Category Archives: Grindcore

PSYCHONEUROSIS (Pol):”Dead But Not Forgotten” compilation Cd 2007 Red Devil/Grindfest

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PsychoneurosisAh!! It took me some minutes to actually realize this Psychoneurosis is the same band that released a 7″ with Brutal Insanity back in ’00 (I figured the logo was familiar, though!). This Cd is a complete discography of this “cult” grindcore band from Poland, not an extremely old one (their earliest stuff is just from ’92 even though the band was formed in 1991) but it seems it was quite prolific and respected during its lifespan. Musically, we’re talking about grindcore in its very broad sense. The music is not as noisy and disharmonic as early Napalm Death or Heresy – the first tracks sound very, very Thrash Metal oriented to me, gently sloping to a contaminated brand of grind that gets blended with punk and some average quality metal. As the discography goes on, you get all kind of recordings taken from splits, tapes and live shows – including some recording of trmolous quality – but that’s quite normal, I believe. The vocals of this band are generally a sort of muffled grunt, a bit in the vein of Nausea, Extreme Noise Terror, Violent Headache etc, even though the Donald Duck “high” screams that burst in at times are really fucking horrendous and terribly stupid, you could as well get a good song without those retarded “laa laa laa”. Fucking unbearable. As the singer changes and the Cd progresses, we have even vocals that remind me of Celtic Frost (?), go figure – but the drum blasts become even more chaotic and tight.

In general I like the freshness and spontaneous simplicity of this primitive brand of grind, with its basic riffs and occasional bursts, but I admit it honsetly lacks some energy when compared to Swedish and Finnish bands from the same period – not to mention the pure filth of South America. I have enjoyed going through the whole Cd for historical reasons, but I admit I’d probably put the new Bombstrike Cd from Power it Up instead next time I need some “grind”. Straight 7 for honesty and the nice packaging that includes cover artworks, discography, bio, and a nice big collage.

ATROCITY (USA-Ct): “Contaminated” Ep Cd 2007 Open Grave

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Atrocity - ContaminatedHey! This is indeed a welcome surprise. I was not sure if this was the same Atrocity from Connecticut that I knew, but aquick glimpse at the logo and my doubt disappeared. I have known this band since the self-produced 7″ recorded on Hogbitch something like 18 years ago, I thought the world entire forgot about them! I was indeed curious to know what happened to these guys, but I quickly lost all hope. While the two records were well distributed here in Italy (they ended up in almost every 2nd hand vinyl store in the country – grindcore was never a big thing), I really do not remember of having read many interviews or news in underground publications. It just seemed to be one of those bands which just hover at the borders of the scene. A pity indeed becouse the grindcore they produced was of quite neat quality.

So. The band is back. But before concentrating on new material the guys from Torrington have decided to rehearse some old songs and update the form to year 2007. Well… we have been lucky. No overproduction, no trendy emo dissonance, no cheap aggro metal riffs. Atrocity has returned in terrific shape. They got the good taste of not washing the sound at all. The trademark classy vocals and raspy guitar sound are all here. If one looks for South American noisecore I am afraid this band could seem a bit outdated, or maybe not too fast, but I think it’s the sublime commistion of two genres going hand in hand that makes this new stuff brilliant and fresher than ever. The vocal style is reminiscent of fucking Terrorizer/Nausea and even early Morbid Angel if you know what I mean. Great shit, distorted but powerful. They might have no impossible all out blasts but the riffs are powerful in their simplicity especially when the guitar sound reminds so much of Sadus‘ “Illusions” (well, to my ears at least). Good grind/death from the past, the main flaw is that it is too short, I really need more from this band – hopefully we could hear some brand new tracks soon! Good to see the lyrics have been reported in the booklet, they are standard antisocial grindcore lyrics but worth a read.

The packaging is also quite bare but very clean and stilys, must be the best one I have seen so far from Open Grave. Besides, support the label and buy this Ep, they are doing a good job and are very active despite the relatively young age!

RELEVANT FEW (swe): s/t split Cd with AFGRUNG (swe) 2006 Life Stage

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Afgrund - Relevant FewCompared to the bestial burst of Afgrund, I am not overly impressed by Relevant Few. Too much wanking in the field of dissonance and disharmonies, and all the grindcore energy sinks in the overuse of these experimental bridges. The vocals are lacking real solidity, they’re more like an exercise in screaming that real outbursts of rage if you know what I mean. Seems like the band is lacking in anger  and anger in grindcore is everything. That said there are a lot of interesting aspects here that deserve to be exploited like precise drumming, decent production, brilliant ability to sew together the riffs in a flowing song that parts from the classic schemes, and an interesting array of lyrics. Comparisons might be done with “as far from metal as possible” grindcore bands like His Hero Is Gone or Man is the Bastard but that just scratches the surface – I am not good with finding similarities. Blasting grindcore a good 90% of the time, too bad for the really useless use of leaks and weird harmonies – I’d go for the throat instead.

Top track is the last one, where the band seems to have finally shrugged away the bullshit and did everything the right way. Screams, blasting, guitar hammering for 61 seconds. If I had to save a song it would be this one.

AFGRUND (swe): s/t split with RELEVANT FEW (swe) 2006 Lifestage

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Afgrund - Relevant FewMan I am so fucking stupid sometimes ah ah! I really don’t want to like it, I always try to convince myself that I don’t like political grind but everytime I hear a band that rips like this Afgrund does, I always have to admit: “fuck, this is goddamn excellent”. Another footprint in the fresh concrete gallery of Swedish Grind. Afgrund belong to this new generation of grindcore that just surpassed the big change of the late 90’s when bands like Nasum began installing super productions in a genre that had deep roots in the filth of crusty punk. This new breed has all the good elements of this late grindcore kind but also a massive sound and loads abrasive energy by the dozens. Names that come up to mind when looking for comparisons are those of their first label No Tolerance – Krigshot, Skitsistem, Wolfpack etc. in other words extremely powerful and groovy grind with a huge sound prouction – this is really nice shit. Good replacement for a Red Bull when driving home in the late of the night. Sometimes this fat sound gets almost messy and a bit splatterish, one can even dare to say some early Malignant Tumour or Squash Bowels hints appear scattered in the songs. I only didn’t like much the very last song “Det Sista Brevet” – ithas some dissonance that I never manage to tolerate. Perfect packaging by Szymon Siech (always a master), since I guess the lyrics are of the introspective/social kind, I really don’t care if they are in English, for once – ah ah!

They have a full-length out now, called “Svarta Dagar” on the same label Lifestage – check out the cover, it’s KILLER. (weird, the label’s website is severaly outdated…!).

DEVOURED FLESH REGURGITATION (Hol): “Bones, Flesh ‘n Partysnacks” Cd 2007 Grindhead

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Devoured Flesh Regurgitation - Bones Flesh and PartysnacksI 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.

GRUMO (Ita): “Karne” Cd-r 2007 s/p [demo]

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Grumo - KarneReviewing this demo has been a difficult task I had it spinning several times before formulating a truthful analysis. First off, the positive aspects are several: I sort of liked the cut and paste cover and aesthetics, and honestly speaking – compared to the home dubbed tape I got 3 years ago, a HUGE step forward has been made. Now all the songs are clearly discernible, a definite personality has been reached and the vocals have a nice raucous range that go from spittle to roar.

That said, the bad things are hopelessly outnumbering the good ones. I couldn’t stand Italian lyrics at the time of Resurrecturis (and we’re talking 15 and more years ago) – go figure what I think of track names like “Abbadalucco”. This is just too far from my personal interpretation of grind. It’s a terrible mix of teenage slang and typical pizza-house dementia. There is this scum punk cheaply hilarious feel in the tracks which I just cannot swallow – slow happy mary-go-round tarantellas and aimless chugs do not make a band goregrind even today that cheap humour has permeated the scene. The sound too, is that of a walkman dubbed live school concert devoid of sickness and even noisecore hypersaturation. For some reason, Grumo seems to lack the tiny spark that is innate in many sludgy German Goregrind bands. The thin line that separates standard punk teenage riffs from the real gross mid-tempo grotesque thing they are surely inspired by (namely Gut, Utopie, Mucupurulent, Plasma, CBT, Bitch Infection etc.). I can hear the passion but there is a lot of crap that has to be taken away, just too much superfluous fuss. Go for the throat, don’t stop picking lilies on the road.

INTESTINAL DISGORGE (USA-Tx): “A Clockwork Whore Binge” Cd 2005 Sonic Death

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Intestinal DisgorgeI am telling this very sincerely: I remembered Intestinal Disgorge to be way heavier than this. When I was about to put this album in the player I was expecting hugely sick sewage scatological goregrind shit noise, but sincerely this stuff didn’t turn out to be as heavy as I hoped. The sound is quite clear all the time and the guitar distortion would fit better a modern Death Metal band. Lots of riffs are balanced between crusty modern grindcore a la Bolesno Grinje and some power chords a la Internal Bleeding and harmonics and stuff of clear Brutal Death origin, but I just don’t dig this mickey mouse vocals that seem like a timid attempt at playing the grindcore noise game. Even if sometimes some sick twisted savagery emerges, Japanese are able to condense all this and more in one quarter the songs contained in this “Clockwork Whore Binge”. There are also no lyrics inside, just a short story of a guy killing girls and masturbating on the strangled cadavers. And the cover is a very cheap piece of computer graphics, which to me suit a goregrind/noise release as well as a photo of a field of red flowers. No really, there is some deviation in here but it seriously need an extra dose of filth, if it was on vinyl, i would rub it on a dirty floor to add some craclking and dirt to this sound. Go back to the Rectal Sludge era, it was much better. Do not misunderstand me, this is not wimpy stuff, but it’s just they turned all the attention to noisy side leaks instead of making the whole songs a work of noise.