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.

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. 

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.     

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/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/Usurpress

 

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.

  

PlasticBag FaceMask/What Makes A Time Bomb Tic/Skull Incision Interview

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the projects for those that have never heard of you before?
Patrick: We started PlasticBag FaceMask to get something heavier from the generic band we were in together. We wanted to be completely original and become anything we wanted, never doubting or questioning each other and just going with the flow. After a couple of PlasticBag FaceMask releases I recorded a What Makes a Time Bomb Tic album, but after that realized the sound of it was not really what I wanted, so I went for an uglier and sloppier sound. Not knowing how to play guitar helped.

Jacob: PlasticBag started as a fun little escape, like Patrick said, from the monotonous band we were taking so seriously. Then that band quit so Plastic took over and became way cooler than we thought it would be. Skull Incision started in 2007, a year after generic-band started, and a year before PBFM. That was my experiment to produce songs on my own and sound like bands I was listening to on Myspace like Flesh Intoxication and wecamewithbrokenteeth. I mostly used it as recording and guitar practice, recording covers and silly little metal and grind songs. In 2010 I started making actual releases and taking it seriously.

2. How would you describe the musical sound of all of the musical projects and how they differ from each other?
Patrick: PlasticBag FaceMask is more experimental. Every album sounds different and reflects what we were into at the time. Peanut-Butter Radio reflects us being new and just busting out songs and having fun. After that, our release /b/ears!!1!11 showed more maturity as we were trying to get more serious and express our talents. Ironically, at the time we were really into poppy music so we dabbled in some singing and choruses. With our third album we wanted to write one long song and split it into separate tracks, which became one of our favorite releases to date. With that album we also wrote our first album of completely serious lyrics, which was more of a challenge but we still enjoy them. With our most recent release, we had actually disbanded and had some left over songs we never finished, so we got together to finish them and properly dubbed it Zombie since they were dead songs come back to life.What Makes a Time Bomb Tic's first release was very rushed and confused. Without really knowing what sound was wanted, it became a clusterfuck of genres that did not mesh well. After that, the project became very muddy and ugly, going after the not caring aspect while still trying to write quality and catchy songs. The second and third releases both reflected the proper sound of the band.

Jacob: PBFM's songs are very spastic and rarely repetitive unless we make them so on purpose, due to our writing process, which is also called IMPROVISING. We sometimes talk about what we want a certain album to sound like, heavier, faster, more melodic, whatever, but that never ends up happening when we actually get to writing. All our plans usually fall short and the results are accidents that are so much better than the original plan. The two of us bring the best out of each other so these songs are the fastest, hardest, most intricate and unique music we can play. PBFM I think has maintained it's own weird sound that combines dissonance and melody into one being.

Skull Incision's genres used to jump around all over the place, usually playing metalcore and stuff but weird variations of it. But for the past year I think I have found my home in Grindcore and its subgenres (however, it is probably in weird variations again). To avoid getting shit from butthurt internet people that will swear on their families that I am NOT GRINDCORE I always say I play metal influenced by grindcore and deathcore. I am not trying to claim grind, its just more music I love and what I identify with the most.

For a long time I have been calling What Makes a Time Bomb Tic dissonant progressive metalcore, because I think that is awesomely accurate. But his recent music, especially To the Ark, is so dark, gritty, and raw. I've seen people call it deathgrind, I think, and other really crazy names because really, what do you call it? Doomgrind? That sounds awesome. But seriously, WMATBT is such a fresh young creature that its hard to tell what beast it will grow into. We will see when it gets as old as Skull Incision.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you explore with the different bands?
Patrick: PlasticBag FaceMask's lyrics sometimes explore humor and sometimes explore very serious topics, such as love, hate, war, peace, life, and death. Sometimes they are very specific and obvious and other times they are vague and abstract to be left to interpretation.What Makes a Time Bomb Tic's lyrics vary. Aluminum Lakes featured some random lyrics, and some lyrics about a break up. It was a way to get over it and vent some of the rage. To The Ark is actually a concept album about the horror phenomenon Slenderman. The section of Trifarious Assault's vocals were actually mostly improvised. While there are lyrics, there is no record of what they are.

Jacob: Usually random. However, every Skull Incision release since Profits of Destruction has been very hateful. I'm angry at bigotry, war, destruction of the planet, dependance on things that make us less human and more robotic. Every songs has been about some important topic. I do like writing about scum who think they have it all until they realize they are trapped, about to fall, or taken down by force by the oppressed. Oh crap, and I love writing about unraveling sanity.

4. What are the meanings and inspirations behind the names out off all 3 of the bands?
Patrick: What Makes a Time Bomb Tic just sort of clicked one day. Being a big fan of puns, the name just made sense, and with the music being so ugly and making some people feels so tense, the name seemed to fit. PlasticBag FaceMask is a secret. Whenever people ask us we usually make up a story or just shrug.

Jacob: I found Skull Incision by reading through one of my mom's medical terminology books. I just wanted something blunt and violent like those cybergore bands I was inspired by.

5. I know that there has been live performances from PlasticBag FaceMask, what are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?
Patrick: The best PlasticBag FaceMask show was probably one of the times we opened for Dance, Gavin, Dance. She show was sold out and the whole room seemed to really love us. We actually sold a lot of shirts, had a lot of movement, and unfortunately caused a few physical altercations in the crowd.

6. Can you tell us more about the label Plastic Skull Music and Recordings?
Jacob: I don't think it's really a label. I'd love to start one but it's pretty beyond me how those businesses work. My passion is recording so I had to give it a name. The Plastic Skull Bandcamp is all the music that I have recorded, for myself or others, and the store is all the stuff that those bands have to sell that I have made or they want to let me sell. So for now it is just those two websites but hopefully there will be a studio called Plastic Skull music and Recording soon.

7. On a worldwide level how have the 3 different projects been received by fans of underground music?
Patrick: PlasticBag FaceMask was actually pretty popular worldwide back in the days of MySpace, but since FaceBook and our less public manner we have died down from popularity. We had a lot of shit talkers and they were the best. We would also be walking down the street and hear, "PlasticBag FaceMask! lolbreakdown!" That song was the best and worst thing we have ever done to ourselves. What Makes a Time Bomb Tic has had albums downloaded over a thousand times, but with really no feedback to show the response from potential fans.

Jacob: I have learned a lot about how rough it is in the music world through these projects. We dug ourselves in a hole by playing the "fuck you" kind of metal that we do, having a nonprofessional professionalism, and barely playing shows to get our name out. Millions of bands are asking you to download their album on iTunes through the internet and we are just three more that play loud, abrasive metal that either goes too far against the grain or just isn't very good even in its own genre. But overcoming that, finding the right crowds, and communicated with cool blogs and whatnot like this is a learning experience. Anyway, as far as the question goes, PBFM has riled up quite a few people, especially in the Myspace days and at a few shows. That was our goal though. It was funny when people talked shit. Now our solo projects' audiences are pretty quiet except for our musician friends and split partners (Dog Snot, James Doesn't Exist, Noah Sias HOLLA).

8. Besides the 3 bands are there any other projects in the work?
Patrick: Right now, we actually have a project coming up featuring the two of us with the vocalist from a friend band called Forever Rising. Our goal is to be as heavy and brutal as possible. While being abstract is a wonderful freedom, this may cause some much needed discipline we have not had in a while. Other than that, I am just trying to book shows and record as many albums as possible. Maybe I will try to break the world record for most albums recorded in a day. It can not be very many, right?

Jacob: I hope to record more people. Every local band in need. And there are talks of jams and possible new projects but we are all full time workers now so it is difficult to find time. If you follow any of the three of these projects you will in no doubt hear about anything new that we do.

9. What direction do you see the 3 bands heading into on future releases?
Patrick: We just go wherever our musical minds take us. There will be a To the Ark II coming out soon with the same lyrical subject of Slenderman along with a release called Art, Officially that is hoped shows massive growth from the previous release for What Makes a Time Bomb Tic.PlasticBag FaceMask is going to finish the last album that was never finished, The Family Portrait, which is a concept album about the mafia and then we will take it from there and hopefully impress ourselves. I would really love to do splits every other album like Jacob does. It seems like an awesome way to make new fans and band friends.

Jacob: I'm working on another split with a dude called Deformed Elephant Surgery who makes badass synthcore, nintendocore, deathstep craziness. I'm changing my writing process up a bit so we will see how this turns out. I'm also churning ideas for a full length that I am hoping will sound completely new to SI, more atmospheric and epic. And I need to write something that people like my parents and my girlfriend will have an easier time appreciating.

10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Patrick: The band See You Next Tuesday, may they rest in peace, actually inspired us a lot to start PlasticBag FaceMask. We also derive influence from bands like Pacifist, Psyopus, and The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza. We listen to a lot of different and separate styles and tend to meet in the middle which brings this bizarre mesh of genres that we call our own. We tend to influence each other most of all. I seriously listen to a lot of stuff and Jacob hates over half of it, which is awesome. I highly doubt What Makes a Time Bomb Tic would exist without Skull Incision because without that I would never have even tried to venture into a solo project. Besides, how would I have recorded it?

Jacob: Skull Incision owes a lot to Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, Rise of Caligula, The Banner, and Converge. I take inspiration from so many bands because the only thing I love more than making and recording music is listening and learning from other songs and styles. Currently I keep digging, finding, and buying the gnarliest grind CDs I can. Everything I can get. The more DIY the better. But I have several other CDs on repeat: Aegaeon - Dissension, Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony, Vildhjarta - Masstaden, Zelliack - Noir Tone, and Tesseract - One. Other stuff I listen to all the time is Black Dahlia Murder, the Chariot, Daughters, Blood Brothers, American Me, Oceana, Fear Before...

11. Outside of music what are some of your interests?
Patrick: Our interests do lay mainly within music, where Jacob records and produces while I books concerts, but we do have some interests outside of that. I have a lot of interest in Body Modification and actually started a highly successful petition to add it to Equal Opportunity Employment. I sometimes will study actors and get really obsessed with them and watch all their movies. I also loves to read and write.

Jacob: Um. I like movies. I try to find movies equal to my taste in music. Besides my own musical stuff I pretty much work at my job and as being the world's best fan by buying merch and supporting bands like crazy. I'm a dork. And I hang out with my girlfriend a lot.

12. Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
Patrick: Honestly, we just make music for ourselves and get so stoked when other people like it. We firmly believe in free music, so all of our stuff is free on our bandcamp. We love doing splits with people, so if any bands are interested in doing one with us we would love to do one one with you. We even did a three-way split with our friend Dog Snot and are planning one in the future with our friend and other solo band James Doesn't Exist. Everyone make sure to support your local music. Every big band started locally. Remember that.

Jacob: This was a fun interview, thank you very much. Support your local artists, DIY OR DIE, if someone is giving you their music for free, give it a listen, and then tell them what you think.

PlasticBag FaceMask/The Family Portrait [Instrumental] Pre Production/Plastic Skull Music/2011 CD Review

  This  is  another  review  of  an  album  from  PlasticBag  FaceMask  called  "The  Family  Portrait [Instrumental Pre-Production]"  which  is  an  instrumental  album  from t he  band  which  was  released  in  2011  by  Plastic  Skull  Music.

  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  influences  from  noisecore,  grindcore,  deathcore,  hardcore,  progressive,  experimental  and  math  metal  along  with  a  brief  use  of  soft  and  clean  playing  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own  and  there  are  no  guitar  solos  or  leads  present  on  this  recording.

  Vocals  and  song  writing  are  absent  from  the  recording  with  the  music  being  all  instrumental,  while  the  song  themes  cover  hateful  and  every  day  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  PlasticBag  FaceMask  and  while  it  is  not  as  brutal  as  some  of  their  other  material  it  is  a  good  recording  ans  if  you  are  a  fan  of  instrumental  music,  you  should c heck  it  out.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The  Officer"  "The  Distrust"  "The  Plan"  and  "The  Fall".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.