Spazz/Sweatin' 3: Skatin', Satan & Katon/Tankcrimes 2016 CD Re-Issue Review

  This  is  a  review  of  another  compilation  from  Spazz  continuing  the  hardcore  punk,  grind,  and  power  violence  sound  that  they  are  known  for  with  the  album  originally  being  released  in  2001  and  called  "Sweatin' 3: Skatin', Satan & Katon" which  will  be  re-issued  in  March  by  Tankcrimes.

  Hip  hop  samples  start  off  the  compilation  and  a  few  seconds  later  the  music  goes  into  more  of  a  fast  crust  and  hardcore  crust  direction  along  with  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  and  shouting  style  vocals  and  after  awhile  the  songs  start  bringing  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and fast  parts.

  All  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  after  awhile  the  music  starts  incorporating  death  metal  growls  and  the  brutality  of  both  grindcore  and  power  violence  while  some  of  the  riffs  also  bring  in  a  small  amount  of  melody  and  most  of  the  songs  are  very  short  in  length.

  Spoken  word  and  movie  samples  can  be  heard  in  some  of  the  songs  and  they  also  bring  in  covers  from  Dead  Kennedys,  7  Seconds,  Straight  Ahead,  Youth  Of  Today,  Sick  Of  It  All,  Electro  Hippies  Napalm  Death,  Sore  Throat,  Crab  Society  North,  and  Larm,  halfway  through  the  compilation  they  also  bring  in  an  instrumental  track  and  some  of  the  songs  are  also  recorded  live.

  Spazz  brings  out  the  more  raw  side  of the  power  violence  and  grindcore  mixture  on  this  compilation  and  have  more  of  an  angry  style  on  the  songs  that  are  present  on  the  recording,  the  production  sounds  very  raw  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  humorous  and  and  angry  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  compilation  from  Spazz  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  band,  you  should  enjoy  this  re-issue.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Old  Youth"  "Socal  Battle  Royal"  "Bastard  Tomb  Ride"  and  "Dan  Lifting  Banner".  8  out  of  10. 

Spazz.Sweatin' To The Oldies/Tankcrimes 2016 CD Re-Issue Review

  Spazz  where  a  band  from  the  Bay  Area  of  California  that  played  a  mixture  of  punk,  grind  and  power  violence  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  1997  compilation  album  "Sweatin' To  The  Oldies"  which  will  be  re-issued  in  March  by  Tankcrimes.

  Movie  samples  start  off  the  compilation  and  they  also  return  on  a  lot  of  the  later  tracks  as  well  along  with  some  history  of  the  band  and  after  awhile  an  aggressive  crust/grind  sound  kicks  in  along  with  some  growls  and  hardcore/crust  style  shouts  and  when  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  can  be  heard.

  You  can  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on the  compilation  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  most  of  the  tracks  being  very  short  in  length  and  there  are  also  some  songs  that  bring  in  melodic  riffing  along  with  some  elements  of  old  school  punk  rock.

  Elements  of  both  thrash  and  crossover  can  be  heard  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  compilation  and  they  also  bring  in  S.O.A  and  Negative  Approach  covers  and  they  also  add  in  bluegrass  on  a  couple  of  the  tracks  briefly  but  in  more  of  a  humorous  and  there  is  also  a  few  seconds of  melodic  singing  and  clean  guitar  while  some  songs  also  bring  in  harsh  noise  sounds  and  there  are  also  a  great  amount  of  live  tracks  later  on  during  the  compilation.

  Spazz  shows  on  this  compilation  which  also  contains  plenty  of  their  splits,  compilations  and  ep's why  there  where  a  very  influential  band  in  the  crust,  grind  and  power  violence  genres  and  the  music  still  sounds  very brutal  to  this  day,  the  production  sounds  very  powerful  while  the  lyrics  cover  humorous,  and  angry  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  a  very  great  sounding  retrospective  of  Spazz's  material  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  band,  you  should  enjoy  this  compilation.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "One  Ghetto  To  The  Next"  "Problems  In  the  Homeland"  "Grome  Servant"  and  "Force  Fed".  8  out  of  10.

Obduktio/Self Titled/Caligari Records/2016 EP Review

 

  Obduktio  are  a  band  from  Finland  that  plays  an  old  school  mixture  of  death  metal,  crust  and  grindcore and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  titled  2016  album  which  was  released  on  cassette  by  Caligari  Records.

  Movie  samples  start  off  the  album  before  going  into  a  very  fast  and r aw  old  school  grindcore  sound  that  also  utilizes  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  as  well  as  some very  powerful  sounding  bass  guitars  and  after  growling  vocals  and  d  beats  make  their  presence  known  on  the  recording  and the  music  is  rooted  in  the  mid  80's.

  With  the  exception  of one  song  most  of  the  tracks  are  very  short  in  length  and  elements  of  thrash  can  be  heard  at  times  along  with  the  songs  bringing  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  the  vocals  also  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  screams  while  there  is  also  a  brief  use  of  guitar  leads  and  the  music  remains  true  to  a  very  heavy  and  aggressive  sound  from  beginning  to  ending  of  the  recording.

 Obduktio  plays  a  musical  style  that  goes  back  to  the  mid  80's  styles  of  grindcore,  crust  and  death  metal  and  ignore  all  modern  trends  of  the  past  25  years  while  also  being  very  heavy  at  the  same  time,  the  production  sounds  very  raw  and  old  school  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  Finnish  and  cover  violent  and  angry  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Obduktio  are  a  very  great  sounding  old  school  mixture  of  crust,  death  metal  and  grindcore  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Mafia"  "Fantasia"  "Timecon"  and  "Eliitkumppani".  8  out  of  10.   

Teething Interview

Answers by Luis (vocals)

1.Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?


At the moment, we are writing our first full-length LP. We’ve always been a band that concentrates on EP’s and splits but perhaps it’s time to step shit up. Should be a whopping 11 minutes long!


2.Recently you have released a split with Feastem, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?


The sound has always been fast music for slow people. Anyone who is pissed, slightly retarded and can blast will most likely be able to write our songs. This isn’t rocket science.


I wish I could write something like Aerosmith’s Dream On but I’ll stick to grind until that day comes.


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


A deep disgust, hate, and animosity towards my stupid first world problems.


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


Nothing. Butthole Surfers was taken.


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


I love playing in unusual places like living rooms, kitchens, skate parks, warehouses, and so on. That element of surprise always gets me pumped. Obviously, playing to packed places with people diving off shit is always the best. The bigger the place and the taller the stage the more uncomfortable I feel. This kind of music doesn’t feel right in that setting.


As for our stage performance, that’s for the audience to say, I suppose.


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


We have quite a few weekend warrior gigs all over Spain and Portugal. We’ll also be playing the spanish leg of dates with Magrudergrind and Primitive Man on their european tour. We have another european tour in the works but I don’t want to confirm anything yet. DIY booking can fall apart in a second.


7.Recently you were a part of a split with 'Feastem', what are your thoughts on the other band that had participated on the recording?


We saw those guys play in our hometown while touring with Kill The Client. Later on, they came out to some of our shows in Finland while on tour. Eventually, we made love in and around the beautiful Tampere snow. The rest is history. We finally got to play together in Obscene Extreme Festival last summer too. This was bound to happen. Unquestionably a great band.


8.Can you tell us a little bit more about the many different record labels you have worked with over the years?


We have worked with multiple small independent labels from different parts of europe. In most cases, everything has gone smoothly because these people are grind geeks like us. We understand each other and have the same goals: release a charming product, both musically and visually, at a reasonable price.


9.On a worldwide level, how has the feedback been to your music by fans of hardcore and grind?


Not sure people are too familiar with us outside of europe but over here we’ve been getting good feedback. We’ve been able to tour europe several times which is a good sign. Grindcore is law dude.


10.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?


I really hope we record an album this summer but for some reason we keep  delaying it. If we get our shit together, that’s the plan.


Next album is going to be a mix of early Sugar Ray with non-MTV Sublime.


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


I always say we are hardcore dudes playing grindcore. I think that sums if up pretty well. I can’t speak for the rest of the guys but real bands like Shitstorm or The Rival Mob really speak to me as a vocalist. There’s a lot of sincerity there.


As of late, my nocturnal record player has been spinning a lot Scorn, Dinosaur Jr and Jesus and The Mary Chain. Can you believe I just discovered some of these records? It’s comforting knowing there’s a world of music waiting to give me goosebumps.


12.What are some of your non musical interests?


I love my dog Bingo. He’s half boxer, half pitbull or hound, not sure. That and everything horror. My horror dvd/vhs collection is amazeballs, I am beyond awesome.


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


People that don’t enjoy the more extreme side of music like hardcore and punk are missing out. It’s great that you like pop, rap, or whatever. I do too. But the adrenaline rush and genuine people you meet in this scene cannot be found anywhere else but here. Mark my words, peace out homie.

CxOxSx Interview

CxOxSx – 21.01.16
1.Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?
Hi mates ! 2 months ago we’ve splitted on a 12” with  C.O.C. a record titled “Eat my tail!”. Fast grind played by 2 bands of friends. Now we’re looking for gigs around Italy and Europe. We want to spread our songs everywhere !!!

2.How would you describe the musical sound of the current music and also how does it differ from the stuff you have release in the past?
We always have played fast-core … ehm … Ultra-Fast-Core. We love play fast, we love grindcore and hardcore, then we always mix them and we make the songs you can listen to in our 12” or in our past Cds.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explores over the years?
We talk about our lives, about our everyday experiences. But we don’t want to be the classical angry grind band, we’d like to be an “happy-grind-band” , ah, ah, ah ! We want to see the world like our album covers: we want to report bad things (speculation on humanity, pollution, misery, unnecessary wars, ecc.), but with a touch of irony and a bit of “cartoon-view-of-life” !

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'CxOxSx'?
Oh … the meaning … I think it got lost in the memory of time. Everybody can choose the meaning of C, of O and S ... but the triple X remains the same .

5.The band has been together for 20 years, what is it that motivates you to still keep going after 2 decades?
Because first of all we’re friends and we still want to have fun together. Simple and honest. This is our only commandment.

 6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We played many gigs over Italy and some in many european countries. In Italy and in every foreign state we met beautiful maniacs and we loved it. Obscene Extreme in Trutnov on 2005 was a great stage, for sure.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We’re looking for dates or places to make a gig … a very fast gig! have you heard someone who wants to organize one?

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of thrashcore and grind?
Luckly our last 2 albums has been sold in many countries all over the worlds. But we sell few copies. We’re a small band and our true fans love us. But we are mostly  followed  by friends … who loves grind, powerviolence, fastcore, etc.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We’d like to be like now forever and ever , and we work hard to do this. Ah, ah, ah ! We are sure about one thing: we want to be happy and we like fast core !

 10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
We love grindcore , thrashcore, powerviolence and every song sounds violent and fast. We listen to Brutal  Truth, Ratos de Porao, D.R.I., Municipal Waste, Vitamin X, Hellnation, Flesh Parade, Massgrav and many many many more.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?
Three of us are married and have family, and you know, the family sucks all of our spare time every day. But we love chill out, going out with friends and drink beer. Two of us have dogs, they are part of the family.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Sure ! Thanks for this interview and the interest in our new album … play fast, live fast and laugh every day !

Teething/Feastem/EveryDayHate/2016 Split 7 Inch Review

  This  is  a  review  of  a  split  ep  between  Spain's  Teething  and  Finland's  Feastem  which  was  released  by  EveryDayHate  and  we  will  start  off  the  review  with  teething  a  band  that  plays  a  mixture  of  hardcore  punk  and  grind.

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  out  with  distorted  reverb's  before  going  into  a  fast  direction  that  uses  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  as  well  as  some  angry  crust/hardcore  style  vocals  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  all  of  their  songs  are  very  short  in  length  with  the  longest  one  still  being  under  2  minutes  while  you  can  still  hear  the  brutality  of  grindcore  along  with  soem  growls  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  sounding very  powerful,  the  production  sound s very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  hateful  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Teething  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  hardcore  punk  and  grind and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Shittiest  Generation".

  Next  up  is  Feastem  a  band  that  plays  a  mixture  of  grindcore,  crust  and  death  metal.

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  out  with  a  very  fast,  raw  and  brutal  grindcore sound  that  also  uses  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  as  well  as  some  angry  style  shouts  and  growls  a  few  seconds  later  all  of  their  songs  are  short  in  length  with  the  longest  one  being  over  2  minutes  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  both  mid  paced  and fast  parts  as  well  as  a  small  amount  of  melody,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  society  and  political  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Feastem  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  grindcore,  crust  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Stitches".

  In  conclusion  I  feel  this  is  a  very  great  sounding  split  and  i  would  recommend  it  to  all  fans  of  hardcore,  crust  and  grindcore.  8  out  of  10.    

Jack/Neurozis/Here And Now Records/2016 12 Inch Review

  Jack  are  a  band  from  Hungary  that  plays  a  mixture  of  crust  and  grindcore and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Neorozis"  which  was  released  by  Here  And  Now  Records.

  Spoken  word  samples  which  also  remain  in  later  songs  start  off  the  album  before  going  into  a  very  fast  and  brutal  grindcore  direction  that  also  utilizes  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  as  well  as  some  death  metal  growls  that  also  get  very  guttural  at  times  along  with  a  few  melodic  guitar  riffs and  breakdowns.

  Throughout  the  recording  there  is  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  all  of  the  songs  are  very  short  in  length  while  you  can  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  recording  and  some  songs  bring  in  a touch  of  crust  and  grind  and  the  whole  album  remains  brutal  from  beginning  to  ending  of  the  recording  and  there  are  no  guitar  solos  or  leads  present  in  any  of  the  songs.

  Jack  plays  a  style  of  grindcore  that  is  very  old  school  and  brutal  while  also  brings  in  a  touch  of  hardcore  and  crust,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the lyrics  are  written  in  Hungarian  and  cover  dark, violent  and  angry  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Jack  are  a  very  great  sounding  grindcore  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Megveszve"  "Gat"  "Melyaltas"  and  "Neurozis".  8  out  of  10.