Power It Up has been a surprisingly active label of late, I have gotten ahold of several interesting releases by them, and this excellent singles collection by the band Haemorrhage is a real high quality thing. That’s what you manage to do with a collaborative band, a serious label and a honest artist to assemble the whole thing (curious thing is this collection cover features the original artwork that should have been used on their split with Christ Denied – am I only one who doesn’t like Luisma’s cartoonish drawing style?).

In biology haematology is the name of the branch that studies the behaviour, coagulation and flow of blood, but in this case it’ stands for the complete dissection and reconstruction of the Spanish band’s long list of excellent Eps. Apart from a couple of covers from Dead Infection, Carcass, General Surgery and a less famous Spanish punk/ska band called Kortatu (which I honestly didn’t know), all the rest are Haemorrhage songs taken from various album recording sessions. But even if one already has all the singles, you have some added vanilla: one bonus track, liner notes (hell yes, these are MANDATORY in every re-release) and a completely remastered sound. This is one of the nicest recollections I got so far. Even if vinyl is still the real shit, it’s good to have this on Cd for car stereo purposes. But don’t miss the Eps if you find some of them, they all look quite killer (IIRC the first one was on blood red vinyl, I always thing of the old Atrocity logo – the one with the eyes – every time I see that cover).

It’s also very interesting to hear how the sound becomes more and more claustrophobic and heavy with every release, and how the short haired singer gets more and more confident with the vocals, starting from basic harmonized roars but moving inclreasingly towards malignant phlegm filled ripping snarls.

There is no point in describing how Haemorrage sound like maybe, but for those who don’t know… they have started out as a Death Grind band highly influenced by the Carcass – Xysma – General Surgery movement (hear “Decom-posers” for a good sample) but then developed in something definitely more groovy and somewhat less purely grinding. Their latest works are full of crusty moshpit riffs and a more definite overall structure with more Death Metal but also more punkish reflections – but the blood obsession remained intact all the time, thanksfully, and so did the vomiting vocals and all the rest. You get a good spectrum of the band’s abilities by getting this Cd. Good shit.