Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Enabler/All Hail The Void/Southern Lord Records/2012 CD Review


  Enabler  are  a  band  from  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin  that  play  a  mixture  of  of  hardcore  punk,  crust,  grindcore  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2012  album  "All  Hail  The  Void"  which  was  released  by  Southern  Lord  Records.

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  some  blast  beats  being  thrown  into  the  music  at  times,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  is  coming  out  of  the  guitars  and  at  times  they  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  punk,  crust,  grindcore  and  death  metal  together  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own  with  some  melody  being  thrown  into  the  riffing  at  times,  while  the  lead  guitars  are  very  primitive  sounding  crustcore  guitar  solos  and  leads.

  Vocals  are  mostly  crustcore  style  yelling  with  some  deeper  growls  being  utilized  at  times,  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark,  hateful,  and  everyday  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful, heavy  and  professional  sound  to  it  where  you  can  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording.

  In  my  opinion  Enabler  are  a  very  great  sounding  hybrid  of  punk,  hardcore,  crust,  grind  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  style,  you  should  check  this  band  out.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The Heathens"  "Fuck  Today"  "No  Deliverance"  and  "Funeral  Dirge".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Primate/Draw Back The Stump/Relapse Records/2012 CD Review


  Primate  are  a  band  from  Atlanta,  Georgia  that  plays  a  mixture  of  crust,  grindcore  and  hardcore  punk  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2012  album  "Draw  Back  The  Stump"  which  was  released  by  Relapse  Records.

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  some  blast  beats  being  thrown  into  the  music  at  times,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  strong  and  powerful  tone  with  riffs  that  dominate  throughout  the  recording.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  crust,  grindcore  and  hardcore  punk  together  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own  along  with  some  melodies  being  thrown  into  the  riffing, while  the  lead  guitars  are  early  80's  style  metal/punk  rock  guitar  solos  and  leads.

  Vocals  range  from  high  pitched  grindcore  screams  and  growls  mixed  in  with  some  crust/hardcore  style  shouting,  while  the  lyrics  cover  drinking,  violent  and  hateful  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  raw  and  primitive  sound  to  it  while  you  can  still  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording.

  In  my  opinion  Primate  are  a  very  great  sounding  hybrid  of  crust,  grind,  hardcore  ans  punk  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  style,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Global  Division"  "Hellbound"  "Wasted  Youth"  and  "Get  The  Fuck Of  My  Lawn".  RECOMMENDED  BUY. 

Monday, May 14, 2012

Strong Intention/Razorblade Express/PATAC/2012 CD Review


  Strong  Intention  are  a  band  from  Maryland  that  plays  a  mixture  of  hardcore,  grindcore  and  crust  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2012  album  "Razorblade  Express" which  was  released  by  PATAC.

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  a  good  amount  of  blast  beats  being  thrown into  the  music,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  is  coming  out  of  the  guitars.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  hardcore,  grindcore  and  crust  together  with  some  dark  sounding  melodies  being  thrown  into  the  riffing  that  bring  the  metal  influences  to  the  music  while  the  lead  guitars  when  they  are  utilized  are  very  distorted  and  melodic  sounding  guitar  solos  and  leads.

  Vocals  range  from  hardcore style  to  high  pitched  grindcore  screams,  while  the  lyrics  cover  hateful  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful  and  heavy  sound  which  does  not  taking  away  from  the  raw  and primitive  nature  of  the  music.

  In  my  opinion  Strong  Intention  are  a  very  great  sounding  hybrid  of  hardcore,  grindcore  and  crust  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  style,  you  should  check  out  this  recording.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Messiah  Whore"  and  "Slaughter  Intelligence".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.     

Monday, May 7, 2012

Usurpress Interview


 
1. Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?
Well, we have sent the artwork for our debut album (called "Trenches of the Netherworld") to SelfMadeGod (CD) and Iconoclast (vinyl) so right now we're just rehearsing for the upcoming Euro-tour and try to do as much press as possible to get our name out. Our split-7" with Pyramido (great psychosludge from southern Sweden) is finally out on Plague Island (http://www.plagueisland.com/). On our side there's an alternative version of the album's title track and an exclusive song called "The Conqueror" which is one of our best songs ever. Get it! Hurry up like hell and you might catch the limited edition (100 copies) which is a double-7", we do two punk covers on our side of the bonus disc. Pyramido does a sick version of "Fed Up" by Judge. And, as you probably know, our 12" "In Permanent Twilight" just got released on CD by SelfMadeGod. Still available on vinyl from Plague Island.

2. How would you describe the musical sound of the new album that is coming out and how it differs from previous recordings?
The new album has a much heavier and filthier sound than our previous releases, we also paid much more attention to details than before and we were much more prepared this time, we had made (crude) demos in our own primitive studio before we went into the real studio, etc. Tha album itself sounds very much like Usurpress but more diverse than before, some slower stuff/songs, some riffs/parts are more melodic, some are way more crusty and primitive. We worked with guitar harmonies, clean vocals, more psych/prog-parts and so forth. But - we have not wimped out! Fuck no! The new album is much more brutal than the previous stuff. Everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY!) that had heard the new album think it's way better than the old stuff. We're still a young band but I believe we're starting to find our sound now.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the new release?
Uh! This is difficult question, it's so easy to sound like a pretentious know it all/know fuckin' nothing metalhead thinking he's a fuckin Nobel Prize laurate in the making when talking about your lyrics, but I'll give it a shot. All individual Usurpress-lyric deals with a topic (or, if you like, message), it seldom tells a story from A to Z (or even A to B) but rather one single image, like a still photo, I get in my head and then I try to evolve that picture into a scene with moving pictures, like a film sequence, you know? We deal mainly with themes of oppression/suppression and the overall setting of our lyrics is a world on the brink of Armageddon. The Usurpress is often the one telling the story, you see the world through her eyes. Sometimes she's active, sometimes she's a passive observer. If people think it's generic crybaby punk bullshit, it's ok with us. If people think it's string-cool-words-in-English-together metal bullshit. it's ok with us. I don't think the lyrics on the album are that much different than before, maybe they are more abstract and distant. I guess the Usurpress is getting jaded, she has seen so much suffering.. Maybe she'll start to become more active on the next album. Time will tell.

4. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?
Hard question, since we're never been very active in searching for gigs, when we started the band we weren't sure if we were interested in playing live at all. So far we have only done 7 gigs (for a detailed description, see http://usurpress.com/giglog/) and no gig has been magical, nor has anyone been disastrous. Between the four members of the band we have made hundreds and hundreds of gigs on 4 continents so we have had our share of megagreat and abysmal gigs. No Usurpress-gig has been either one of them. Our stage performance? Well, we're not Watain, I guess... We try to enter the stage with aggression and take it from there. We're not posers neither are we statues. 
 
5. Do you have any touring plans for the new album once it comes out?
Yes, like I mentioned earlier, we will do a European tour to support the album. It's just a short one, 16 gigs or so, but we're a young band and we don't want to over-do it. We'll be doing most of the old "cultural countries" in central Europe (Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia, Czech etc) together with the mighty Barbarian from Italy. A truly great band. We're all really looking forward to this tour since it's our first one and it will be a test to see if we can get along under very trying conditions.

6. On a worldwide level how has your music been received by both fans of death metal and crust?
I don't know really, I have read very few reviews of our records. From what I know, both scenes seem to think we're an ok band. If someone thinks we're an crust-influenced death metal-band and another one thinks we're a death metal-tinged crust band, they're both right. Or wrong. We wanna be neither, we want to steal the elements we like from punk (d-beat, simple verse-chorus arrangements) and from death metal (riffing, vocals) and combine them with dissonance and unorthodox chord changes. We are "D-beat deathcrust".

7. What is going on with the side projects this days?
Danne (bass) plays with Iron Lamb which is a hardrock/punkrock-hybrid featuring ex-members from blahblahblah. Pretty fuckin' good. Påhl (guitar) plays with instrumental progrockers Klotet. Pretty fuckin' awesome. Calle (drums) plays with barbaric and primitive crustband Stäket 1517 but they hardly do anything at all. Steffe (vocals) isn't doing anything besides Usurpress these days. Good for him.

8. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?
We are quite convinced that our style of music is D-beat deathcrust and our credo is "No rock, no grind, no thrash, no groove". But apart from that, anything goes. We haven't written any songs after the recording of the album but an educated guess is that the next album will explore psychedelia, proto-black metal and progressive doom much more. We might also do more traditional death metal-stuff like double bass-drumming (something we haven't used at all) and also try even more primitive crust-riffing. It will still be 3-minute songs with traditional "rock"-arrangements though. Everything else sucks. We all adore King Crimson but we know our limits.

9. How has the scene evolved in Sweden over the years with the mixing of crust and d beat with traditional Swedish death metal?
Yeah, well, me, Danne and Calle are all around 40 years old and we have always loved both punk and metal, in the old days you had to keep that a bit hush-hush because there was always people in both scenes that wanted to smash your face in if you didn't chose side. You can laugh at it now, and you should because it's so stupid. Real true punk is great. Real no trends metal is great. If you combine the two styles in a right way, it's fucking powerful! There are some bands who tries that in Sweden now, we're one of them. I think it's great! There are some truly great bands that has the understanding and love of both styles in Sweden now, like Rite, Rust, Modorra, etc.

10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
I think our main influences, as a band, are Master/Deathstrike (mainly arrangements though), Celtic Frost (Morbid Tales-era), Anti-Cimex, early Paradise lost, Sodom, Discharge, Voïvod, Autopsy, the first Obituary-album, GBH and so forth. Yeah, old stuff, I know, but we're not a silly "retro band". Nowadays the individual members listens to everything from old Swedish sailor songs to experimental drone-noise. When we get together we mainly listen to Venom, Mob 47, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other stuff that we all can agree is great.

11.Outside of music what are some of your interests?
Mainly the Liberal Arts, I think. Danne has a Master in Film Science and a Bachelor in Art, I have a Master in Literature (and another one in Library- and Information Science), Påhl is an artist and had a Master in Arts. Calle is the black sheep, who has studied Maths and Computer Science. I guess we mainly talk about art, film, local football, history, architecture, winter sports, Biblical aarchaeology, The Simpsons, etc when we get together. Calle is a serious ornithologist and very interested in biology as well, so there is a lot of talk about environmental issues in our rehearse place. And, like every other band, we love scene gossip, hahaha! We don't believe in everything we hear though.

12. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
Thanks a lot for support! If you wanna contact us or buy our stuff, please check out:
http://usurpress.com/
 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

What Makes A Time Bomb Tic/Dog Snot/Skull Incision/Three Way Split-Trifarious AssaultTorn Flesh Records/2011 Review


  This  is  a  review  of  a  3  way  split way  split  between  What  Makes  A  Time  Bomb  Tic,  Dog  Snot,  and  Skull  Incision  called  Trifarious  Assault"  which  was  released  by  Torn  Flesh  Records  during  the  year  of  2011  and  we  will  start  off  the  review  with  What  Makes  A  Time  Bomb  Tic.

    Drums  range  from  slow, mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  a  great  amount  of  brutal  sounding  blast  beats  being  thrown  into  the  music,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  strong  and  powerful  sound  with riffs  that  dominate  throughout  the  recording.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  noisecore,  grindcore,  deathcore  and  math  metal  together  along  with  some  progressive  riffing  as  well  as  some  heavy  distortion  behind  the  riffing  and  there  are  no  guitar  solos  or  leads  present  on  their  side  of  the  recording.

  Vocals  range  from  high  pitched  noise/grindcore  screams,  deep  deathcore  growls  and  some  spoken  word  parts,  while  the  lyrics  cover  hateful  and  everyday  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful,  heavy  and  professional  sound  to  it  where  you  can  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  recording  from  What  Makes  A  Time  Bomb  Tic  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  band,  you  should  check  out  this  recording. RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The  Edison  Complex"  and  "Southern  Discomfort".  RECOMMENDED .

  Next  up  is Dog  Snot  from  England  which  plays  a  very  heavy  and  brutal  from  of  crust/noise/grind.

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  a  good  amount  of  brutal  sounding  blast b eats  being  thrown  into  the  music,  while  the  bass  playing  has  a  very  dark  tone  with  riffs  that  follow  the  riffing  that  is  coming  out  of  the  guitars.

  Rhythm guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  influences from  noisecore,  grindcore  and  deathcore  along  with  some  death  metal  influences  in  the  riffing  while  the  lead  guitars are  very  chaotic  sounding  grin/crustcore  guitar  solos  and  leads.

  Vocals  range  from  high  pitched  grindcore  screams  to  deep  death  metal  growls  along  with  some  spoken  word  parts,  while  the  lyrics  cover  perverted  and  hateful  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful  and  heavy  sound  to it.

  In  my  opinion  Dog  Snot  are  a  very  great  sounding  crust/grindcore  hybrid  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  style,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Morbid  Suicide  Note"  "Boo  Hoo  Hoo,  You're  Not  Getting  Laid".  RECOMMENDED.

  Next  up  is  Skull  Incision  a  band  that h as  had  plenty  of  stuff  reviewed  here.

  Drums  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  drumming  with  a  great  amount  of  brutal  sounding  blast  beats  being  thrown  into  the  music,  while  the  sound  effects  bring  a  harsh  noise/electronic  music  feeling  to  the  music,  as  for  the  bass  playing  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful  and  heavy  sound  with  riffs  that  dominate  throughout  the  recording.

  Rhythm  guitars  range  from  slow,  mid  paced  to  fast  riffs  that  combine  noise,  grindcore,  deathcore  and  math  metal  together  and  there  are  no  guitar  solos  or  leads  present  on  their  side  of  the  recording.

  Vocals  range  from  high  pitched  grindcore  screams  to  deep  deathcore  growls  as  well  as  some  spoken  word  parts,  while  the  lyrics  cover  humorous  themes,  as  for  the  production  it  has  a  very  strong,  powerful,  heavy  and  professional  sound  where  you  can  hear  all  of  the  musical instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording.

   In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  recording  from  Skull  Incision  which  utilizes  alot  more  power  electronics  and  harsh  noise  elements  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  band,  you  should  check  out  this  recording.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The  Wall"  and  "Tumbln".  RECOMMENDED.

  In  conclusion  this  is  a  great  split  that  I  would  recommend  to  all  fans  of  harsh  noise,  noisecore,  grindcore,  crustcore,  deathcore  and  math  metal.  RECOMMENDED  BUY.