Restos Humanos/Self Titled/Grindfather Records/2017 CD Review

  Restos  Humanos  are  an  international  band  with  members  from  Columbia  and  Italy  that h as  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  plays  a  mixture  of  death  metal,  crust  and  grindcore  and  this  is  a  review  f  their  self  titled  2017  album  which  will  be  released  on  February  12th  by  Grindfather  Records.

 Avant  garde  sounding  keyboards  start  off  the  album  and  after  the  intro  the  music  goes  into a   very  fast  and  brutal  grindcore  direction  that  also  uses  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  while  the  vocals  are  mostly  death  metal  growls  and  the  riffs  also  use  a  small  amount  of  melody  along  with  elements  of  crust.

  Throughout  the  recording  you  can  hear  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  all  of  the  musical  instruments  having  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  when  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  are  done  in  a  very  dark  yet  melodic  fashion  and  horror  movie  samples  are  also  used  at  times  and  they  close  the  recording  with  an  instrumental  track.

  Restos  Humanos  creates  another  recording  that  remains  true  to  the  death  metal,  crust  and  grindcore  mixture  of  previous  releases,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  Italian  and  cover  horror,  death,  murder  and  zombies  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Restos  Humanos and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  death  metal,  crust  and  grindcore,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Aquel  Ojo"  "Histrion  Asesino"  and  "Black  Sunday".  8  out  of  10. 

Black Army Jacket/Closed Casket/Magic Bullet Records/2017 Compilation Album Review

  This  is  a review  of  a  compilation  album  from  New  York's  Black  Army  Jacket  which  consists  of  cassettes,  split's  and  7  inches  that  where  released  in  the  90's  while  also  being  in  a  power  vilence  and  grindcore  style  and  the  compilation  is  called  "Closed  Casket"  and  will  be  released  on  February  22nd  by Magic  Bullet  Records.

  A  heavy  guitar  sound  and  hardcore  style  vocals  start  off  the  compilation  before  adding  in  more  growls  and  crust  influences  and  elements  of  grindcore  can  be  heard  in  the  faster  sections  of  the  songs  along  with  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  and  high  pitched  screams  while  the  mid  tempo  sections  are  heavily  influenced  by  power  violence.

  All  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  compilation  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  along  with  the  songs  bringing  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  some  of  the  riffing  brings  in a  decent  amount  of  melody  while  a great  portion  of  the  tracks  are  very  short  in  length  and  as  the  compilation  progresses  spoken  word  samples  are  added  onto  the  album  and  there  is  also  a  brief  use  of  guitar  leads  and  all  of  the  tracks  stick  to  a  very  heavy  musical  direction.

  Black  Army  played  a  style  that  was  always  a  mixture  of  grindcore  and  power  violence  on  all  of  the  recordings  presented  on t he  compilation,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  violent  and  angry  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  a  very  great  sounding  collection  from  Black  Army  Jacket  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  grindcore  and  power  violence,  you  should  check  out  this  compilation.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Pathogen"  "The  Power  And  The  Plan"  "Slaves  Of  Destruction"  and  "Fire  in  The  Universe".  8  out  of  10. 

Black Army Jacket/222/Magic Bullet Records/2017 CD Re-Issue Review

  Black  Army  Jacket  where  a  band  from  New  York  that  played  a  mixture  of  power  violence  and  grindcore  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  1999  album  "222"  which  will  be  re-issued  on  February  22nd  by  Magic  Bullet  Records.

  A  very  fast  and  heavy  crust  punk  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  aggressive  screams  and  d  beats  before  adding  in  growling  vocals  and  grindcore  screams  and  the  faster  sections  of  the  songs  also  use  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  while t he  mid  tempo  sections  are  very  heavily  influenced  by  hardcore.

  A  great  portion of  the  tracks  are  very  short  in  length  while  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  a  great  amount  of  power  violence  elements  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  a  small  amount  of  melody  can  also  be  heard  in  the  guitar  riffing  and  some  songs  also  bring  in  spoken  word  samples  and  traditional  punk  style  vocals  and  one  of  the  tracks  is  very  long  and  epic  in  length  and  all  of  the  songs  stick  to  a  heavy  musical  direction  without  ever  using  any  guitar  solos  or  leads.

  Black  Army  Jacket  played  a musical  style  that  took  an  aggressive  form  of  grindcore  and  mixed  it  with  crust  and  power  violence  to  create  a  very  heavy  recording,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  violent  and  angry  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Black  Army  Jacket  where  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  grindcore  and  power  violence  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Lightswitch"  "Of  Competing  Importance"  "I  Object"  and  "olive  branch".  8  out  of  10.  

    

The Brood Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Hi, I’m Senen and together with Nando we make those chainsaw noises with our guitars, Donnie’s is the rumbling bass machine, Thibaut screams, shouts and grunts and Aitor bashes the crap out of the drumkit.

We formed around early 2014 in London and are mixed bag of nationalities from England, Spain and France. A few months after getting together we released a demo, a couple of singles via bandcamp and some video clips on youtube, all DIY.


2.How would you describe your musical sound?

We wanted to make a real heavy and extreme sound, but not to the point where is just is just a succession of blast beats or a chain of dissonant riffs glued together. Our main drive is to write songs that will make people want to jump in the pit and mosh.

Style wise, we started with a mix that was mostly harcore-grind with a touch of blackened death metal and some crust punk. Nowadays we are shifting towards an even more aggressive sound that’s more focused on grindcore, but we like to experiment and we always add something extra to the songs.



3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?



Our lyrics are a mixture of political topics, mixed with the occasional nonsensical horror movie stuff. It ranges from denouncing the exploitation of the working class (“Reign of the Leeches”) and shitty TV culture (“Lobotomized”) to slasher movies (“Barbie Voorhees”) and the invasion of the planet by HP Lovecraft’s Great Ancients (“Descending into madness”).


4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'The Brood'?

When we initially formed the band we weren’t too serious about it. We just wanted to do a sort of a tribute to the movies we used to love when we were teenagers, in particular horror movies. David Cronenberg’s The Brood is one of those films and we also liked the sound of it. Later on, we got more committed as a band, which caused it to become more serious and politically involved, but we kept the name as we loved it. In a way it can also describe a kind of feeling we have, which is like, we (young lads at heart) actually are the brood of the anti establishment, the ones who can change it.


5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

So far the best show was in Tenerife. It was the first time we played there and the crowd were crazy as fuck. We finished the show with over 20 people moshing on the stage with us. Another killer show was in Nottingham, they really know how to have fun over there. Everyone were crowd surfing, moshing, slamming, circle pits, you name it. At one point they managed to do a human pyramid!

I think our gigs are full of energy and we really try to engage with the audience. We don’t care if there are 1,000 or 10 people seeing us, we always try to give our best and have fun.


6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

Our next show will be on the 25th of Feb at the Black heart in London to help promote the release of our album. Besides other UK shows, we are also working to finalize a mini tour in european countries like Germany, Spain, Czech Republic and possibly others.


7.Currently the band is signed to 'Give Praise Records', are you happy with the support that they have given you so far?

It is great to be on a label that has such a quality roster and we are honoured to be part of it. It has delayed the release of the album, which was a bit unfortunate, but now they are being really helpful and are doing a great job with regards of exposure. We’re really looking forward to see this beast out!


8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal, grindcore, and punk?

Besides here in the UK, we have a quite a fan base in Russia, Ukraine and Moldavia, which is actually curious because we didn't focus on those countries specially, but it seems they like us. And we like them. We also have followers in Malaysia and Singapore, which again wasn’t expected. Lately the US thanks to Give Praise Records efforts is starting to pick up too.


9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

Probably going more into grindcore and punk hardcore than death metal. The new songs we wrote for a split we will release with Kittengrinda from NZ are a lot more Grind.


10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

We all are very different. I listen mostly to death metal, hardcore and some grind. Nando is into stoner rock and classic swedish death metal, Thibaut is a grindcore dude, almost only grindcore bands, Donnie listens to bands like Thy Art Is Murder or Despised Icon, Aitor is into prog, Meshuggah, Monuments etc but also into Grindcore and Hardcore, Napalm Death, Strife and similar.


11.What are some of your non musical interests?

I’m obsessed with martial arts and combat sports. Whenever I have some spare time I’ll go to the gym and train Muay Thai or MMA. Thibaut does nerdy research in infectious disease epidemiology, and also trains Muay Thai. Aitor is a tattoo artist and is into horror films. He is the one that has done the artwork for the band. Nando works for a screen printing company and he’s preparing some designs that we’ll used our upcoming merch. Finally, Donnie is an avid video gamer, Warhammer board games and biscuits.


12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Nazi Trump Fuck Off!

Pray U Prey Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
1)  Yes, Pray U Prey started when Simon G from the band Suicide Watch. And Me (Shrew, Prophecy Of Doom/Alehammer) Had a jam over some beers, i really liked his riffs and i wanted to write new lyrics again for songs, so we got Shrub (Prophecy Of Doom/Alehammer) on bass. And Colin (Suicide Watch) on drums.

2.So far you have released an ep and a full length, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both of the recordings?
2)I think there's a good mix of blast beats, grindy stuff and hard core punk riffs too, We have remixed the EP tracks, and put them on the end of the Figure the 8 cd. It's got a good production as we recorded at the excellent studio 6 near Swindon, U/K.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
3)I write the lyrics, and for me it's carrying on from ideas i've had with Prophecy Of Doom, How our ego minds are destroyed through mental forced unwanted conditioning by those in power/money.How we confuse our own feelings for emotions, which are also used against us, by the same people, ie-sales techniques/fear of anything. How religions have stolen the way out of our insanity, through teaching more mind based dead ends. in short, we all have an awareness which is heart based, and works via self intuition, through a balanced logic/feeling certainty. my lyrics try and cover view points from this angle.

4.What is the meaning and  inspiration behind the name 'Pray U Prey'?
4)Pray U Prey to me sums up the mindset of most asleep people, while we collectively destroy our selves and the world.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
5)We have not done many live gigs so far, but the one that stands out for me was playing at the Common Ground Festival last Summer, great people and cause.We play tight and fast!

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
6) Yes we hope to play gigs this year, some good festivals would be nice.

7.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal, grindcore, and crust?
7)We are just starting to get feed back from our first LP, We are very happy with it, and hope people will question things more if they find the lyrics interesting.

8.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
8)Si and Colin hope to record a new thrash metal LP with their other band Suicide Watch, while Shrub and me are getting ready to meet Karl (ex-Impulse Manslaughter) and Scoot (Doom) for some Alehammer fun later in the year!

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
9)More of the same i think, but from a slightly different angle of the same subjects (if that makes sense!) We hope to record an 7" EP later in the year, then another LP in 2018.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
10)Si and Colin love most hard metal/punk bands. Shrub loves Killing Joke and Slayer, i love most crusty metal and Japanese noise bands.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?
11)Pubs! Gigs,meeting new people. being in my garden!!

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
12)Sometimes to go forward, you have to go back. From circle to spiral, figure the 8.
Thanks for your time.

Cyclocosmia/Immured/2017 EP Review

  Cyclocosmia  are  a  band  from  the  United  Kingdom  that  plays  a  symphonic  and  progressive  mixture  of  doom  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2017  ep  "Immured".

  Atmospheric  synths  start  off  the  ep  along  with  some  drum  beats  a  few  seconds  later  and  after  awhile  the  music  goes  into  more  of  a  heavier  and  symphonic  direction  and  the  song  is  divided  into  4  parts  and  over  17  minutes  in  length  and  operatic  female  vocals  are  also  a  very  huge  part  of  the  recording.

  Acoustic  guitars  can  also  be  heard  at  times  along  with  the  heavier  sections  adding  in  death  metal  growls  and  screams  and  when  guitar  leads a re  utilized  they  are  done  in  a  very  melodic  fashion  and  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  and  the  song  also  sticks  to  a  very  slow  musical  direction.

  Cyclocosmia  plays  a  style  of  gothic/doom  metal  that  is  very  symphonic  and  progressive  while  mixing  in  the  heaviness  of  death  metal  to  create  a  sound  of t heir  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  are  a  concept  album  based  upon  a  Roman  vestal  virgin  condemned  to  a  live  burial  for  breaking  her  vows  of  chastity.

  In  my  opinion  Cyclocosmia  are  a  very  great  sounding  symphonic  and  progressive  mixture  of  doom  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  8  out  of  10.    

 

Pray U Prey/Figure The 8/Selfmadegod Records/2017 CD Review

  Pray  U  Prey  are  a  band  from  the  United  Kingdom  that plays  a  mixture  of  death  metal,  grindcore,  and  crust and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2017  album  "Figure  The  8"  which  was  released  by  Selfmadegod  Records.

  A  very  heavy  and  aggressive  grindcore  sound  starts  off  the  album  and  when  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  can  be  heard  along  with  a  great  amount  of  high  pitched  screams  and  the  riffs  also  bring  in  a  decent  amount  of  melody  and  there  is  also  a  lot  of  old  school  death  metal  elements  on  the  recording.

  Throughout  the  recording  you  can  hear  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  movie  samples  can  also  be  heard  at  times  and  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  and  the  songs  also  mix  in  a  great  amount  of  crust  influences  and  one  track  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  ambient  style  synths  before  returning  back  to  a  heavier  direction  while  none  of  the  songs  ever  use  any  guitar  solos  or  leads.

  Pray  U  Prey  plays  a  musical  style  that  takes  death  metal, grindcore  and  crust  and  mixes  them  together  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  real  life  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Pray  U  Prey  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  death  metal,  grindcore,  and  crust  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Figure  The 8"  "Psychodrame  Peepshow"  "Suffering  Rules  The  World"  and  "Halo  Of  Lies".  8  out  of  10.