Judas Cradle / Fetus Christ - Split CDr

(June 2019 edit: this should have been posted years ago, so please excuse the promotional tone in which it is written!)

Okay, so here it is, the first release on the new Lines In Wax "label", the glorious split EP between thrashing Newport grinders and Hereford powerviolence trio Fetus Christ. We've been toying with the idea of doing a split for quite some time, so it fit perfectly with the intention to start my label, and considering we are supposed to be touring together at some point too. Both sets on this disc were recorded live at the excellent FHED Halloween weekender in October 2016 by the promoter and all round good egg James Payne. A full release of all the recordings from the event can be found at fhed.bandcamp.com. 

The run is limited to 50 and gave me a chance to "try out" a number of suppliers, including The Duplication Service who did a great job on the CDs, and Disc Jugglers who have done a bang up job on printing the covers. The inserts I did on my super wicked awesome new Brother laser printer (just wait and see the tape inserts this thing has been printing). 

Quick shout out to t'lads in Judas Cradle (RIP) for their patience with my strange ideas, Fetus Christ for being on the ball and generally just being awesome, and of course Mr. Payne for the recordings.

Cheers!

Sodom - Tapping The Vein

It's thrash-o-clock here at Lines in Wax! Its not often that I spin a thrash record, but when I do, you'd best be sure that it is a nasty thrash sound. Sodom always hit the spot every time, and I was reminded to write a little bit about them after catching them live briefly back in November. Tapping The Vein is a solid, denser-than-dark matter metal record, with a tight, condensed production and a dry, crisp sound. Sodom entering the 90s took on a more amped-up, terrifying sound; tighter and more brutal, much like the death metal stylings at the time, which have an obvious influence on this album, if only in the production job.

The tracks remain quite punky; that springy, almost sloppy hardcore drumming jars madly into the watertight song structures (almost in the same way as if you program a d-beat into a drum machine it just doesn't sound quite right). Highlights include the hat-trick of "Bullet in the Head", "The Crippler" and "Wachturn", as well as the excellent closing track, "Reincarnation". One has to wonder if Rage ATM took any "inspiration" from that "Bullet..." track, as the choruses are barked in a remarkably similar manner (the songs as a whole are entirely different however).

Decent bit of German thrash, my luvvies, with more-90s-than-the-90s art to go with it. Bonza!

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".

Lahar - Umění Strachu

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.

Czech it out (sorry I couldn't resist).

Benediction - Grind Bastard

I've caught Benediction live a few times (with Dave Hunt on vocals) and they have always killed it, so in my recent hunt for new tunes I decided it was probably time that I check out a studio recording by the band. They've got a pretty long and eventful career, so I wasn't sure where to start, but the name of this record just jumped right out at me (I wonder why...). I'm not entirely sure what any of this has to do with grindcore (edit: nothing at all) but breaktime rolled around at work, so I trekked over to the nearest Subway and sat there eating a rip-off elongated sandwich, whilst this fed my mind...

On first listen I thought that Barney Greenway from Napalm Death was on this, but a swift Google search revealed that it is actually Dave Ingram, although Barney has provided vocals for this band in times past! Not a coincidence, no doubt. Benediction seem to bridge together thrash and death metal into a mix of their own, creating a mid-paced but interesting concoction that is downtuned and growly yet not boring and repetitive. The little things make this record; the songs are not mind-numbingly technical but the sneaky, gorgeous drum fills are fantastic, and the riffs float with nuance despite their chuggy heavyness.

I'm a bit late to the party but I will be looking for my Benediction records in the future.

If you've got Spotify, you can stream it here: 

Cradle Of Filth - Hammer Of The Witches

With the recent hat-trick of absolute stinkers in the form of Thornography, Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa and the incredibly turd-like The Manticore And Other Horrors (the amazing Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder acting as an interesting anomaly in a long string of crap albums), and not to mention the recent spate of shameless cash-in releases (Midnight In The Labyrinth, the Total Fucking Darkness re-issue), I had given up all hope on Cradle Of Filth ever redeeming themselves as a force to be reckoned with. 

Honestly, the only reason I took a second glance at Hammer Of The Witches was because of the fantastic artwork, which has more inspiration in one oil-painted tit than the last decade's worth of Cradle cover sleeves combined. One of the issues with Cradle Of Filth is the constantly-rotating "staff" orbiting frontman Dani Filth. But the stars have aligned here in quite an interesting fashion; drumming powerhouse Martin Škaroupka breathes untold life in to the songs similarly to the way the legendary Adrian Erlandsson lit fires beneath the frosted riffs of Midian all those moons ago (Martin also brought new power to Godspeed... after the farce of Thornography) . With the long-running songwriter / guitarist mastermind / awful gobstopper dodger Paul Allender leaving the fold for the second time, room for a fresh new stringsmen has opened up. 

I could waffle for some time but "Deflowering The Maidenhead, Displeasuring The Goddess" and the thrash-tacular "Blackest Magick In Practice" show Cradle Of Filth in a impressive display of pregnancy after years of barren creative stagnation. My eyes and ears once again opened, I find myself praying that their next release is as monstrous as this one. Welcome back, you utter cunts. 

The Judas Cradle - The Self-Inflicted EP

Warning! Self-promotional post!

 

I just wanna take a post to tell you all about my new grindcore band The Judas Cradle (google the definition for epic luls and potential cringing). Formed out of the ashes of Newport death metal crew O.A.P., The Judas Cradle became a real thing in September of last year. We’ve have been rehearsing pretty much weekly since, and we recorded our debut EP in our rehearsal space. It was released in December online, and we had physical copies made up in January, which were all put together lovingly by our guitarist Will.

 

We have about a 100 of them to go around at shows and shit, but this EP is available to be spread far and wide on the net. So give it a download, rate it or hate it. If by some astronomical odds you fancy a copy you can get one off my Discogs page!

 

Grind it!

 

Gwar - Bloody Pit Of Horror

I dunno the last time I listened to a Gwar record all the way through. In fact, I dunno the last time I even attempted to listen to a Gwar record in the first place! Ever since Oderus' untimely death last year I've been meaning to check out more Gwar stuff - simply because they are one of my favourite live bands ever, and I feel like I haven't given them a proper chance. Dave Brockie's death was a sullen remind of that, and so eventually I actually started my listening of Gwar records.

I started with Bloody Pit Of Horror because I remember reading an hilarious interview with Oderus where he mentioned in passing that Bloody Pit is by far the heaviest Gwar album. And he was totally right, because this doesn't sound like Gwar at all. They've been heavier in their later days than at any point in the past, but the band seemed to perfect it's own crazy brand of story-telling thrash metal, which is present here on the Bloody Pit, but this album incorporates a lot of influences from heavier metal subgenres such as death metal and doom. I never thought I'd hear Gwar do anything that could ever even be remotely interpreted as doom metal, but there you go. 

The album begins with the title track(s) - a four part epic split into different segments. It's a bit much, but hey - this is Gwar motherfuckers; if you can't accept shit is going to get ridiculous, then stop listening. After that though, the album sails by at a quickening pace. "Tick Tits" reminds you of what band you are actually listening to, and then the rest of the album is over and done with before I know it, surprisingly leaving me with the urge to listen to more Gwar albums. Well, fuck.

Voivod - Phobos

I’ve never really been into Voivod. I even tried to witness the band play all of Dimension Hatross at Roadburn Festival 2012, which is hosted in Tilburg’s 013, a venue with arguably the best sound in the world, and I still couldn’t get into it. I just don’t get it – is it thrash? Is it prog wankery? Is it a tired display of both? Phobos though, blew my fucking head off. It works better as background music (I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but most metal just goes in one ear and out the other these days, unless I’m high or something) but it’s a chunky, hard-hitting, more-metal-than-metal journey. Everything I thought Voivod wasn’t.

Typically it turns out that this album is from an “iffy” mid-period in Voivod’s history that most fans avoid like the plague. All the power to them, I say – you keep enjoying those dodgy stoner rock records they did with Jason Newstead and I’ll keep blasting this epic sci fi record. The reason this album sounds so different from normal Voivod is that theoretically only half the band performed on it. The usual bassist and vocalist were replaced for a time by Eric Forrest, who took over both duties. His harder vocal delivery really makes this (and the Negatron album) stand out in the extensive Voivod back catalogue.

Some REAL sci-thrash, motherfuckers!!!

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses

Now here's something I have listened the absolute fucking death out of during the last few months. I've always been a casual Type O Negative fan but I've always put off buying their albums, because I'm lazy as fuck like that. Anyways, I stumbled upon a free copy of this when I worked clearing out unwanted crap from charity shops, and for the next couple of hours in the van I became baptised in the awesome world of Type O Negative. Man, why didn't anyone tell me about this shit before? Mix equal parts doom metal and hardcore punk with hammy keyboards, then dress the whole thing up to take the piss out of a subculture that takes itself far too seriously, and bam - you've got the perfect recipe! 

The opening tracks (20 minutes on their own) "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1" are stone-cold goth metal classics. Taking the piss or no, Pete Steele & Chums churned out more promise and epicness in two fucking tracks than in the entire discographies of Sisters Of Mercy and HIM combined. "Kill All The White People" marries hardcore punk and Sabbath-worship riffage in a puzzling yet amazing duality. "Summer Breeze" sounds as the title promises, and "We Hate Everyone" pulverises the listener with more hardcore punk-influenced terror before the sheer epic of "Bloody Kisses" kicks in. Nearly 11 minutes long, the title track is a mammoth depressing beast. Shit sends fucking shivers up my spine, yo - especially during the piano solo (hahaha). Joking or otherwise, it's a seriously heavy track and boasts a fucking wicked chorus. "Too Late: Frozen" is another favourite of mine, starting off fast as fuck and slowing down to a doomy pace for the remainder.

I'd absolutely love to see these play live, but I'll never get that chance as Pete Steele sadly died before I developed any real respect for the band. I consider this album to be an absolute staple in my list of legendary metal records. I have only shame and regret for not discovering this total gem of a band any sooner. They have fecking stacks of good songs, but none of the albums live up to the sheer back-to-back quality of tracks on Bloody Kisses, which might just be the definitive goth-related record for me. 

Crank this up and crack out the black nail polish.

Re-Animator - Condemned to Eternity

I don't particularly find this record exciting in any way . As far as middle of the road, no frills thrash goes, Re-Animator have got it down to a tee. I'm sure that there is a bunch of metalheads out there who love this, without question, but the reason this is in my collection actually has nothing to do with the music on the disc. It is there because of its artwork.

 

The artwork was done by a man called Terry Oakes, who just happens to be my mother's brother (my uncle, if you can't figure that out ha ha). I always knew that he did paintings for a living but I was unawares for years of a.) the type of paintings that he did and b.) that he did record sleeves. This is just one of many album covers that he has done in his time as an artist. I have more by him in my collection (donated kindly by the man himself) but I am still searching for a pretty few others out there.

I do kinda feel bad that someone in my close family has been doing something this cool for years and I didn't even bother to find out more about it. Ah well, if anything it was my loss! Lucky for me I now have a whole ton of prints and a bunch of original pressings featuring Terry's art. Can't go wrong with that. Shame about the shit thrash! ;)