Striver Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?
Seb: In the past 4 months we released a split e.p with Vengeance, being part of the Brink of Doom 4 split e.p boxset, are about to release a split ep with Deboned, just got our album pressed on cd and played the Rrroooaaarrr fest in Montreal (amazing fest check this out)

2.For those that have yet to hear your music how would you describe your musical sound?
Seb: Fast hardcore? Thrashcore? Powerviolence?Crossover?Bits of hardcore, grindcore with sludge influences? Choose your own definition! hahaha

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Cath: Striver has always been an antidote to relief my aggression . Frustration , disgust, hatred, anxiety… Towards human beings, politics, police and struggle of my mind.


4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Striver'?
Cath: Striver , for about 8 years ago, was very different from what we hear today. Being young and inexperienced in writing: my lyrical words was a bit immature and kind of posi-hardcore : I guess that's what inspired us for our name at the time. We didn't change it because we are not really bothering about this… What we do know is that our musical taste changed dramatically since and way more representative of what we like at the actual time.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Cath:
I would say that the shows I enjoyed the most were, personally : Chibougamau (Northern Quebec ) , Ottawa , Fredericton, and Trois- Rivières. I hate being on ... the stage. I always perform at ground level with people. This gives a unique experience because when we are filming, for example, we see Jeff, Seb and Math performing up there, and you can hear me ( or not ) on the background. Let's say I like the opportunity to see them play too! I think there is a synergy between us performing and it shows!
Seb: Playing with friends are always the bests shows, we don’t care how many people are attending our shows, we are only here to have some fun. I can describe our performace as loud, fast, short and sweet.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Not for the moment, we have our day jobs, school, and we all have other bands to take care of...

7.A year ago you had released a split with Vengeance, what are your thoughts on the other band that had participated on the recording?
The split 7’, was released 4 months ago (june 2014)
Seb: We love Vengeance, it’s a perfect match for a split ep, they got that old school vibe that we all share!

8.PRC are re-releasing your 2011 album, can you tell us a little bit more about the contract?
Seb: I know Rémi and Lucie for 10 years now, they released one of my former band (Nourriture),I’ve worked for them on various labels and they helped me started my own label (d7i records). I released Apocalypse Nightmare on lp, made him listen to it, he liked it, make us a great offer but he thought the album was too short, so we added all our 7’’ vinyl releases to add some running time to it! We didn’t have any contract with him, all verbal, we don’t care about all this shit, we trust the guy and that’s it!

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of thrash, crossover and grind?
Seb: We don’t have a huge feedback on worldwide level since we never toured outside Quebec/Ontario/Maritimes, but I do get feedbacks from bands we played with, people I traded records with, they like our sound and drive!

10.When can we expect new material and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Seb: We don’t even now ourselves haaha!! It’s going to be fast...

11.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?
Cath:
It began with bands like Shutdown, Tragedy , Municipal Waste ... I learned a lot of musical genres since. My main influential bands would be Infest , No Comment, Lärm , Dropdead , Kali , Repulsion ... These days I listen to a lot of post- punk ( Siekiera , Spectres , the Belicose Minds ) , to some minimal wave , a lot of 90's hip hop and Leonard Cohen.
Seb: I am really into sludge/doom/stoner rock, 90’s grindcore and old school death metal! Spazz, Grief and DRI are in my playlist for years now!

12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Cath: I study dietetics, and I 've always had an interest in food ... Cinema and retro video games.
Seb: Wrestling, eating, beer and cats

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
I’m just going to name drop all the bands we are in, so check them out!
Khan, Albatros, Fistfuck, Rope, Dissed, Stephen Harper, Crust Benoit, Stoned Horses, Mighty Megalodon.




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Order Of Chaos/Deadweight Undertow/Third Verse Records/2014 CD Review

  Order  Of  Chaos  are  a  band  from  Australia  that  plays  a  mixture  of  death  metal  and  hardcore  punk  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2014  album  "Deadweight  Undertow"  which  was  released  by  Third  Verse  Records.

  A  very  dark,  melodic  and  distorted  sound  starts  off  the  album  before  getting  a  little  bit  heavier  along  with  some  aggressive  vocals  a  few  seconds  later  which  bring  in  elements  as  crustcore  which  sets  up  the  pace  for  death  metal  growls  and  melodies  to  be  added  into  the  bands  musical  style  along  with  some  elements  of  old  school  hardcore.    

  At  times  some  of  the  guitar  riffing  has  a  melodic  death  metal  feeling  to  them  at  times  along  with  a  touch  of  early  90's  style  thrash  and  at  times you  can  hear  a  touch  of  the  mid  90's  metalcore  sound  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  after  awhile  the  music  starts  to  speed  up  a  bit  at  times  and  starts  to  incorporate  a  small  amount  of  blast  beats  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  a  couple  of  the  later  tracks  also  shows  the  band  bringing  in  a  small  amount  of  guitar  solos  and  leads,  towards  the  end  the  band  also  brings  in  a  cover  of  Black  Flag's  "My  War".

  Order  of  Chaos  takes  the  death  metal  elements  of  their  past  releases  and  mixes it  with  90's  hardcore  and  the  raw  energy  of  punk  rock  and  while  this  is  not  I  style  i  listen  to  regularly  I  still  fell  the  band  is  very  good  at  what t hey  do,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  violent  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Order  Of  Chaos  are  a  very  decent  sounding  mixture  of  death  metal,  hardcore  and  punk  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMEND  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "No  Passion  To  The  Grind"  "Hand  Over  Fist"  "Losing  Limbs"  and  "My  War".  7/5  out  of  10.  

Destructive Explosion Of Anal Garland/Tour De Anal/Bizarre Leprous Production/2014 CD Review

  Destructive  Explosion  Of  Anal  Garland  are  a  band  from  the  Czech  republic  that  plays  a  very  brutal  form  of  noise/goregrind  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2014  "Tour  De  Anal"  which  was  released  by  Bizarre  leprous  productions.

  Spoken  word  samples  start  off  the  album  before  going  into  a  brutal  grindcore  direction  along  with  some  blast  beats  and  guttural  growls  which  also  use  some  angry  crust  elements  and  the  band  also  uses  a  good  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  faced  parts  and  the  music  sticks  mostly  to  a  90's  style  of  grindcore.

  On  some  of  the  tracks  you  can  hear  some  elements  of  slam  death  metal  along  with  some  high  pitched  screams    and  the  band  ignores  any  use  of  solos  and  leads  to  focus  more  on  a  very  heavy  and  brutal  sound  and  most  of  the  tracks  are  very  short  in  length  with  the  longest  one  being  a  little  over  2  minutes  and  there  is  never  a  soft  moment  present  anywhere  on  the  recording  while  some  tracks  do  bring  in  a  small  amount  of  melody  and  the  last  rack  is  a  cover  of  Entombed's  "Wolverine  Blues".

  Destructive  Explosion  Of  Anal  Garland  takes  a  very  brutal  and  guttural  style  of  90's  gore/grind  and  adds  in  some  of  the  heaviness  of  noisecore  along  with  a  touch  of  slam  death  metal  to  create  some  very  fast  and  heavy  music,  the  production  sound s very  professional  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  their  native  tongue  and  cover  porn  and  gore  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Destructive  Explosion  Of  Anal  Garland  are  a  very  great  sounding  brutal  goregrind  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Sexualni  Demokracie"  "Tour  De  Anal"  "Uder  Undem"  and  "Wolverine  Blues".  8  out  of  10    
    

Internal Rot/Mental Hygiene/Blastasfuk/2014 CD Review

  Internal  Rot  are  a  band  from  Australia  that  plays  a  very  brutal  and  old  school  mixture  of  crust  and  grind  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2014  album  "Mental  Hygiene"  which  was  released  by  Blastasfuk.

  A  very  heavy  and  slow  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  growls  and  after  a  few  seconds  the  music  starts  going  into  more  of  a  fast  and  brutal  grindcore  direction  along  with  some  growls  and  screams  as  well  as  bringing  in  a  good  amount  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  the  music  is  heavily  rooted  in  the  90's  style.
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  On  the  later  tracks  the  band  starts  adding  more  crust  into  their  grindcore  sound  as  well  as  having  most  of  the  tracks  being  very  short  in  length  with  the  songs  being  an  average  of  a  minute  and  length  in  half  and  you  can  also  hear  a  small  amount  of  death  metal  in  the  bands  musical  sound  when  they  add  in  some  melody.  and all  of  the  songs  stay  away  from  using  solos  and  leads  to  focus  more  on  a  raw,  brutal  and  old  school  style  of  grindcore.

  Internal  Rot  creates  a  very  heavy  and  brutal  style  of  grindcore  with  their  music  focusing  more  on  the  heavy  parts  of  the  genre  as  well  as  returning  this  style  back  to  its  roots,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  violent  and  hateful  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Internal  Rot  are  a  very  great  sounding  old  school  grindcore  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album>  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Blessed  With  Light"  "True  Remorse"  "Teeth  Eating"  and  "Riddled  With  Rage".  8  out  of  10.  

Fucking Invincible Interview

Questions answered by Jim, guitarist of FI.

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
We are a hardcore band from Providence, RI. We've been around for 2 years now.

2.How would you describe your musical sound?
Fast and angry hardcore.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Alexis hates himself and the world around him.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Fucking Invincible '?
It was a nod to The Swarm, one of our favorite bands. In retrospect, we should have taken more than 2 minutes to choose a name.

5.What are some of the best shows the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We played in Providence with Left for Dead and Dropdead and that was pretty cool. As for our stage performance, we just set up our gear, turn it on and blast through our set.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We play shows whenever we can, usually 1-2 a month. Touring is a bit tougher due to our personal lives but we will tour when we can. We have done 3 short tours in the States thus far. Next year we'll have a little extra time to work with.

7.The new album was released on Atomic Action and Reflections, can you tell us a little bit more about these labels?
Atomic Action is run by our friend Brian. He's been going to shows and putting out hardcore records since the 80's. He's been putting out a lot of cool bands lately. He's very supportive of his bands and we're very happy to be working with him on our releases. Reflections is new for us. With shipping costs being so high to Europe we thought it would be smart to press the record over there. Bjorn from Rise & Fall suggested we contact Johan. I sent him our stuff and he seemed very genuinely excited about working with us. These days he's been putting out faster/darker/heavier stuff so I think we fit in nicely on the label.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of grind and crust?
So far, so good. There's been some positive reviews on the records.

9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are involved with?
Alexis is in Daughters. George is in Dropdead and Sweet Jesus. Ryan is in Mean Man's Dream and Soul Control. Brian is in a bunch of studio projects. I play in Sweet Jesus and Soul Control.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
I don't see us deviating from the initial plan. Fast and angry.

11.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?
Our initial influences were Left for Dead/The Swarm, Crudos, Infest, Crossed Out, Hatchetface, Poison Idea, etc. Nowadays we listen to all sorts of stuff. We argue about music constantly. We all generally like the same hardcore and punk bands though.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Fantasy Hockey and the search for the best Whole Foods Market.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We're working with Brian from Atomic Action on a 7" compilation of bands from our area that we like and have been playing with a lot. Wokling, Symptom, World is Shit and Cleansing Wave are going to be on it. It's going to be sick, look out for it next year sometime.

Resonance Cascade/Cricketcemetary/2014 7 Inch Review

  Resonance  Cascade  are  a  band  from  Sweden  that  plays  a  mixture  of  grindcore  and  power  violence  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2014  7  Inch  which  will  be  released  by  CricketCemetary.

  Dark  sound  effects  start  off  the  7  inch  and  after  the  intro  the  music  goes  into  a  very  fast  and  brutal  grindcore  direction  along  with  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  as  well  as  addign  in  some  high  pitched  crustcore  style  screams  and  the  band  also  brings  in  a  good  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.

  Al  of  the  music  on  this  recording  is  very  brutal  and  the  band  avoids  using  any  melody,  solos  or  guitar  leads  and  concentrates  on  creating  more  of  a  very  heavy  and  raw  sound  and  all  of t he  songs  are  in  the  mid  80's  to  90's  style  of  crust  and  grind  as  well  as  all  of  the  songs  being  short  in  length  and  the  longest  one  does  not  even  hit  the  2  minute  mark.

  Resonance  Cascade  creates  some  very  brutal  and  old  school  sounding  power  violence  grind  and  every  second  of  this  recording  sticks  to  a  very  raw  and  aggressive  sound,  the  production  sounds  very  raw  yet  powerful  at  the  same  time  while  the  lyrics  cover  violent  and  hateful  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Resonance  Cascade  are  a  very  great  sounding  raw  and  brutal  mixture  of  power  violence  and  grindcore  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of   those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Three  Color  Fabric"  "Slowly  Encircled"  "Decline"  and  "Another  Corpse  in  The  Street".  8  out  of  10.      

Soil Of Ignorance/Grind Winter/2012 Cassette Review

  Soil  Of  Ignorance  are  a  band  from  Canada  that  plays  a  mixture  of  punk,  grind  and  power  violence  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2012  ep  "Grind  Winter".

  Harsh  noise  style  sounds  start  off  the  ep  along  with  some  spoken  word  samples  before  going  into  a  fast  fast  and  brutal  power  violence  grindcore  direction  along  with  some  crust  style  yells  and  blast  beats  and  after  awhile  growls  are  added  into  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  they  also  keep  the  samples  on  later  songs.

  All  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  recording  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to them  and  they  keep  all  of  the  songs  in  a  fast  and  brutal  direction  while  only  slowing  down  for  a  few  seconds  and  they  ignore  all  use  of  melody,  solos  and  leads  to  create  some  very  heavy  and  brutal  grind  throughout  the  recording  and  they  also  do  a  cover  of  Disharmonic  Orchestra's  "Putried  Stench".

  Soil  of  Ignorance  plays  a  very  brutal  style  of  power  violence  and  grind  that  is  heavily  rooted  in  the  mid  90's  tradition  of  this  genre  and  they  also  stay  away  from  the  weaker  elements  that  modern  bands  of  this  genre  are  known  to  bring  in  their  music,  the  production  sounds  very  heavy  and  brutal  while  the  lyrics  cover  violent,  hateful,  gore  and  grindcore  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Soil  of  Ignorance  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  punk,  grind  and  power  violence  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should c heck  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Devastate"  "Disarmed  Them  Apart"  "Putrid  Stench"  and  "Raw  Power  Grind".  8  out  of  10.