2 Minuta Dreka - Porno Bizarro

Its no small joke how long the world (well, the goregrind world) has been waiting for a new 2 Minuta Dreka record to drop, and now that it actually has, it has seemingly taken me a whole age to get around to reviewing it. The first thing I notice about Porno Bizarro is its fairly polished production job, which gives the whole thing a massive fucking gut-punch. The sampling has become more obscure, and lends an authentic, disturbing edge to the Dreka's maelstrom of shit. This is a band energised, and I can safely say that the record is worth the wait. 

As far as gurgling, groovy goregrind goes, I have to say that I find 2 Minuta Dreka under-rated. Your average Gutalax fan wouldn't have heard of these guys, for instance, which is a massive shame. One of Italy's finest underground bands, for sure. 

Queef Huffer / Nothin' Suss - Split CD

This is (now) a fairly old split released by Rotten Roll, putting US goregrinders Queef Huffer up against Aussie equivalent Nothin' Suss. The whole thing kicks off with Nothin' Suss' tracks, and whilst there isn't anything particularly that much at fault with the band, the overall production is pretty shabby to be honest.

Queef Huffer on the other hand, have their shit together. The production is much more on point; everything is clear and concise. It is quite interesting to see the band thanking a studio that has never recorded goregrind before in the linear notes. This is a gory, groovy, watery mess.

This split is something like 10 years old now, which is fucking terrifying, as it reminds me of how many years of my life I've wasted been enjoying listening to stuff like this! Check out this beauty of a track:

Gutalax - Shitbeast

You can always count on porno/goregrind to keep things classy and hi-brow; to touch on society's most pressing issues and philosophical dilemmas. In the case of Gutalax's Shitbeast record, the maesters of flatulence ask the lifelong question: to dance or not to dance? With this many fart samples and songs about poo, the dilemma is a short lived one, as the answer is of course, yes. Shitbeast has enough tupa rhythms to get your gran dancing, and then some.

At this point in not only this review, but in my life as a whole, I'm starting to wonder if a track by track analysis is something I should even bother lending my time to here. I mean, these are songs about the brown stuff, perpetrated by a bunch of Europeans who wave toilet brushes around at their gigs. The particular nuances of said art-form's songwriting can probably wait, although I will quickly acknowledge that "Asswolf" is a fucking brilliant song. 

If you don't fall into the small category of people who like to gather in the Czech Republic once a year and wave dildos at each other whilst in a circle pit, then I can't imagine Gutalax is for you, you poor, poor, boring cunt, eh?.

S.M.E.S. - Gory Gory Halleluja!

Whoever thought that goregrind that sounds like it has been composed entirely on an early 90s game console chipset would be a good idea? I mean, I'm not even sure if it is actually a good idea, but fuck it, I think it is pretty awesome, so who cares, eh? S.M.E.S., if you don't know, is the baby of once Last Days Of Humanity vocalist Erwin De Groot (who is also doing vocals more recently with the amazing Butcher MD), playing goregrind / tupa tupa style stuff in an entirely synthetic way.

The sound combines gurgled pitchshifter noises with 'scapes of MIDI-grade instrumentation, resulting in an ultra lo-fi experience, like Libido Airbag meets Mario Kart. Yeah. Embrace that shit.

RazorRape - Revenge Of The Hermaphrodite Whores

Can we at least get a round of applause in for that album title? And then a standing ovation for the album sleeve? Haha! Anyways, RazorRape play a bludgeoning, thick'n'creamy variety of goregrind that is more akin to shades of death metal than the primordial ooze of say, Last Days Of Humanity. This particular "cross-over" style is very popular at the moment, as it blends the lines with pornogrind, which all the metal kids seem to dig in lieu of shit like Haggus or Hyperemesis etc. etc., but irregardless of that fact, Revenge Of The Hermaphrodite Whores (it was surreal typing that out, even after 7 years of doing this shit) is a solid record in this style.

the density of the drum production reminds me of the most recent Grunt album, whereas the rest of the music is very similar in the vein to 5 Stabbed 4 Corpses - which shares members with RazorRape  - give or take the odd jazzy passage, of course. All in all, this is a solid metal album, one which I'm sure you are probably already familiar with if you wallow in these decrepit circles of the underground.

Halitosis - Decline Of Neural Development

Oh man this is some sick shit! Welcome to the world of dental-based Hungarian mincing goregrind, friends. Imagine the drill has slipped, and now it is just boring into your gums at full pelt, all the while the dentist is blasting some Agathocles on the stereo in the background; hopefully that will give you some idea of what we are dealing with here. We played/caught two shows with these guys on the Dzhumagaliev tour; once in Slovenia and then in their home-country of Hungary. Keepin' my eyes peeled for more of their shit - this is fuckin' class.

Satan's Revenge On Mankind / Pulmonary Fibrosis - Split CD

Groove masters from Germany meet  French goregrind legends on this excellent split CD. SxRxOxMx take it slow and steady as per usual; churning out their snail-paced gore with menacing aplomb. "Wandering Flesh" stands out, with unusually catchy riffage, and terrifying pitchshifter gurgles. Pulmonary Fibrosis open things up sounding like Odour Of Torture-era GUT meeting Creeping! Crawling!-era Plasma, which is a tasty feast for any goregrind nerd. It isn't the longest split in the world, but if you love both of these bands (or goregrind in general) then you will be rewarded in heaps by giving this a listen. 

CxBxFxIxHxFxLxFxRxE / Tetrahydrocannibal - Split CDr

This CDr is a split between prolific gorenoise lads Catastrophic Blunt Force Intercranial Haemhorrhage Fluid Leaking From Ruptured Eardrums and my gorenoise (read: "weednoise") project, Tetrahydrocannibal. It's the first time I have released something under this name in quite some time, so it was fun to get back to and work on some ridiculous song titles. I swore I wouldn't do another record until I'd shifted all the copies of the first, but this is a split, so that doesn't count, right? :P

Anyway, the CxBxFxIxHxFxLxFxRxEx side is fuckin' savage; I guess which is due in part to the usual cacophonous bludgeoning being broken up into smaller chunks. The studio production work (from George of Dead Woman's Ditch) also goes a long way in making sure CxBxFxIxHxFxLxFxRxEx's gore explosion comes with the necessary clout, as does the creepy as shit sampling work, which will literally make your year/decade if you love Ren & Stimpy quotes as much as you do gorenoise.

Libido Airbag - Sleaze Servant

Sleaze Servant is the new EP from long-time techno-gore-grind filth mongers, Libido Airbag; a "band" so balls deep in scum and vulgar sounds that even your gran loves a dance to some of their older tunes. They've hardly pumped out volumes of material in their long existence, but the fact that they can still develop and spew out fresh sounds in such a restrictive genre is a testament to gore and porno grind, especially the latter, which often gets bogged down with oceans of crap digi-bedroom projects. Please ladies and gentlemen, just because you've found out how to work a drum machine, it doesn't mean you can't start a fuckin' grindcore band.

But I digress. Sleaze Servant is exactly what the title promises it will be. Whilst a layer of filth has definitely been peeled away from The Airbag as they have progressed into the HD world; those old, minging recordings from the past were a lot sketchier than the pristine techno instrumentation on this record. Don't get me wrong though, it's still mankin' as absolute fuck; the title track and "Black Mark Of The Iron Phallus" are examples of Libido Airbag at their titty-clamping best (edit: what?), whilst "Rectum Ritual" and "Praise The Placentagram" are filthy, delicious, and I guess in a really twisted way, just pure fucking genius. 10/10 for nastiness!

Abscess - Urine Junkies

Urine Junkies is a Relapse compilation CD featuring three of Abscess' earliest releases and demos. It was put out in 1995 under the label's Underground Series, and brought Abscess to a whole new level of exposure. One of the downsides of listening to a compilation is that the sound is all over place, but it is a small price to pay when you get to check out a cross-section of stuff that a band has to offer. Hey, this shit is nowhere near as fucking terrible as that Nunslaughter compilation I got last year. Abscess, thankfully, seem to lack in the nauseatingly bad live recordings department.

My favourite thing about Abscess though has got to be the vocals; incredibly nasty gargles, shouts or even lows. Also, I get the feeling that a lot of this older stuff just got tarred with the grindcore brush at the time because it was, for some surreal and brief moment in history, the "in" thing to do; Abscess' cheeky lullabies of filth are more akin to some bizarre world of punk mixed with death metal (I get a Pungent Stench vibe, if that is applicable?) than anything grinding. Regardless, this is fucking excellent.

Phyllomedusa - Fijian Holiday

Phyllomedusa has been sneaking doom metal tracks into his (?) gory repertoire for quite some time now, but Fijian Holiday marks the point where the stark lines of contrast have blurred so much that the multitude of perplexing styles this project perpetuates have finally come crashing together into one big sticky disgusting bog of beautiful, nauseating mess. Almost sounding like slam in parts; this record crawls and grooves with absolute menace. Phyllomedusa can do no wrong in my eyes. Strongly recommended!

Last Days Of Humanity / FUBAR - Split 9"

So, so, so stoked for the return (yet again lol) of Last Days Of Humanity, and the return to the gurgling madness we all know and love. This return is somewhat low key, but I guess it fits with dropping new shit on a split. I believe the music on here was recorded some time ago, and that the vokills have been provided recently. It is good shit though, glad to have 'em back!

FUBAR (or is that F.U.B.A.R.) have been around for yonks but I am useless with this shit so I haven't had a proper listen to these guys since I heard the split with Catheter many moons ago. Their material here seems to have a lot more of a hardcore punk kinda influence than I remember, but this is solid stuff that I need to check out more of!

Out on Poland's excellent Fat Ass Records

Pigsty - Planet Of The Pigs

Planet Of The Pigs is the final (?) album from long-running Czech grindcore band, Pigsty. I think to still call Pigsty a grindcore band by this point is pushing it a bit; Planet Of The Pigs has a whole world of other influences building on the grinding template, from thrash to death metal, to the kooky ongoing concept ("Inspection Report" kicks this thing off with GWAR-grade sci-fi storytelling) and even the insane djent moments that randomly crop up through the chaos. 

The band have had an almost exclusive relationship with Bizarre Leprous productions, and I sincerely hope that one day they shall return from the Planet Of The Pigs to blast us with more perplexing space grind.

Heinous - Demo 2016

Heinous are a goregrind band from Arizona, and when I say goregrind, I mean the blasting, frenetic style, not the slow, polka style. Imagine if Last Days Of Humanity recorded Reek Of Putrefaction but on the west coast of America, after spending the summer listening to Archagathus and drinking cheap beer. There may be a million bands out there called Heinous, but the name is truly deserved this time around. Wicked stuff!

Pyophagia - Ολικόν φαούσσιασμαν της εντερικής κοιλότητας / Μια μάτσα που όργανα τζιαι κκελλάες / Έφυεν η φάτσα του (που μιάν σσιπεθκιά)

Pyophagia is a Red Stripe fueled goregrind project that is based out of both Nicosia in Cypress and Bristol in the UK. The title is a combination of the names of the three quick tracks; the run time on this thing being less than 2 minutes (that's what I'm talking about!). Expect pummeling, sloppy old school goregrind with distorted, frantic blasts, downtuned guitars and vomit inducing shifted vocals.

All in all, a vile concoction that I can only say so much about due to its short run time. The band have also recently worked on a split with the band Tolerance, which is also well worth checking out. I will do a separate post for this in due time. Grind!

Corpse Eater - Unholy Massacre

Corpseater is a one man grindcore project from Germany, and Unholy Massacre is the second EP release, following 2015's Start To Mutilate. On first impressions I get a mix of Regurgitate meets the dirgy tones of Hymen Holocaust (without the pornogrind vibe, of course); Unholy Massacre is an undead-inspired, old school gory mess, with blasting drum machine work, filthy guitars and possibly pitchshifted, Mortician-style guttural vocals. 

Stand out tracks on this short EP include "Seven Million Slaughtered", which is the perfect balance of all of the above, but with a cheeky groove thrown in too, and the blastfest of "Slashing Throats In The Catacombs Of The Vatican". "Don't Settle For Mincecore" is probably my favourite; short, sharp and to the point! 

You can get this from the Corpse Eater Bandcamp page for a few Euros or check out the cassette release which is coming on Grindfather Productions. 

Pissgrave - Suicide Euphoria

Pissgrave are one of the few bands out there these days that actually fucking scare me; what a crazy explosion of disgusting sound! And I mean, what in the holy hell is going on with the sleeve art? Granted, I've seen the world's innards on many a goregrind sleeve but there's something entirely menacing about the unknown fate of whoever's bones are on the cover. Is that weird? Fuck it. The murky mystery of the cover art compliments the muddy clusterfuck that is Suicide Euphoria absolutely perfectly. It almost sounds like the music itself is spluttering out of that horrible brown liquid.

The vocals are something else. Definitely some of the sickest lows I've heard in a while; borrowing heavily from the nauseating spit and gurgle heard more in goregrind than in any type of death metal. Stand out tracks for me are "Impaled Vibration" and "Blood Fog".

Splatter Whore - City Of The Sleazehounds

City Of The Sleazehounds is the second and final studio album to date by American groovy goregrind band Splatter Whore. It marks a departure from the riff-focused gory groove of the first album / EP into a more lo-fi rock and roll with goregrind vocals kinda deal. This is pretty unusual in itself, but I find that the debut was also pretty accessible for a goregrind record. City Of The Sleazehounds, despite (I think) not being anywhere as good as the debut Kaviar Die Hards, presents yet another fresh angle on the goregrind sound.

The biggest disappointment for me is the step-down in production quality. Everything gets lost in the mix a lot more here, which is a crying shame if you were expecting an expansion on their super catchy metal-meets-goregrind approach. As a stand alone record though, its still an awesome listen. Think Exhumed recording in their garage with a bunch of crust punks at the helm. Not what I expected, but still a gem in the rough. 

Couple Skate - Ice Skate Lobotomy

Man, this shit is dank - it sounds just like Paucities smashed into early Regurgitate; dirgy, muddy, demo-quality grinding mush with bottomfeeder sludgy shifted vokills. I love all this "new" American-wave goregrind shit that has all this mincecore edge to it - it's fucking class, and Couple Skate is easily one of the best of the bunch (gotta give props to Haggus and Hyperemesis for coming joint first too).

The demo / EP is only six tracks long (one of which, perhaps expectedly, is a Regurgitate cover) but who gives a shit when the stuff is this tasty? Time to hunt down some more Couple Skate stuff, I think...

Intestinal Disgorge - Depravity

Depravity is a colossal release in the discography of the one and only Intestinal Disgorge. The wackiness of Sociopath takes on a more brutal, darkened edge on this 60 track beast. I remember picking this album up at a "distro" in Obscene Extreme 2013, where this guy under a gazibo had like, 15 CDs for sale and three or four t-shirts. In the same year, this album was banned in Germany, despite being an obscure grindcore release on a fucking Brazilian label, under the same bullshit law that caused all that fuss with Cannibal Corpse back in the day.

Bizarelly, this album isn't linked on the group's Bandcamp page like all the other full lengths, so it's kinda hard to link you up with something here. Luckily someone has uploaded one of the tracks to YouTube, but the lack of availability of this digitally only adds to the mystery behind it and the previously mentioned ban. (UPDATE 08th March 2017: I've added a full album link below!)

Either way, this is a totally solid part of the Intestinal Disgorge canon and I recommend a dosage for all sick goregrind maniacs, if you can find a copy, that is.