I've not quite scraped below the surface of this story yet, but I enjoyed the album all the same. Highlights for me include the opening / closing tracks and the 'trio of Ps'; "Pteropticon", "Psychotropia" and "Pillar of Sand".

Wormrot - Voices

Voices is the really, really, reaaalllly long-awaited return of Malaysian grindcore machine, Wormrot. When you think that the last thing we heard from these guys was the Noise EP, that is surely a crime against extreme music in itself. This hiatus has spanned for longer than most grindcore band's careers, but nevertheless, they are finally back, and most people would probably agree that it has been worth the wait.

Voices marks a massive departure from the usual Wormrot sound. Gone is the rough-around-the-edges production, and gone (literally!) is the original drummer, who has been replaced by who can only be described as the human equivalent of a gale-force wind, playing a technical yet thoroughly "grindcore" style that reminds me of Mick Harris circa 1990 and Pig Destroyer / Misery Index blastmaster Adam Jarvis.

Eagle-eared listeners and long time fans will also note the totally unexpected creepings of melody working its way into a few tracks. A specific example of this would have to be the phenomenally excellent "Compassion Is Dead", which reeks potently of 2000s era Nasum; the chorus riff literally weeps and it is absolutely incredible.

Fingers crossed for catching the band live this year!

Wormrot - Noise

I'm not touching that fucking Scion debate shit with a fucking barge pole. I covered it briefly on my Magrudergrind Crusher post, and I'll leave it at that. This EP, whoever fucking released it, is absolutely sick as fuck, and is easily probably some of the best grindcore on the entire planet. 5 tracks in 5 minutes is a decent pace to keep to, and it suits Wormrot's riffs-then-smash-shit-up approach perfectly. I never noticed how fucking brutal Arif's lows were before!

I've seen Wormrot live more times than I can remember, and recently spinning this EP has made me realise just how much I miss those fuckers. Easily one of the best grindcore bands in the world, and Noise is probably the best place to start with modern grindcore, in my opinion. "Perpetual Extinction" has a weird widdly guitar part but other than that this is straight up, unrelenting grindcore brutality done in the best possible way. 5/5. 10/10. Whatever. Perfect!

Napalm Death - Scum

How does one approach a review of a revered classic that spawned a genre? There are various debates about whether Scum was the first grindcore record, but there can be no argument that it was the first one that blew up on any particular scale. It was the album that cemented this weird sounding “grindcore” as a real thing. It also put Earache on the map, and seeded the entire worldwide scene that would follow. That’s a pretty big achievement if you ask me.

The most hilarious thing about Scum is Napalm Death’s ridiculously OTT revolving door line up, with the only thing Sides A and B both have in common is drummer Mick Harris. I think personally I prefer Side A as it has a much better sound, but in reality the real grindy stuff happens on Side B, with track after track after track of pummelling punk goodness. Obviously Side A has “The Kill”, “Scum”, “Siege Of Power” and the classic “You Suffer” but Side B just churns out a gauntlet of really similar sounding tracks – not that there isn’t any decent tunage here too (“Life?”, “Deceiver”, “Conservative Shithead”, “Divine Death” and “Dragnet” to name a few).

It’s because of the disjoined “is it a record / isn’t it a record?” argument that I think most people prefer the follow up, From Enslavement To Obliteration, which is a lot more solid and expands upon the sounds on Side B of Scum (with the same line up, no less) and also comes across as more of a full album rather than two separate studio sessions crammed together on one disc. Scum is, in all honesty, a bit shakey, and isn’t something that I listen to on a regular basis. But you gotta know your roots. I spend most of my time in grind and its freakish subgenres, so it’s only right that now and then the granddaddy of grindcore albums gets a spin.

Hey, I own it three times, so it can’t be that bad!

Mistress - In Disgust We Trust

This album should be called In Disgust We Crust! I’ve never been into Mistress really; I always got my superfast metal fix in Anaal Nathrakh and my crusty d-beat headbangery fix in Fukpig, both projects relating to members of this band. For these reasons I always tended to look over Mistress’ existence – that was until I caught their farewell show at Damnation Festival a few years ago, and bloody shitting heck, son – that was a mad one! Mistress’ fervent blend of grindy blasting and sludgy doomery really blew me away.

And that’s exactly what’s on this disc of crusty bludgeoning anthems. Take away the muddy live sound and filter the excess roughness through a decent studio production job and voila – the crème de la crème of sludgy grindy, er, music. In Disgust We Trust starts off with faster, more blastbeat orientated tracks and slowly works it’s way (but not too slowly) towards a meandering groovy conclusion with latter tracks possessing astronomically heavy riffage. As always, Dave Hunt’s vocal carnage is a welcome bonus to literally any music on the planet (except maybe hip hop? Ha!).

DJ Senator - The Bassline / Roll Down Bass

Excuse my carpet.

This is a sticky-labelled 12" that I bought 2nd hand when I was experimenting with scratching back in the day (lol). I'd gotten a Ministry of Sound deck for Christmas and I needed some 90s-to-the-max shit to scratch and test pitch correction / matching on. As expected, I failed triumphantly at this shit and gave it up pretty quickly, although I did find it fun to scratch random records now and then, something which I have given up entirely since I've gained a serious respect for the vinyl medium.

The music on this 12" isn't particularly challenging or interesting in any way (both songs are based around THAT d'n'b beat - you know what I'm talking about), and if it wasn't for the school disco female vocals, the tracks could be ambiguously played at either 33 or 45 for a myraid of different atmospheres and effects. At 33, and devoid of vocals, it isn't a million miles away from Gyral / Stairway era Scorn. 

For some reason I can't bring myself to throw this away, although it has absolutely no value whatsoever. There is no Youtube available for this, so instead I'll offer you this useless tidbit of information: this was released on a Earache sub-label called Sub Bass Records in the early 90s when Earache was trying desperately to break into the d'n'b and rave scenes. Drastic.

Mortiis - The Grudge

Whilst this is entirely on the other end of the industrial metal spectrum that I prefer not to get too close to, The Grudge was one of favourite records as a teenager. Over the last few years I have learned that there is a lot more to industrial than crappy guitars layered with crappy dance music and ripping off old Nine Inch Nails tracks, but that's another story. Mortiis' first Era 3 release was a puzzling mix of awkward techno and fuzzy metal, not a hundred million miles away from The Smell Of Rain, but so far removed from any of his Era 1 music you'd swear it was a totally different musical genius at the helm. Nope. Mortiis is one of those artists that has evolved in sheer leaps over the last 20 years.

I like The Grudge, don't get me wrong, but compared to The Smell Of Rain before it, it pales in comparison. The Smell Of Rain had such a distinct and wonderful sound, but The Grudge, whilst it has it's moments of sheer brilliance, is for the most part clumsy, badly mixed and lacking direction. It is equal parts amazing and awful. The over-all vibe is much more angsty and rougher around the edges (it's almost like this album should have been made first, and The Smell Of Rain should be it's more focused and chilled-out follow up) but some of my favourite Mortiis songs are on here. Opener "Broken Skin" sounds like it's been mixed by a 4 year old, but that doesn't stop it being one of the greatest Mortiis songs, writing wise. "The Grudge" is the song that got me hooked into this album with it's constant rotation on Scuzz TV; a clanking dancey nightmare that unfolds into some serious industrial metal heaviness.

 

The longest track here, "The Worst In Me" is a brooding nightmare of riffs and synths, and the first few minutes of "The Loneliest Thing" is by far the best shit on this record; it starts with a cool, semi-acoustic opening with resonant chords fighting over fluttering hi-hats, leading into some heavy drumming and haunting vocal performances. Sheer, sheer brilliance. Closing track "Asthma", is a quick nod back to the days of old, fading the record out with a couple of minutes of nothing more than meandering, hollow ambience. Bliss.

I originally bought this on CD with my first ever paycheck back in 2005 (who can forget what they bought with their first paycheck?). I got the "Mortiis pack" off Earache Records, which was the entire Mortiis-on-Earache discography and a crappy Earache t-shirt, but they made a mistake and sent me two copies of The Grudge (one being the special edition) instead of a copy of The Stargate, and I had to send it back for a swap. In hindsight, I probably should have said it was missing, flogged it, and got a free copy of The Stargate. Oh well. Recently the label have been selling these old vinyl copies of The Grudge off for £7 including postage, so I couldn't resist picking one up. I was hoping for the bright purple but I got the clear.

Check out "The Loneliest Thing" below; the first few minutes are just beautiful.

Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken...Deeds That Go Undone

Akercocke’s fourth album was by far their most experimental. Following up the absolutely monstrous and enormous epic that was Leviathan could have been no easy task for these distinguished English gentlemen. In my opinion, Words that go unspoken… is nowhere near as brutal as the exquisite aural punishment of Leviathan, but the band definitely followed through by evolving in incredible leaps into something far more sprawling, technical and genre-bending. Where Leviathan had that the “oomph” factor that is missing from most death metal recordings, Words that go unspoken has a daring sense of adventure and experimentation; it is the sound of a band flexing it’s creative muscles, to be poetic about it.

Things kick off fairly simply; “Verdelet” is Akercocke through and through, with a thrashy pace and double bass, which eventually gives way to clean vocals and excellently composed semi-acoustic guitar sounds. Despite the softer elements, the drums never give out for the duration; David Gray is an animal on the kit. “Seduced” has classic death metal written all over it, and also has one of my favourite Akercocke guitar solos (which is actually one of the simpler and more understated ones the band has ever used). The real fun begins however with track 3, “Shelter from the Sand”. This snarling death metal beast slowly evolves into something altogether more Opeth-y (minus the untold amounts of boredom). I can’t really describe it, but there is a whole world of prog-rock influence here, maybe not so much on the psychedelic side (imagine that? Haha satanic pysch-metal) but definitely on the progressive, “things unfolding at a gradual pace” side of things. I think it was Jason Mendonca himself who once likened the sound on this album to “Morbid Angel and Rush having a fight in a lift”. 

From here on out, things are much tamer than they have been on any previous Akercocke record. Sure, the staple sounds of the band are all here but they are utilised in much more subtle and experimental ways. The title track, and it’s sequel “Intractable”, are two fantastic pieces of musical art that you would never expect from blasphemous, sex-charged death metal swine such as Akercocke. I think this is what I was trying to convey in my opening paragraph; whilst Words….doesn’t necessarily blast your fucking head off, it showcases a maturity in so many ways, that would continue to unfold on the band’s next record (although in not so overtly experimental tones).

All in all this is a fantastic metal record, and I guess if you’re looking for an in-road into Akercocke I would say that this – whilst ironically being their most experimental – is by far their most easily accessible material (I think you wrote this for the Antichrist review too, ya feckin' eejit - Ed, 2019). Antichrist that followed had a much more direct death metal approach, but the genre scope of Words… more than allows a much wider chance for appreciation from fans of other genres. Like most of their records, this was released on Earache Records, and unfortunately only on CD format. I would absolutely love the Akercocke records to be pressed onto vinyl, but I think that sadly there isn’t ever going to be enough demand out there for somebody to take the risk and get the ball rolling (I know Earache certainly won’t, check out this blog post by Dig). Give the entire disc a spin in the link below!

Anal Cunt - Top 40 Hits

According to the ever-reliable source for information that is the internet, Top 40 Hits is considered a bit of a disappointment in the worldwide circles of AxCx fans (or at least it was upon it’s initial release date back in 1996). But, you know me, I don’t give a fuck about what the internet says (lawls, hardcore) because for me, Top 40 Hits shows AxCx at their messiest, blurriest best. Granted, this record is missing the offensive content that the band would become so well-known for (well, if you discount the fact that the band is called Anal Cunt, that is), but this is still a stone cold noisecore classic.

The first few times I heard this in my teens I wasn’t too sure what to make of the whole thing. Seth had it up for free download (possibly against Earache’s permission?) off his old website, back before AxCx reformed for a final time and Seth replaced his personal webpage with that of Wicked Sick Records. The first few songs are mixed so low that the first thing the record will have you doing is reaching for the volume control with a confused expression on your face. I have come to learn that these tracks were mixed this way in order to rumble the living fuck out of speaker cones, and maybe even damage them in the process. Cheers, Anal Cunt!

Despite the mushy, low-fi blur tracks that carried over from the previous LP (only on a much lower frequency, ha ha), we see the first budding AxCx jokey tracks. Tracks such as “Art Fag” and “Shut Up Mike” are a nod to what type of stuff was to dominate on future AxCx records. The best thing about Top 40 Hits however, is the full and amazing production that the band finally dedicated to their small selection of sludgey, doom-metal paced tracks. Some of the best Anal Cunt tracks are their slow, Eyehategod-esque sludge epics. Seth Putnam is a fantastic vocalist, and to confine listening of his talents to just Anal Cunt is definitely a waste; the guy was an absolute legend, there is no doubt.

So all in all, Top 40 Hits does seem like a bit of a jumbled up mix of styles that don’t really go together; it doesn’t help that it seems that the sludge songs, jokey songs and blurry, old school noisecore songs all seem to have come from different recording sessions, which totally annihilates any chance this album had at attaining a flow. I think maybe that this is what put a lot of people off when it first come out; that AxCx had literally just thrown out a whole bunch of shit on one CD and called it a new album. But once you get over the flow issues, you can appreciate each parts for what they really are; fucking amazing! Ha ha! This was released on Earache back in 1996. 

I dunno why this vid has the old artwork for the Fuckin' A album attached to it - perhaps the uploader is a cretinous swine ;)

Watchmaker - Kill.Fucking.Everyone.

I think that Watchmaker are one of the most under-rated grindcore bands ever, which is weird considering this record was put out on Earache (through some deal that they had with Willowtip). In grind circles I never see people wearing a Watchmaker t-shirt, in fact I don't think I've even ever seen one for sale. I never hear people talking about Watchmaker, or recommending Watchmaker; and this goes for online as well as in the flesh. It's weird because, Watchmaker aren't some one-hit wonder band; they have several CDs out, so somebody must be listening out there? If you're a Watchmaker fan hit me back on Twitter or Facebook for the love of all that is grind-holy! You must be out there somewhere.

Ironically, after all that talk of under-exposure I discovered Watchmaker back in my 'confusing' teen years when I still trifled through a Kerrang! magazine if someone was daft enough to pay money for it and then leave it in the sixth form common room. There was a tiny album review for this in an issue; and I can't remember if it was good or bad but the striking cover art and the words "grindcore" and "Kill.Fucking.Everyone." stayed with me forever. When I got into grind properly I finally bought this from the Earache webstore, which was my first one-stop shop for grind back in the day.

At the time I thought the production was a bit muddy but with much more exprerienced ears I can retract that thought; Watchmaker play an interesting, and almost artistic approach to grindcore. This CD in particular always reminded me of a cross between Circle of Dead Children and the short-lived act White Eyes, even though vocally the bands don't come close. I guess it's just the vibe I get off listening to it. There's also a lot of elements of Insect Warfare type of shit on here too, but don't be misled to thinking that Watchmaker are one of those million-thousand carbon copy grind acts.

At a sensible 19 tracks in length, Kill.Fucking.Everyone. is actually pretty long (for a grindcore record). I implore all fans of the genre to check this band out, it's some pretty cool stuff! PS, muchos apologies for the low quality on the large pictures at the start of the post - I need to be more careful during my photography sessions. 

Scorn - Logghi Barhogghi

This album was the final recording that Mick did with any connections to Earache. The album itself was produced and "marketed" by Earache Records, but released by Mick's own label, Scorn Recordings. Logghi Barhogghi is only the second Scorn album after the departure of Nik Bullen, and still sounds a bit bare and unsteady on it's feet, just like it's predecessor, Gyral. Although, unlike Gyral, LB is much more straight forward and was a definite sign of what was to come with Scorn from this point on. The name Logghi Barhogghi came from when Mick Harris over-heard an American tourist trying to pronounce the town Loughborough; that's fecking highlarious!

From start to finish, LB is a stripped-back affair of clanking percussion and heavy beats. The moody synths and unusual atmospheres are held right back. LB is all about the beat! On the first few listens through, this took some getting used to. I thought this was a remix album or some sort of experimental spin-off project, but this is a fully-canon Scorn album, despite it's very basic approach. Some tracks are stompers; heavy programmed percussion looped over and over until your brain just can't take it no more, other songs are a bit more laid back; some even barely audible, with just a purring bass line and ticking beat. Every now and then the phatter-than-your-mudda bass lines come in, scarily pre-dating all this dubstep stuff by well over a decade. That's fucking incredible!

I will say though the basic beats make this record a great buy for rappers to practice / freestyle / write tunes to. However, for most folk this Scorn album is definitely going to remain a challenging listen, and sadly will more than likely remain unknown to the festering masses. But, despite its awkwardness, LB is so goddamn far ahead of it's time it's literally frightening.

Godflesh - Pure

It's that time again; another Godflesh post! How long will this one be? How far up Justin Broadrick's arse can I get this time? Ha ha! All jokes aside, my love for Godflesh is seemingly never-ending, although I do have lapses in listening time these days as there is so much other stuff out there I'm currently wrapping my lugholes around. At the moment I've been on a tremendous (and possibly worrying) hip hop / Bjork kick, so switching back to something as punishing as early Godflesh for the purpose of this review has really juxtaposed my listening ability. I guess it makes Pure seem twenty thousand times heavier. That can only be a good thing.

I'm not sure if Pure was the logical progression from something as sprawling and nauseatingly epic as Streetcleaner. I can totally see how the band got from A to B, so to speak, but Godflesh could have just as easily wandered off into the wailing, droning, clanking territory instead. Regardless of what could have happened, history dictates that Godflesh tightened and disciplined their sound for their second record. Pure is clinical and more machine-like than before. Both Streetcleaner and Godflesh are mechanical as fuck, but they also both presented a harrowing sense of depth and that weird sense of claustrophobia (or is that agoraphobia?). Pure just gets in, fucks you up, and leaves. It is an absolute riff machine.

I'm surprised this isn't more popular in "regular" metal circles; the riffs on display here are tight and mosh pit inducing. If this record didn't exist, neither would Fear Factory (or maybe they would have just stayed as a death metal band). The production is something that is very similar to the later, metal-to-the-core Pantera, and I don't suppose that it's a coincidence that Justin ended up remixing on the "Walk" single. Even Metallica's Kirk Hammet claimed that Godflesh were the heaviest band on the planet, before he stole a bunch of artwork ideas and was a general all-round dick. To top it all off, Metallica went on to release Load and Reload at this point, so karma is a bitch.

 

This LP can be rather difficult to find at a decent price. If you keep scoping and peeping that shit on various websites you will eventually be very lucky and can score a copy for a pretty good price. I got mine for the absolute steal of £10, because the seller insisted that the copy wasn't in good shape, despite sending me pictures that seemed to show otherwise. My copy is a bit crackly, but that just lends to it's charm. It looks just like any well-played record would look like after 20 years of storage. Out on Earache Records, and has also been re-issued on CD a gazillion times so you can probably get a copy for 5p or something.

Jig-Ai - Jig-Ai

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Adrenalin Junkies - Outcry

As I am sure many of you are aware, Earache Records went through a puzzling phase in the 90s, signing all sorts of rave, dance, gabba and electronic music to the label. One such short-lived act was Adrenalin Junkies. There isn't much to say about this bog-standard dance record, other than I got it for next to nothing one day when I was buying a whole bunch of shit from Earache. I'm not even sure if this is collectable to fans of the genre this is associated with, but if anyone wants it just give me a shout as I am willing to sell / trade this as it is of no value to me whatsoever.

 

Cathedral - Endtyme

For me, Endtyme stands apart from anything else in the Cathedral discography. They have done dark before, sure, one needs not look further than the debut album to realize that, but that record is a whole other sack of decapitated witch heads. Here, Cathedral are chuggy and enormously groovy-heavy; and in a certain way take their groovy doom and smash it head on with the styles on display in the debut. Once I read somewhere  a quote that more-or-less said "Endtyme proves that Cathedral can still bang heads", and that pretty much sums it up.

 

"Melancholy Emperor" remained a Cathedral staple and ended up even on the Earache best of called The Serpent's Gold, "Whores to Oblivion" is catchy as shit, even featuring something that comes close to harsh noise at the end! Talk about variety! "Alcemist of Sorrow" is one of my favourite Cathedral songs, the opening lines of "I am Midas in reverse, my gold has turned to lead" are possibly the best example of Lee Dorrian's vocals ever (it's either that or "Huggy Bear? Oh yeah!"). Released a fuckload of time ago on Earache Records and strangely, this pressing was confined only to CD, which is very unusual for a band like Cathedral.

PS apologies for the frankly vomit-inducing scans; the Endtyme artwork is an absolute bitch to try and get a picture of because it's all so fucking shiny. 

Mortiis - Decadent & Desperate

I got these two when they were around (I think) 70p each on the Earache store. An utter bargain! Every now and then they put the shit that I assume wasn't selling down to some retarded low price. Once I went on there and they had Adema 7"s for 10p each. I was almost tempted to make a large purchase and then build a fire out of Adema singles. That would have been a good day! Too bad I snoozed on that opportunity; said Adema records are now an extortionate 99p each. Life is not fair.

Anyway, onto the music. Decadent & Desperate is not one of the highlights in the Mortiis cannon if you ask me, but I got these anyway because I do intend to get all of his vinyl one day, even the horrendously over-priced era 1 ambient stuff. One 7" contains a pretty uneventful live recording and the other a remix of "Way Too Wicked", which is a fairly cool song. The wax is all black but limited (?) to 2000 copies, and I'm guessing there is a 1000 green and 1000 brown, but I could be wrong. 

Godflesh - Slateman

"Slateman" is one of my favourite 'Flesh songs, and is a prime example of what excellence can be achieved by simply using a drum machine right. This isn't particularly heavy or drawn out or even harrowing in any way, but it is the perfect example of Godflesh's sound. The drum sound is absolutely spot on, I don't really know what does it here for me but it's just so right. The bass is clanky and thick, holding down the rhythm perfectly, whilst the guitars wail over the top of everything, kicking into riffage every now and then, bolstering the heaviness and hitting home the beat.

Finally, with the vocals ranging from breezy cleans to distant shouts, there simply isn't a more perfect example of Godflesh. This was released by Sub Pop Records, as part of their "Singles Club" in the 90s. I think this is also available as a 12" which Earache put out. I want to get my grubby hands on that fucker too, even though it is pretty much the same record on a different sized disc. My Godflesh fan-dom knows no bounds!