Prostitute Disfigurement - Deeds Of Derangement

Before I start, let me just say that this band has one of the most awesome names in the history of all that is grindcore and death metal. Fuck! It's such a brutal name, and one that still gets thinking "dayuuuum, that's nasty" even after years of immersion in this type of shit. They are from the Nederlands too, so they must hate the window-based red light districts there with a passion, with a name like that. Shit, imagine the customer / working girl conversation that could potentially unfold if one of the band visited a window! Imagine this tiny little Romanian blonde letting this huge, burly and sinister looking death metaller into the room and asking innocently enough, "so honey, what do you do for a living?". "Well, I'm in a death metal band called Prostitute Disfigurement and I think we are going to have a lot of fun..." Hahaha! She'd be popping that police alarm with less subtlety than Edna Krabappel and her independent thought alarm.

But, as usual, I digress. On with the music! Deeds of Derangement opens with a million-mile-a-minute blast-a-thon, throwing you right into PD's sick and twisted world. The vocals are a strange mix between a guttural low and a pig squeal, the guitars are audible, chugging pools of mud and the drums are surprisingly clarified; the blasts are equal, moderate in volume across the board and rock-steady, yet the use of triggers, if any, is very understated indeed. Great production job! As the songs sail by I notice an almost melodic edge to some of the riffage here, harking back to more traditional death metal approaches, rather than sticking to the ultra-brutal template and soldiering through an entire album with little to no variation.

It freaks me the fuck out that this album is nearly 11 years old, as it was only 3 years old when I first downloaded it back when I was still in school. It sure as hell doesn't sound 11 years old. Sometimes death metal work, whilst staying relevant, can sound rather dated mainly due to the production styles used, but Deeds of Derangement is an extremely organic sounding record that could have been recorded yesterday for all I know. It's great shit. You can stream the entire album in the link below. Originally released on CD by the defunct Morbid Records, which is now merged and under War Anthem Records.

Agathocles - Humarrogance

What I have here for review is the 1997 Morbid Records (RIP) LP release of Humarrogance. The sound is that of the usual Agathocles stock, if not a little crisper than most recordings. The tracks blast and grind away with impressive mincing fury until it comes to an abrupt halt at the start of track eight, “White Horse”. This song has a strange rock and roll vibe to it, and it is very refreshing to hear Agathocles mince through something with such a prominent groove factor. The tracks that follow, “Ain’t I?” and the interestingly titled “Beam Me Up, Scotty”, are of equal quality and I find myself banging my head like an idiot.

The four bonus tracks that come on the CD version (I have that too) are either live gigs or live rehearsals of songs that hark back to Agathocles’ earlier days, with even pitch-shifted vocals in tow. The quality of sound on some of these tracks is pretty grim, but enjoyable none-the-less. It is my opinion that these tracks belong on a seven inch record, to truly emphasize the crust factor (actually chances are they have already appeared on seven inch about 37 different times).

The artwork perplexes me. It reeks of the typical D.I.Y. ethic you come to expect of grindcore, but the front sleeve is something else entirely. It is some sort of surrealist painting by an unidentified artist. Perhaps the painting is famous, and therefore does not require a credit. This could well be the case as I have little experience with the world of “art”. It is a painting though, that much I can tell, of two ghostly figures examining objects on a clothed table; there is a butterfly, an hourglass, and what appears to be a French baguette.

Since this CD/LP was my first experience of Agathocles, and I fully appreciate this piece, I would recommend this release to any fans of grindcore, especially those looking for an in-road into the never-ending maze of Agathocles releases (trust me, it's a fucking nightmare). Although, the constant vegetarianism / anti-nazi / anti-racism / anti-fascism edge may put off some people.

The Youtube user SPEAKERHUMAN has kindly put together the whole album as a playlist, so sit back and grind away!

Dead Infection / CSSO - Split 7"

 

This here post is about the fantastic Morbid Records classic split between goregrind legends Dead Infection and prolific noise/rock/goregrind/strange Japanese mentalists, CSSO. It was only ever pressed once in 1998 on black and is therefore obviously very much out of print.

When I discovered the wonders of the Discogs website this was one of the very first things I bought, being big into goregrind as a teenager I dreamt one day of owning all the original Dead Infection, Last Days of Humanity and GUT 7" EPs and splits. So you can imagine it didn't take much for me to part ways with hard earned cash to splash out on this underground gem. The early days of Discogs was unhealthy for my wallet, to say the least. I paid over the odds for this, being new to the "game" at the time, and even though I gotta say my copy is absolutely pristine in every single way imaginable, you can get this online now for little to no more than your average price for a 7" split, so get out there and fecking buy it!

Dead Infection's earlier work was a lot muddier and "dark" compared to their later, mile-a-minute blastfests. The production isn't ever going to win any awards for clearest sound in this lifetime, but that doesn't detract from the excellent grind that is up on offer here. People familiar with later Dead Infection I suggest you start with The Singles Collection or The Lethal Collection, both of which are a nice cross section of old shit and probably contain the material on this 7" anyway. Or, if you fancying treating yourself, a lot of their early shit has finally been pressed on wax in the last few years. Tuck in, gore hounds.

CSSO on the other hand are a veritable mixed bag of craziness. Having being very eager to dig up underground gems back in the day I spent a lot of time on various music forums liaising with teh interwebz key opinionators, and on more than one occasion was I highly recommended CSSO / chastised for my n00bishness of not ever hearing CSSO. I never got around to checking out CSSO until I bought this, and I was surprised by their sound. It's almost punky, and a million miles away from Dead Infection's dirge-like maelstrom of death. Take a listen, if you, like me, are uninitiated to the ways of the CSSO: