The factory has not delivered the records yet so the tentative release of 28th August has been skipped. I can only hope it’s a matter of days now. I also have a temporary laptop computer now so I will check all my emails this weekend and possibly upload a review or two.
My dear old laptop computer failed me last week for the last time. Too much stress for its old frame. I am currently without a computer so I will not be able to answer mail, update the website, follow the label, do reviews etc. I am currently selecting the component for the new PC but I doubt I will be able to assemble everything before next weekend (I bought the case in Germany). This time, after so many HD failures, I decided to grant myself a professional system with a solid structure and steady backups. Hopefully this is the last time I lose so much data at once.
Several things going in the background.
Apocalypse Command is at the pressing plant and will be released in August. Cannot wait to see how it’s turning out. I also have another release soon to be completed… but I won’t reveal anything yet.
I renewed and cleaned up the Buio Omega website. The distro is now active 100% and some new material is coming in a few days. Once the label is rolling again, prepare for a flood of really nasty records… only selected shit, no sell out fillers. I am also doing a lot of work in the background to prepare a decent shopping cart and registration system, although I have still no idea when it will be accessible to public.
As for gigs, I am preparing to go HERE. ‘Nuff said?
I was complaining right the other day about the seemigly complete lack of serious goregrind bands with a real fucking line up and not just drum machine and computer bases. Luckily Grindhead from Australia has come in aid, as this Devoured Flesh Regurgitation album is just that, a real grindgore record with real musician, that took over 4 years in the making. It just feels reassuring that it was ot made overnight like so many releases today.
I actually hate the shouted punk vocals on this album, a la “old English way of early grindcore”, not becouse they’re not deep or whatever, but they just sound a bit fake in the mix – so to say out of place. Seems like someone just took an album that was already complete and mixed, and added some barking with a walkman. In other words I really believe they’re totally superfluous, get rid of that shit. BUT! This band has a double vocal approach (just like old ENT) and the second one is our beloved more reassuring, traditional octaved gargle of early RGTE and old Malignant Tumour. Soundwise the inspirations are many, from crust to more traditional grindcore with a lot of blasts and the classick touch of punk induced groove plus a bit of the blur of early noise bands like Sore Throat. I really like it when all the instruments converge to a point where all the fury is unleashed in a wall of sound crowned with froglike croaks. Luckily we have something sick to listen to this time and age. There is not that excess of R’n’R groove that is abounding too much lately into grid in my opinion, and that’s another good point. We’re a bit far from the impossible damp heaviness of Last Days of Humanity and early Squash Bowels, but we’reon the right way. To get and support! The band split up in 2006, too bad!
Neat work with the packaging this time, the label is improving release after release. I would have skipped the embossing on the fonts, tho.
PS: Actually the vocals were really recorded later than the instruments.
After two years of delay, “Chaos, Dissection, Order” is finally out, third goddamned blasting piece of bulldozing goregrind from Holland. Actually usig the term goregrind in its common meaning is a bit restrictive. Inhume are extremely HEAVY, and surely grind as well, the guitars are loose and rocking although not in the classic Neuropathia way. There is more heaviness and no groove here, which in the ened I believe is for the better. The sound is accurately balanced,every element well cut in the mix and the guitar sound boulderish but not dirty. It’s like the heaviest you can go without a muddled sound. The drum stile is the same as in the killer “Decomposing from the Inside” but as it happened with “In For The Kill”, things have gotten even tighter here. There are just a couple of tempo variations in the middle of the album, but for the rest it’s ultra fast blasting all the time, with early Mick Harris like bursts but without all the socio-political bollocks of classic grind. Fully graphic gore lyrics and artwork, double guttural vocal assault, and a ultra-dense sound make this new Inhume hit another mallet strike right in the middle of the forehead of Jesus. Ah. There is not much digression here, everything is to the point without fucking frills. Inhume is still one of the leading Brutal Goregrind bands from Holland, bar none. I guess one has to be more into the second album than the first but hey, is this a fucking problem? If you manage to see them live, they’re also a great band on stage (not to mention there is a red haired girl with impossibly big tits always following them on tour, so that’s one extra point in my scale of values. Eheh.).
Scarlet records is not my favorite label of all time. Well actually I couldn’t tell on top of my head one band one in their roster which I like at all. But the man behind the label deserves some respect for his solid backgroud in extreme metal since at least the late eighties, and part of this background is finally showing on this jewel – an anthology of Obscurity recordings from 85 to 87 – and 1992. Considering the time when these songs were written, it’s quite clear that this was one of the very first Swedish Death Metal bands of all time (as by the way Daniel Ekeroth confirms on his book on the subject). The Cd is however not pure gold from start to finish to be honest. The two tracks recorded in 1992 are among the most boring examples of warped Venom inspired music I can think of, but that is probably Jorgen Lindhe starting to write riffs that whould stem into is subsequent (atrocious) band Flegma. What makes the Cd so impossible to miss, though, are the two demos that To The Death records also released on 7″ slightly before. If you can, you should get those, but if you prefer the Cd format (shame on you), this Cd has it all. The first demo is high quality Speed Core/Thrash-Metal heavily into Celtic Frost/Hellhammer on speed, with patterns that remind me a bit of a slower Suicidal Tendencies/Cryptic Slaughter. The Death Metal seed is not impossibly heavy on these tracks – but some real neat ideas appear here as well. But the real shit is the second demo, which also opens the Cd like a gate to Hela’s domain. Four tracks of blistering killer Death Metal which cannot but remind of early Merciless (which btw came a bit later) in pure ferocity. Also killer acts like Imperator or Sadus can be taken into account, the vocals are twisted, the guitar shords pure Thrash Metal in your face crunch. This shit alone would be worth a full fucking 9-score vote. Great riffing, hammering drum blasting, energy-ripping vocals. I cannot tell how much I love this hybrid form of early Death Metal. The last song “Demented” is a real surge of crushing Metal riffs, with a delightful Slayerish solo in the middle. The whole Cd is worth just for these 4 tracks. Monster band. Not standard Swedish Death with super tuned down guitars, but great headbanging fun!
While the demos are amazing music to hear, the Cd itself is not done really well (we have high standards today thanks to Nuclear War Now!), there are no liner notes, the pictures are just 3 or 4, and there are no flyers, interviews, whatever. The cover art is too dark and grainy, the logo disappears in the shadow of the statue, and it is just too damn glossy. Only good thing is at least there are all the lyrics inside. Better than nothing. Well better than what Xtreem is doing with anthologies at least.