Tell you what, this has been on my review-list for over three years. I initially added it on when they were announced for a Temples Festival line up way back when. The initial review fell under the bus when some seriously dodgy accusations were made against the main man in Enabler by their ex-bass player. Now all that has blown over somewhat, I have finally decided to crack open the ancient draft file of this review and get on with the show.
Decent bit of metal-tinged hardcore, if I could be so straight up. The bass tone is proper, and lends a nice distorted rumble to the fairly polished proceedings. The drumming too, is of note and the production helps bring out the performance excellently. The vocals are a bit irritating, but not the worse shit I've ever heard.
(Excuse the lo-fi art today, can't find anything with high enough resolution!)
This is a barking mad, rabid display of hardcore punk power. Strong Intention's music is underpinned by what seems like genuine disgust and anguish at the American work-a-day life, which sets them apart from their peers in a sea of similar bands. Songs like "Model Citizen", "Consumer Sucker" and "Economic Outpatient" are perfect examples of this malice utilized to deliver scathing punk noise with an alternative diatribe to the work/sleep/die/repeat model of life.
My only complaint with this record is that the sound is a little thin. Yeah, punk is DIY as fuck but a little boost to the sound quality here would be enormously beneficial for the band's anger and energy. It is not badly recorded, it just sounds a little flat compared to other records as it fitted into the rest of my listening for the day, which was absolutely fine when I got used to it, but it doesn't hide the fact that the production is a little flat. That aside, this is brilliant, and strongly recommended listening.
This is one of the chunkiest metal productions I have heard in quite some time. Nothing Violates This Nature is an amazing performance from start to finish; mixing the blistering ferocity of grindcore with the, dare I say it, artsy hardcore edge of stuff like Converge, even Dillenger et al. (2017 edit: I have since discovered that not only is Converge drummer Ben Koller in the fucking band, but this record was produced by Kurt Ballou! Ha!)
I've caught the band live on a few occasions, and I can confirm that this record is an accurate depiction of the violence and carnage that comes with the band. The guitar work of Adam Wentworth and Brian Izzie expertly walks the line between hardcore and the downtuned hell of death metal. One is reminded subtly of Entombed, but stripped of the trademark (and often imitated) guitar tone, instead plunged headfirst into a more jarred, mathematics frenzy. Great stuff!
I mean, this is brilliant, it truly is (favourite tracks: "Of Suffering" and "Articles Of Human Weakness"). It's just... I keep expecting Kurt Ballou to screech out a tortured roar over everything. I'm having trouble dealing with that expectation at every turn, but then again I'm an idiot. Check it out below.
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.
Killbite are a hardcore band out of Bremen in Germany, playing in the heavy, almost metal style rather than the punky, upbeat style of hardcore. Discrimi-Nation isn't a million miles away from the powerviolence sound; hard-hitting, dark, distorted, angry as fuck - there are many tracks here worthy of getting the pit moving, whilst a few others are more thought provoking and morose, especially the untitled closing number.
This is thoughtful, powerful hardcore music with a strong message. Asides from a 10" on German label Break The Silence, the band have been very dedicated to the DIY approach and this album is self-released on both CD and vinyl. Physical copies are available directly from the band.
Lahar is a thrashy, hardcore-tinged band from the Czech Republic (I believe thrashcore is the preferred term) and Umění Strachu is their second album (third if you count the original demo, which has a fair amount of songs on it). It kinda has a skate-punk feel to it, which mixes oddly with soaring melodies and more traditional metal parts to form an unique brew of styles. Considering I saw these guys as Obscene Extreme, this record isn't particularly speedy, but lacks no energy or punch because of this.
Doomentia Records put this out in 2013 on CD and vinyl which is still readily available. 150 copies of the coloured vinyl release came with extra heavy packaging and a record player slipmat, which is pretty cool.
Holy shit this is intense! Whoever imagined the murky worlds of goregrind and "dark hardcore" meeting? This is the closest thing to mixing powerviolence savagery with nasty, nasty goregrind since I heard the excellent UxDxSx a few years ago. I mean, this isn't to say that Vermin Womb are a goregrind band, but you need to press play on this beast and get your head around those vocals. There is something Lovecraftian about the sheer magnitude of the roars emanating from this record. Effected or otherwise, I am seriously impressed. They give this death metal-tinged hardcore a massive, massive edge.
There is another band that are a bit more well known that share this vocalist, and that band is Primitive Man. I've wanted to do a review for Scorn since I heard it last year but I am a lazy useless asshole so I still haven't done it. Anyways, I feel I need to go back and dig that record out, because this right here is intense as fuck. It's heavier than the goddamn fucking sun, fam. It's like Neurosis decided to do death metal or something.
Shackles play chunky, crusty powerviolence with energetic flair and manic vocal displays dripping in palpable rabidity. Maunder re-animates the bloated, festering corpse of punk with the spastic electricity of grindcore and the meaty (yet vegan friendly!) deliverance of modern metal. Imagine Nails meets Repulsion, only on a limited 7", rather than 5000 copies on Relapse in a variety of fucking colours. Bleak, miserable and powerfully heavy stuff.
Maunder was the band's debut release, back in 2011, released in two pressings by Aussie label Arrest Records. It is quite lengthy for an EP of this style, clocking it around 13 minutes, but boasts enough variety to stay fresh and interesting throughout. Highly recommended listening!
Brutality Will Prevail are a long-running Welsh hardcore band that have, over the years, gone through several styles and line ups. Forgotten Soul is the band's 2009 debut album (they self-released a few things before this, but this was the proper debut) and it catches the band when they were playing a really down-tempo, super-chuggy style of hardcore. I guess it is almost like slam death metal, but with the endless double kicks taken out. BWP are a decent hardcore band in their own right (Root Of All Evil is the tits), so it's a bit of a shame that this record conforms so strictly to the chug-style, which was, if I'm totally honest, just what everyone did back then.
There are so many fucking awful trendy chug bands in Wales, even now. Kids are still listening to mindless bollocks like Oceans Apart and it genuinely baffles me - I mean, is it still 2007? Why is this genre even still a thing? Anyways - on to the album. I won't pretend that making it through the whole thing in one go isn't a bit of a task for me, but then again, I'm a bit out of my comfort zone here. But,that doesn't necessarily mean that this album is bad. The vocals are fucking class. On first impressions, (musically, not so much vocally) I can make a lot of comparisons to the early sound of Annotations Of An Autopsy, who made waves in this style of music before jumping ship before shit got too stale.
Perhaps I shouldn't have reviewed this album, because I've gone off on a massive tangent, but fuck it, it's written now so it's getting posted! Stay tuned to Lines In Wax kids, for super top quality content like this!
Throw down or fuck off, or something.
PS Mad props for that album cover though, top stuff.
Gets Worse's latest EP literally gets worse (I'm so sorry). Nah, I'm kidding - every single time I hear something from these guys they raise the bar. The sound here is absolutely fucking spot on; so crunchy and heavy but with clarity and definition. And the music? Well, it's Gets Worse, but a little bit more grown up and defined. The fast bits are there; the powerviolence vocals, the cheesegrinder bass, and that interesting snare sound, but there's also an interesting experimental edge - the slower songs seem that extra bit slower, and there is a fucking saxophone solo at one point. And let's not forget the Alan Partridge sampling.
This shit is literally the bomb. I cannot, no matter how hard I try (despite my will), find any fault whatsoever with this recording. If you are into heavy music in any way shape or form, I fail to see how you can pick any faults in it. I will crawl outta the band's arse just a little though, by complaining about the eight minute run time, but hey - this is a fucking EP, not a space opera.
Bad Brains are nothing short of legendary so it's kinda hard to sum this up in two paragraphs or so. I have to admit that I am a recent convert to this group. I've always been a fan of dub reggae and the like but not so much hardcore punk, but as time is quickly ticking away the hours of my life I have grown something of an appreciation for the genre, and Bad Brains meld the two together almost perfectly on their 1982 self-titled debut.
A stand out track in the punk style would have to be "Attitude", or maybe "Fearless Vampire Killers", and for the reggae style stuff you literally cannot top "Leaving Babylon"; which for me is easily the best track on the entire record with it's woeful lyrics set to a strangely upbeat bass line.
If you are as late to the party as I am I implore you to give this a spin.
Being an absolute pinnacle of modern grindcore, it is almost impossible to fault this Magrudergrind record. With that in mind, I will start with my only gripe. Where's the bass? I fucking love bass. That's literally all I can criticize. I remember making some unsavoury comments about Pig Destroyer getting a bass player and having seen them live several times since the change I can only long hopefully for Magrudergrind to one day pack that extra punch...
Anyway, I'm rambling. Magrudergrind's self titled is generally the record I recommend to grindcore newbies (as well as Wormrot's Noise EP) on the rare occasion somebody actually cares about what I'm saying. Opening track "The Protocols Of Anti-Sound" is one of my favourite songs ever as it comprises of everything you could possibly want out of grindcore in one short blast. Magrudergrind's razor sharp distortion and chunky drum production mingle perfectly, leaving just enough room for the distortion of the vocals. There's chaos, and plenty of it, but Magrudergrind also play the vital grind card (that a lot of bands overlook) - throwing in a fucking killer riff every now and then.
Speaking of killer riffs, "Bridge Burner" is a lengthy offering sitting in the middle of the record that sounds like an orgy of heaviness akin to Fistula crossed with Drop Dead. There's even some weird hip hop shit at the end of the album which I like but I'm sure will actually alienate some purists, but fuck those guys - hip hop is awesome.
Wail Of Sirens play dark, metallic hardcore with an artistic flair, giving this EP a Converge-meets-Discharge vibe, which as you are more than likely aware is not a bad thing at all. It seems Wail Of Sirens are a fairly new band because I can't find absolutely any information about them online (but then again, I'm an idiot) but that to me is even more of a reason to check these guys out and give them a chance.
Final Demands is only 4 songs long, and with half of them not reaching the two minute mark, it doesn't give you much to go on but it's a cheeky debut and seems to get the point across fairly well. Actually, the length of these tracks would fit perfectly on a 7" record (hint hint haha). But no, physically, Tired Of Life Records have put this EP out as a tape release, but you can also stream it for free from the group's Bandcamp page (check the player below!).
What a glorious face-full of hateful grinding malice! It’s like somebody has bashed you across the face with a snow shovel swarming in maggots. That’s EXACTLY what I’m fucking talking about, ladies and gentlemen! The recently-released Derailed is the band’s first tape since their 2013 demo, and contains 9 blasts of spasticating grindcore that is just over 6 minutes in duration. Rock ‘n’ Roll.
It’s funny, there’s a song here called “Nevermind the Nugrind”, which is actually quite ironic as I pick up a lot of modern American grind/hardcore related twists in the band’s music. To me it’s more Insect Warfare meets Archagathus than anything pre-1990 and from the other side of the pond. I’m not knocking it at all though, this shit is the fucking tits, as us Brits like to say. Fiend have just done a split 7” with fellow Americans Dead Issue, so I’ll have to check that shit out too.
Horsebastard are a grindcore band from up't'north of England. Well, I'm in South Wales so they are pretty fucking far north to me, at least. The hilariously titled Giraffetermath is the band's first release since their Equestrian Blastcore CDr demo, which I also have lying around here somewhere or other. This second EP is also a massive step up in recording quality, and looks fucking cool as fuck on a 10" record rather than on a CDr. I'm not against CDrs obviously, but this vinyl looks sweet as.
Ontae the music! Blastcore is definitely a word I would associate with the racket created by Horsebastard. The drums are an endless barrage of blasting insanity, complimented by razor sharp guitars and a seriously deranged vocal attack. My only complaint about this release is that it's only 14 tracks long - I want more of this shit!
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!
Total Abuse play messy, vicious hardcore with a downtuned, sludgy twist. Tracks range from the short 'n' fast machine gun cannon to more plodding, progressive numbers, and to the downright weird and unusual. This self-titled record is noisy as fuck, and probably has some roots in the harsh noise or avant garde.
I originally mistook this as a full length album but it's classed as an EP, which is unusual because y'know, records just shy of half hour usually get counted as albums in these circles. Not that it particularly matters. It still sounds amazing. I'm not really into hardcore punk that much so it's always fuckin' great when I hear something that I can really enjoy jamming. It's probably Total Abuse's noisy tendancies that help them fall into my comfort zone. Some of the slower songs actually sound a bit like Big Black, for example, "Banned In Austin" sees layers of screeching dissonant guitars fighting over a plodding bassline.
Sakatat are a relentless old-school grindcore band from Turkey (yes!). I first heard them on a split 7" with Agathocles, which fucking ruled, so I eventually got around to checking them out again properly. Bir Devrin Sonu is a 2012 EP consisting of 8 minutes of flat-out blasting goodness. The resemblance to some of Insect Warfare's shit is uncanny, but perhaps Sakatat pull it off with a bit more of a hardcore punk edge.
Regardless, this is some mosh-pit inducing ferocity that cannot be ignored. This type of sound is like the perfect grindcore for me; no fucking around, rough around the edges but still clear enough to get a good feel for everything that's going in. The vocals are nauseating, the guitarwork akin to Minor Threat on bath salts and the drums sound like heavy duty machine guns.
I absolutely love (The) Dwarves. They are probably one of
the most fun bands I’ve seen live, and all their albums (even the dodgy pop
punk ones) are bursting with a childish, youthful punk energy, even as the band
continue to age in the physical world. Blood Guts & Pussy shows a much more
hardcore punk orientated side to Dwarves that unfortunately quickly died out as
they adopted a cleaner, more mainstream sound. It matters not though, as for
me, Blood Guts & Pussy is an absolute classic in the fields of short, fast
and loud.
It’s very cheeky to call this an album as it’s over really,
really quickly, but I don’t suppose its short enough to be an EP either. Opener
“Back Seat Of My Car” is probably the most punk thing ever, as is “Drug Store”
and the enormously rude “Let’s Fuck”. “Fuck You Up And Get High” is one of the
simplest yet greatest tunes written in the history of music, while “Flesh
Tantrum” is a stomping, bass-heavy mid-pacer dripping with malice. “You make my
skin crawl!” spits Blag Dahlia, over and over.
The only downside with Blood Guts & Pussy is that it
kinda just fizzles out; there’s no real ending as such, it just starts, fucks
you up and then finishes abruptly. I guess it could be fleshed out a bit more
with a few more solid tracks but then again I think that more than likely
detract from the whole point.
This was a random purchase for me a couple of Christmas' back, from some D.I.Y. / punk / hardcore record shop in Cardiff. It's been a while, and the shop/label is long gone (at least at that location), but I (obviously) still have this record and still spin it every now and then. I picked it up because I am a massive fan of Anal Cunt and was aware that they had done a split with Psycho at some point. Couple that with the randomness of finding a Psycho record in Cardiff, and the deal was sealed, as far as I was concerned. I can't really remember how much it cost me, but it wasn't much.
I don't have many 12" EPs. I think the format has died out somewhat, especially in the underground, what with the increasing price of pressing vinyl (I'm not even gonna go into the pressures of the digital age). Spinning at 45 rpm, this record doesn't last very long at all, but it's an awesome little blast through some thrash-paced hardcore punk nonsense. I'm aware that Psycho have several "eras" to their sound, like they did grindcore for a while, etc. etc. I'm not really sure where this fits in in the whole Pyscho "journey" but it's still a really cool EP that I would recommend to anybody with an interest in the faster side of life. It sounds to me like Motorhead meets Dead Kennedys.
This awesome, almost beer coloured 12" was released in 1988 under Pyscho's own record label, Ax/ction Records.
