VV.AA. (n/a): “Reincremation” split Cd-r 2007 Nihilistic Holocaust

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ReincremationNew round from Nihilistic Holocaust, afterthe superb three way wit Hateful, Impureza and Hellspawn. France might have second rate football teams, cheese and wine compared to Italy (eh eh) but surely has a generally better grind and death metal scene – from bands to zines to labels. I have deep respect for this guy Gabriel from Nihilistic Holocaust becouse you can really feel his enthusiasm and deication, he does a superlative zine and fuck, his label is also doing high quality – no nonsense releases.

That said, I am a bit disappointed by these new Impureza tracks. The band has undergone a really heavy stylistical turn since the previous songs I remember. The songs are now sung in Spanish (?) and have even a load of flamenco (!) intermezzos in the middle, plus several structural references to latin music which, while executed in a flawless manner, I really found a bit too much for my narrow tastes. I have listened to these tracks more than once but cannot really get into them. Might be becouse I really find all latin music boring and unnerving and I also don’t really like the language too. If you separate the bollocks, the band still has the full force crunch it had in the past, but I am more into Morbid Angel than Atheist if you know what I mean. Political 6 – just for the spirit. Superior musicianship and excellent recording make these tracks quite interesting. The third track is a real blast though – have a listen.

“Full Metal Jacket” has been inflated a bit for intros but is always fun to hear. It’s a good introduction to Sweden’s Arsonist, whose name made me run for cover in fear of hearing some emo haircut sissies playing the Dillinger Escape Plan clones. No shit, Arsonist instead play pure Death Metal the Nihilistic Holocaust way (it’s becoming a mark of quality) – this means no aimless baggy pant brutal chugging, but just pure Death Metal killer riffs, powerful vocals and a good balance  of solos. Some riffs remind me of old Cannibal Corpse but this really do not end here – staying in Swedish ground one might even collect moments of Genocrush Ferox, Strangulation and Immersed in Blood. The bass guitar has a massive sound but it just wraps the tracks in a distinctive sick low saturate vibe instead of just popping out in the middle like in Primus. Arsonist is good stuff, brutal in an old fashioned way without sounding retro. Brutal riffs, deep growls and power riffs abound, neat shit indeed. I would shoot a full 8.

Sudden Death have among the worse song titles in the world in this split (I”nsert Coin”?? “Broken Wings”??) but compared to Arsonist they’re somewhat faster, even if characterized by a gently rougher – almost garageish recording. While powerful and fast, I am not convinced 100% by the vocals but that does not mean they’re not good, just not competely deep as the previous bands so they just might sound a bit odd in the 4 way. The riffs are not amazing either, even if the songs are carefully balanced in terms of power chords and hyperblasting. The slower to mid-tempo parts – that have historically made Italy the worse country in the world in this field of Thrash/Death – are here too not overly catchy, so the songs just seem a bit flat even tough we’re on good levels in general. I’d drop the mid tempos and cure the faster parts more, or a potentially good band like this risks to end like Obscenity or Pavor in the limbo of routine German Death Metal… 7 nonetheless.

I haven’t heard the full length from Ingurgitating Oblivion but I remember this band was good, just did not remember HOW good it was. This is just the kind of pure 100% Florida Death Metal with the right share of demoniac vibrations and hyperbrutal sound. Darkness and fury unleashed. I could compare this band to our Hour of Penance, they’re really fucking killer. It’s been a while since I haven’t heard good shit like this. I could cite Serpents Aeon, Pessimist, Diabolic to give a rough idea of what kind of muzak we’re talking about – really impressive shit. 9,00 in my book.

I have really appreciated Gabriel’s personal creation on the cover of this Cd, much better than the old one. I just am not sure if this split is on Cd-r or if it’s just the promo copies that have been home burned. But I’d go for the first since my one is hand numbered (#143 of?). To sum it up – I wish there were more compilations like this…

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…!).

FORMICIDE (USA-Ma): “Formicide” compilation Cd 2006 Due Process

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Formicide - FormicideDespite I have been into Thrash Metal for a long while when it was vibrating and alive and not a resurrected corpse (I want to stretch this becouse I am really sorry but today there is so much hype about Thrash in Italy that I really cannot stand it much anymore) I admit I never heard of Formicide before. Thanks to Andrew of Aversionline for rediscovering the band for us ignorant worms. I read that the tracks have been ripped straight from the tapes, if that’s the case I am sorely impressed, all the instruments have a punch that I can barely find in professional recordings. I do not mean it is elegantly encased in a super production, I mean it has the real Metal crunch of the ’80s – hell I can even hear the bass lines clearly, I really wonder why some people had a problem with the production of this collection of demos.

Talking abot the music, Formicide is playing pure American Thrash/Power Metal (Power Metal as in Metallica or Jag Panzer, not Blind Guardian – dick) and later evolved into the mildly interesting HC band Only Living Witness (I have seen the band with Cro Mags years ago and they were hopelessly annihilated). The number of power riffs on this album is uncountable, there is really a load of pure Thrash energy loading these tracks. And the vocals too are not just a moan, but aggressive and raucous without sounding indistinct. That said, I realize now that I am really not much more into this kind of music. I like the single songs, but I cannot really listen to the whole thing in a row, two subsequent spins have really exhausted my reserves of energy. I cannot really tell why becouse this thing is technically perfect, with a perfect share of solos and a spectacular drumwork. Must be I am more into really primitive Metal from exotic countries these days, and after hearing Mortuorio a few hours ago my ears were calibrated on a different frequency. Whatever. I am sure this thing is going to please anyone looking for neat Thrash with all the right proportion of screams and palm muted riffs. In my case I am not sure I will be putting this on again soon…

NECROS CHRISTOS (Ger): “Grave Damnation” compilation Cd 2005 Worship Him

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Necros Christos - Grave DamnationNecros Christos from Berlin. A phenomenon that has exploded like a burst of flames straight from Hell taking everyone by surprise, cabonizing churches and immolation priests praying for salvation. The whole underground is buzzing and murmuring on how fucking great this band is. And, well, I could not but agree with the mainstream this time. Necros Christos is really the best Death Metal band coming out of the underground in the last few years – it incarnates perfectly every parameter that makes Death Metal the sickest and darkest form of Art of all times. I cannot tell exactly HOW they do it but the band is able to recreate a kind of dark, hypnotic, demonic atmosphere which moves something inside me that was slumbering inside me since the early nineties. Influences of Hellhammer (a LOT of Hellhammer), Incantation, Imprecation, Symphony of Grief, early Samael, old Paradise Lost and some old school Finnish doom/death (and damn I can even say Disincarnate) are abundant but perfectly balanced in a strictly personal interpretation Metal of fucking Death which is equally obscure and spiritually powerful. This is a band which is 280 times more Black than your average Norwegian penguin. Everything is stripped to the bone, leaving only no nonsense quality music. The vocals are deep and demonical, reverberating as if they were coming from beyond the grave, the guitars deep and grating, slowly evocative of images of gothic damnation. There is really something infernal going on here, haven’t heard this kind of feeling since Immolation‘s “Dawn of Possession”.

Worship Him records re-released this third Necros Christos demo “Grave Damnation” in Cd format – which is a bit disappointing for me since this is the only one I already had in tape, but whatever, anything from this band seems to be sold out nowadays so it is a great buy for people looking for anything by the band. The packaging is superb and everything again just falls in its place in this grand design of blasphemic necromanic Death Metal . A great Goatlord cover ends the Cd.

I am sure I have already heard something similar in style in the past but really cannot remember when… what matters anyway is that Necros Christos has a full-length album out now, so go for it as well.

Temporary closure

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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.