Author Archives: Nuclear Abominations

GUTTED WITH BROKEN GLASS (USA-Ca): “Beaten to a Bloody Pulp” Ep Cd 2008 Grindhead

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Oh my, “original pirate grind”. My senses are already on alert. Let’s start with a superficial exploration. This packaging looks better than anything I have seen so far from Grindhead, even though there is just a meager flyer in place of the booklet. Too bad for the bad Photoshop trick on the logo, but the cover art is nice. Obscure and pretty much gory. The lyric sheet is non-existent but the song titles are already quite bad – “pillage plunder grindcore”. What the fuck. The pirate concept is new in Death Metal afaik (Running Wild is NOT Death Metal ehe) – that is fine – but the really curious thing is this band considers itself grindcore. Cool. This is not grind by any standards.

Digging in the bio, I discovered this band is a kind of side project of Rotting Stiffs, a hopelessly generic brutal death metal band with routine chug riffs and mid slam tempos – from Cali. Ugh. Also, I don’t think it’s listed as a mini but I proudly refuse to call a 14 minute Cd a full length, I hope you’ll forgive me.

That said, I have been spinning this cd twice so far, and I admit this is not too bad. Yesterday I read a review on Teufel’s Tomb about how completely mistaken the band comparisons are in the majority of today’s zines and bios. I hope that guy forgives me if I hold his theory. This band has nothing to do with Dying Fetus, Anal Cunt (What?), Cannibal Corpse (??) or Assuck (Ehhh??????) – as stated on their bio. They have no power chord slams, no crusty grind grooves, or anything else in common with these bands. They basically play honest, down to earth Brutal Death with a decently suffocating, super low, dirty as hell sound. Not stellar, but better than Rotting Stiffs or a lot of the mid tempo slam garbage I hear today. Actually this band is quite intense, even the drum machine doesn’t sound too artificial, kinda Atavism meets Malignancy meets Putrid Pile, for lack of better comparisons. They’re not very advanced but simplicity is power sometimes. Not a must have, but worth some coin if you want a quarter of an hour of fun. Gory and bass-saturated. Nice.

BEYOND TERROR BEYOND GRACE (Aus): “Extinction|Salvation” Lp Cd 2008 Grindhead

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The super shitty cover made me fear for the worse since the beginning. Math-Nu-Post kind of shit a la The End, you know, that kind of intellektual wannabe kind of photography full of shades and blur that guys with emo haircuts like so much. All in all the packaging is not bad, but is so desperately clichéd it gave me headaches.

I remembered the name of the band so I dug back into old Nuclear Abominations reviews and picked it up so I could remember what I thought about them. Uhm. I wasn’t exceedingly critic so maybe something good might come out of this one. If you wish have a look at what I thought of their previous Ep, check that old review I just imported into the new website.

I don’t know in what kind of mood I was back then, but surely the fact I just came back from a Revenge/Angelcorpse gig yesterday won0t help them much. When I attend good gigs, my temper for generic bands tends to shorten. I keep this short: this new BTBG album is boring. The vocals are just as generic as you can imagine. Same old formula of the raspy shrieks meet guttural growls, but neither of them sounding special, both basically a single note “baaah baah baah”… there is some good blasting coming from the drummer but these riffs seems just repeated over and over. If I struggle to isolate the instruments I realize what an impressive kind of shit work the singer made to ruin what could have been a decent grindcore album. Put one capable of even minimal modulation and it could have just made this album another story entirely. This is an album that could appeal some grinder that started with Nasum, but I am pretty sure 1st generation ones will be shrugging their shoulders and go after Heresy and the likes.

News

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DEADLY ILLNESS ‘zine #2 is OUT NOW!

Interviews with:AANAL BEEHEMOTH (Fin), ABOMINAT (Nor),CATALEPSY (Hun), CRUCIFIST (Us), DEATH BREATH (Swe), DISKORD (Nor), EXCORIATE (Ger), GOREPHILIA (ex-GORETEXX) (Fin), HATESPAWN (Ger), OBSKURE TORTURE (Den), and around a hundred demo/LP/CD/7″,etc. reviews – English-written , 48 thickly-printed pages with small-sized fonts , A/5-sized , Xeroxed.

For trades/prices/wholesale or anything write to: DEADLY ILLNESS ‘zine c/o Poller Csaba, Budapest 1183, Nimród u. 73, Hungary

Kobolds attack!

Also, I got this cool ad in my mail yesterday, by label “OLD FOREST” (did I say old forest?)

TALES OF THE SUSSEX WEALD PART 1 (DTM014).Today (Easter Sunday 2008) sees the release of the first material from obscure cult Black Metal group Old Forest in over 7 years. This is the first part of a trilogy exploring the pre-christian / post-christian myths of the Susex Weald. According to vocalist Kobold…

Wait… kobold? KOBOLD? KOBOLD??? For those unfamiliar with RPGs, here’s a kobold..

BLASPHERIAN (USA-Tx): “Allegiance to the Will of Damnation” Ep 12″ 2007 Die Todesrune

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Oh my, I am really getting tired of listening to only good bands these days (ah ah)? Seriously speaking, Blaspherian is another of those bands you really do now want to miss from the freshly renewed scene of real Metal of Death: a band that walks the fine line between doomish Death Metal a la Autopsy and Winter and Brutal Satanic Death a la Imprecation, Incantation, Vital Remains, Hibernus Mortis etc. Deep, infernal vocals creep out of a wall of sound made of sludgy riffs and nastily twisted, low tuned distortions – these songs are glorious hymn of blasphemy, obscure and foul, no frills or guitar wanking, just blasphemy. As usual, we’re reminded that you don’t need overly complex guitarwork to make the Death Metal alchemy work – most of these songs are relatively straightforward, but at the same time full of grim dark force. You got all the powerful crunch without the shitty slam wiggerish shit if you know what I mean. This is definitely how Death Metal is meant to sound like. Maybe it is just lacking a little bit of that eerie, disturbing feel of early Incantation to be really perfect (you know, that hidden, malicious vibration), but we’re definitely splitting the hair. If we talk about American bands, this is definitely one of the best I heave heard lately, as the real Death Metal movement seems to be mostly an European thing recently. Blasphemous, deep Death Metal for lovers of dark sounds and guttural brutality.

This album has been released by Die Todesrune, an otherwise pretty inactive label for what concerns true Death Metal, apart from Crucifier from what I remember. They also have a split 7″ out right now on Hell’s Headbangers, sharing vinyl with the excellent band Evil Incarnate. Next to be released is another 7″ by the name of “Unholiness Unleashed” and a second full length by the name of “Infernal Warriors of Death”. No need to say this is the stuff for which is worth spending your money.

GRAVEYARD (Spa): “Into the Mausoleum” demo Cd-r 2008 s/p

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Now we’re talking, baby. While it’s true nobody can clearly state when the Death Metal phenomenon came out, I guess everybody would agree the peak of it was just cross 1990 (year more, year less). That’s the time when it attained its clear identity, still freshly rooted in the carcasses of other musical genres soon to be dead like punk and thrash metal. It is in that rotting, dark, gloomy and worm infested environment that we first perceived Death Metal was getting a status as a genre on his own, instead of being just an adjective for other forms of metal. I gave up long time ago any hopes that the spirit would come back again, but at least I hoped that people could understand a glimpse of how magic that period of my youth was. Even if there are several things I don’t like in reunions of legendary bands and teenager revivals, I admit the Death Metal scene has never been so healthy in over 15 years.

All this bullshit to introduce one of the best results of post-2000 retro-Death Metal phenomenon. Graveyard from Spain are just playing with the same convincing spirit of the real founders of the genre. I have dug deep in my lexicon to find words to describe this music, but I realized there was no need to describe it, it is just Death Metal with capital “D”. Obscure, murky and grotesque as early Finnish demo bands like Depravity, Abhorrence or Funebre, yet with a few bursts of the galloping ride frenzy of early Unleashed (curiously this is limited to a few riffs, you just can’t hear that kind of songwriting all through the songs).Even if I adore this shit, I have to admit other bands like Dead Congregation or Crucifire are preparing the same dish but with a much improved recipe. In other words, you probably have to do something more to stand out of this new wave of old school bands flooding the underground. Much appreciated by me however, since the sound is flawless. Great roaring, slightly echoing vocals, crunchy super distorted guitar sound, and an eerie, disturbing melody all over make this band a must have for a good collection, I hope someone does it on vinyl one day. I can live without the melodies however, if you know what I mean.

No comments on the packaging today, since it’s just a home made Cd-r with xeroxed cover. I find the cover art a bit too ironic too.

CARNIVAL OF CARNAGE (Hol): “s/t” 3″ Cd 2007 Grindfest

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I always found intriguing this cool 3″ format, ever since I saw it for the first time from bands like Paroxysm, Adramelech, Schizo etc. You can’t really fit more than 15 minutes on a mini disc but a quarter of an hour of Carnival of Carnage is a big bloodshower nonetheless. I was just perplexed to read that this recording is dated 2001. 6 or 7 years have passed and for what reason it wasn’t released earlier? I always have the impression that this is the kind of bands that get better with time, so I feel a little betrayed.

I n any case these 6 tracks are a fist in the face, as usual. Wall of sound type of guitar crunch, super low frog vocals and frantic, atypical drum programming make Carnival of Carnage one of the best bands in its genre in my opinion. You don’t get generic relentless blasting (what an admirable effort for a drum machine would it be) but more like a slimy pillar of pudding waving back and forth, erratically crushing like a limbless, eyeless mongoloid – I can almost see it bubbling and chocking with its hundred teethless mouths. Powerful, noisy, grotesque and heavy as hell. Real cool shit.

MORTORIUM (Ita): “Whore of the Liar” demo Cd-r 2008 s/p

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I knew I was hearing right even beneath the folds of inexperience when I first heard Mortorium. The first demo (review soon, damn! I still need to review the first one and I already got the second ahah, that’s what makes you understand how slow you have become) was not one of face paling blasphemy, but things have improved ten times so far.

They sadly give up to some mellow Black Metal clichès at times (in the second half of “Bleeding Wounds” – I have to skip the track becouse I cannot stand it), but mostly they’re good at composing brutal Black Metal with throat ripping roaring vocals. The singer knows his due, sometimes reminds me of Funeral Mist‘s Arioch (now Marduk I think, not sure) , in which the vocal range is broad, but always evil. You get 12 minutes in all on this demo, but the material is pretty intense, I am quite happy we have bands like this in Italy after all the incredible mass of shit I had to hear in the ’90’s (and sadly today still going strong with all that shit about witches and trolls). Bands like this and Mefitic or The Krushers make me hope for a better future of burned down churches and Satan-centered Black Metal. Mortorium plays straight ahead Black Metal with raw structures, slightly Swedish riffing and a good balance of South American madness..

I am not a fan of war imagery, so I’ll skip comments on the machine gun in the back. But the rest of the demo follows the big principles of “good demo design”: no advanced Photoshop tricks, just a b/w cover with gothic fonts and a picture of Padre Pio (which is the whore in question) with an upside down cross on his forehead, ahah!

Cut the second song at 1.50 and we’d have a killer demo!