INCARNATE (fin): “Exist To Extinct” MCd 2006 s/p [demo]

|IncarnateI admit I don’t like extremely much of this demo except for the honesty of calling it an Ep despite the over 25 minute running time. The Cd itself is cheap silver disc but both layout and design are decent enough, save for some evident jpeg loss on the artwork, but for a demo, who can complain. The band comes from the Finnish western town of Kannus (population 5.000!), and it shows – eh – there is even a guy with a Kalevala shirt (which is like seein’ a Greek with an Odissey shirt or an Italian with an Aeneid one). Well I guess it’s some band’s maybe…

INCARNATE (fin): “Exist To Extinct” MCd 2006 s/p [demo]

IncarnateI admit I don’t like extremely much of this demo except for the honesty of calling it an Ep despite the over 25 minute running time. The Cd itself is cheap silver disc but both layout and design are decent enough, save for some evident jpeg loss on the artwork, but for a demo, who can complain. The band comes from the Finnish western town of Kannus (population 5.000!), and it shows – eh – there is even a guy with a Kalevala shirt (which is like seein’ a Greek with an Odissey shirt or an Italian with an Aeneid one). Well I guess it’s some band’s maybe…

Incarnate describes itself as Death Thrash and I mostly agree. There is a thick groove in the heavily segmented riffs, and a couple of Exodus-like choruses appear also. What don’t appeal me much are those gremlin-like vocals. Starting with song two they tend to get more varied, but I really cannot manage to like them at all. Just lacking some punch. The songs are fast and thrashing though, and definitely mature, with multilayered riffs, arpeggios and the whole range of metal stuff – even some ripping solos. There is a strong slope of quality in the recording between the first three tracks and the rest (if it’s not my stereo), but one can hear everything quite clearly. This is mostly stuff made for heavy alcoholic mosh than straight Death Metal, which means I am sure someone (maybe someone into Bestial Mockery or other similar semi-retro band) is going to like this. Anyway, I remain of the idea that some real 80’s clean but raspy vocals would fit better the mix.

In short, not my stuff, but good for a night of mosh. Advanced enough without being inexcapably technical or lacking kick.

WHORE EVIL (Mex): “Pure Fucking Whores” split Cd with PUTRID WHORE (Ita) 2007 Rotting Abortion

putridwhore-whoreevil.jpgWhore Evil is a bit more awkward and less advanced than Putrid Whore, their sound extremely raw and noisy and the vocals mostly gragling vibes. But I like them indeed, they are more purely grind than their partners in crime, with no coherent structure in the song, they sound like they want only to make noise, gurgrle in a mic, and hammer their instruments, which sounds fine. Listening to the riffs with care, they’re really simple, to the point of stupidity, and some are really just aimless chug chug, but in general they sound like fun to hear in the late night aftermath of a show. Not sublime, but more than decent. The humour is blunt and cheap on this part too, but not as demented as with Putrid Whore, thanksfully. No cartoons and stuff.

PUTRID WHORE (Ita): “Pure Fucking Whores” split Cd-r with WHORE EVIL (Mex) 2007 Rotting Abortion

|putridwhore-whoreevil.jpgWell. First off the Cannibal Holocaust soundtrack intro is maybe a bit too long (just above 2 minutes) – I’d rather listen to the real album by Riz Ortolani than a cheap excerpt if you know what I mean – but the idea is nice. Musicwise speaking, Putrid Whore does not play goregrind despite my expectations. The cover art is pure porn vulgarity and all the porn thing makes one believe it but in general the guitar riffs are mostly bold Brutal Death with some slam and a bunch of accelerations than sludgy sick grind. The vocals are froglike deep with some squeal a la Devourment here and there. Generally quite good. The sound is surprisingly healthy for a product that looks so cheap (xeroxed cover and plan Cd-r support), there is a gross use of photoshop tricks but the overall effect works I believe, that’s the “last minute goregrind” style after all. I didn’t like much the boring humour in tne titles like the parody of Spongebob etc. Really overused IMHO.

PUTRID WHORE (Ita): “Pure Fucking Whores” split Cd-r with WHORE EVIL (Mex) 2007 Rotting Abortion

putridwhore-whoreevil.jpgWell. First off the Cannibal Holocaust soundtrack intro is maybe a bit too long (just above 2 minutes) – I’d rather listen to the real album by Riz Ortolani than a cheap excerpt if you know what I mean – but the idea is nice. Musicwise speaking, Putrid Whore does not play goregrind despite my expectations. The cover art is pure porn vulgarity and all the porn thing makes one believe it but in general the guitar riffs are mostly bold Brutal Death with some slam and a bunch of accelerations than sludgy sick grind. The vocals are froglike deep with some squeal a la Devourment here and there. Generally quite good. The sound is surprisingly healthy for a product that looks so cheap (xeroxed cover and plan Cd-r support), there is a gross use of photoshop tricks but the overall effect works I believe, that’s the “last minute goregrind” style after all. I didn’t like much the boring humour in tne titles like the parody of Spongebob etc. Really overused IMHO.

One funny but a bit annoying thing is that the tracks of the band are not split in two parts but instead are inserted in intervals, so you get all odd numbers with Putrid Whore and all even ones with Whore Evil. Eh eh. Nice.

ULTIMO MONDO CANNIBALE (Ita): “Promo Pio 2006” Cd-r 2006 s/p [demo]

Ultimo Mondo Cannibale - Promo Pio 2006I thought this band was mainly a tribute to Impetigo, consisting of raw, punkish Death/Grind with a consistent Horror theme. But there is something quite different here. I love the total garageish amateur sound, and also the creative use of the vocals which are mainly deep and cut into single short grunts, but also enriched by a scattered phlegmy gargles. I also liked the quotes (taken from “Mangiati Vivi”- not sure, please correct me – and “Night of the Living Dead”, timeless classics). But despite the raw sound, some things are not fitting the scheme and move this demo towards something just slightly above mediocrity. The slow, rhytmic pace and mainly deep vocals, are clear connections to the late 90’s American Death Metal scene, the humorous jingles at the end and beginning of the demo are screaming “boring year 2007 fun goregrind”, and well, the song titles are just ranging from cheese humour to porn, which are not fitting spectacularly well with the horror samples. Porn, comedy or horror? Things are not clear at all. Seems like they want to take everything in without a real vision. Some identity is still missing in this band, but I look forward to hear more… some riffs are Autopsy worship which is a plus, and I think there is surely some good concept at the beginning, but their potential is far from exploited… well let’s see where this thing goes. No comments on the layout since this is a just a quick photocopied promo, but beware the images are very bad resolution…

Some tidying before posting

I think it’s better if I take some time tweaking the website appearance and funcionality before I start posting reviews. I do not need weeks, just some more days. I have collected the reviews in two categories: genres and letters. The reviews are the same, just decide which method you prefer by yourself. I am still working on the Dying Fetus / Skinless videos, should have something in a few days.

I also found and installed this nice plugin that shows small thumbnails of the covers of the latest reviews on the column here at the right as you can see. The whole website still looks quite awkward (specially the single posts), but I won’t spend too much time on appearance for the moment. I want the ball rolling!