Category Archives: Reviews by letter

SPEARHEAD (Eng): “Deathless Steel Command” Lp Cd 2006 Invictus

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SpearheadI want to set things straight from the beginning: my opinion on this record is sandwiched somewhere between “terrible” and “mediocre”. One of the weirdest thing on this album is that the majority of these guitar riffs seem just pointless. Some are just variation of a single one in different speeds. Only the solos are maybe not that bad. The production too, is not raw, (one thing I would highly appreciate) but just completely unbalanced – bass lines disappear and vocals get completely splattered in this forceless “mid-range only” guitar sound. The worse thing of all is the vocals, completely devoid of strength and pressure, just like a flaccid, pierced tire. I honestly don’t understand why someone could possibly consider this album “classic”, “violent”, “a perfect blend of thrash and black metal”, or riminiscent of Bolt Thrower (I have read all of these comments). There is even a terrible Norwegian theme on the song “The Glorious Dead” which just made my head shook all the time. I was expecting something powerful in the vein of Allfather or Axis of Advance, or even some more classic Australian-like stuff like Destroyer 666, but instead I got my hands of nothing but “War Metal” hype. It’s this “we’re all brothers of denim and million colored patches” scene which I just find hard to understand. These songs are plainly unmemorable, and just make you think “why should I listen to this while I have a million obscure Thrash Metal records from the eighties just out there to be listened and finally get all the powerful Metal sound tat bands like this want to recreate? No really, I pass this on. Too bad becouse there are some blasts and some good parts, but all these mid tempos and gay vocals just kill all the good that could be said. The work behind the lyrics is interesting – though: one big concept on war that blends with a superb cover and brilliant b/w layout work, one of the best I have seen in grayscale actually. What i don’t understand is how can evoke images of war desolation and bombardments by imitating Gargamel’s vocals. Maybe the war they’re talking about is between smurfs tribes?

Deathless Steel Command

VV.AA. (Jap): “DDDH – doomed to death, damned in hell” compilation Cd 2007 Grindmind

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Coffins Grudge Anatomia Well. Even if I have an inborn intolerance for 3 way splits (nothing more annoying to place in your collection cabinet… I am always undecided whether to open a new row for 3 way splits or just place them among other compilations… not to mention how to write them in a list! Ah these are real problems-…ah ah!) this might as well be the best release of the year. All three bands from japan, all three playing personal variations of totally ground digging hyper-deep doom death a la Winter, Disembowelment and Autopsy. Starting out with Japan’s best band today Anatomia, with their unparalleled class, elegance and flawless ability to weave webs of dark terror and freezing cold asphyxiation. Pure classic Death Metal, played so fucking good I got thrown back 20 years, as I could feel all the vibrating magic this stuff used to have at the beginning of the genre. Everything is just perfect with Anatomia: all songs are classics with immense riffs, crushing guitar sound, powerful and sick vocals, you just have it all, I really cannot add anything to that. They just have “it”. Grudge could have easily stood the hardy test of following such a powerful band, if it was playing strictly instrumental tracks. There is little space for vocals in these tracks, but this little that gets through is really disastrous. The idiot that sings on these tracks sounds as if he got an emphysema. These are possibly among the worse vocals that ever existed. Seems like hearing Dave Ingram in “The Dreams You Dread” or Barney in “Diatribes”, but after a throat surgery. So incredibly ludicrous… what the fuck?? Despite this weak spit however these riffs are really crushing, and luckily take up 98% of the running time. Grudge has a damn dirty sound, which sounds perfectly fitting with these crudely carved riffs of ton-heavy saturated death. I have a few 7″ by them (mostly for the bands they shared splits with I admit) but didn’t remember they sounded so good. Coffins have also been a recent addition to the celestial bureaucracy of Japanese Death Metal, but they have already established a name in my playlist as one of the best bands around today. They sound like a less refined and perfected version of Anatomia, with crude, tape-like sound but still overly bass-saturated sound which is good for this stuff, damn yesh, definitely good. Dark and deep, a vortex of black sludge swallowing the light of the sun. If we replaced Grudge with Catasexual Urge Motivation this could maybe have been the ultimate 3 way.

I am not impressed by the cover art and layout 100% but no shit – this is super professional and original. Easily not only the best Grindmind release so far (this label is getting better and better each month, watch out for its world conquest!) but definitely one of the 5 best releases of the last year. Amazing.

PS: Someone shot Grudge‘s singer in the face please!

HIPERMENORREA (Mex): “Lymphadenectomy for Carcinoma of the Esophagus and Gastroesophageal Junction” Lp Cd 2008 Alarma!

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HipermenorreaAh ah ah! Great!! This is the fucking stuff I love to hear. Chainsaw slashing through bone, sinew and muscle, and blood spurting everywhere. Screams of agony and fear as the carnage grows. An incomprehensible logo, a face completely ripped off in a pool of blood on the cover, splattered entrails all through the booklet and meter-long song titles about horrible pathological monstrosities. This Cd has it all even before putting the Cd up. Complete with that respectable no-nonsense of gore-grind played below the longitude of the United States. Fuck humor, this is the real grind, faggots.

Once the Cd is on ans spinning however… things are definitely as good as expected! Contrarily to what happened before with other bands like Flesh Grinder, this is not a band that will delude you. This stuff really rocks: super-raw sound, complete with ultra crackling bass and gurgling gore vocals, sewage guitar distortion and fast blasting drum smashing. I definitely reccomend Hipermenorrea to all lovers of real goregrind, especially the ones that, like me, got tired of the comic book humor of Razorback bands, the nice and ordered grind of Swedish bands like Regurgitate and -horror – the fun loving approach of western European bands (bleah) or this disco music grind made in Germany. Mexico is still the shit to go if you look after the real spirit of GORE. These incomprehensible blood gargling vocals only deal with the most insane and deranged pathosplatter topics. Lovable. One might be tempted to do a comparison with early Disgorge… well on such a statement I would not agree… Disgorge was objectively much, much more complicated, original and suffocating, but anyway this band remains a good choice of pure goregrind, with even a good amount of sludginess now and then, among the grinding blasts. The abundant use of screams, bubbling and fermenting sounds between songs add sickness to the package. Total respect.
One thing I definitely have to admit I don’t like in this release is the booklet layout however, even though there is a good choice of splatter pictures. The arrangement of elements, the choice of fonts and the whole layout is as bad as early Garden of Grief or Last Episode releases. Seems like a kid placed this booklet together. This is the only thing that takes this Cd one little point below 9. Real great stuff. Buy or die.

WARPATH (fin): “Thorns Pest Blood” split Cd with VUOHIVASARA (fin) 2007 Iron, Blood & Death

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VUOHIVASARAAlmost the other side of Finland stands the town of Mikkeli, where this band comes from. There are quite a few differences from Vuohivasara, as their music is much more influences by Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, and definitely slower and slightly more minimalistic tempos. I personally like this kind of retro Black Metal even less than the one proposed by the other band. Mid tempo rock’n’roll riffs just make my knees drop water. I have appreciated the crispy, crackling, filtered sound of the vocals and the sick sound of the recording, yet this band just leaves me quite indifferent. Most of this record is slow ballads instead of straight in your face hate for god. Time to shrug away some clichés if you ask me.

VUOHIVASARA (fin): “Thorns Pest Blood” split Cd with WARPATH (fin) 2007 Iron, Blood & Death

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VUOHIVASARATwo releases by this band in a row, wow. Whew. Ouch. This material comes a bit before the afore-reviewed full-length, and you can clearly hear it – I am afraid to tell. Songs here are even simpler and vocals still less developed, almost in a semi-amateurish way. I kinda appreciate the spirit of our dear Goat Hammers in a very insane way, but honestly speaking I still believe this is the kind of records that pass across like a summer rain. Their kind of Black Metal is still decent, more in the Swedish than in the Norwegian tradition; still much better than 90% of second wave Black Metal or other “cult” bands from France, but yet the majesty, obscurity and satanic might of Death… (opps) Black Metal is lacking somewhat. Not minimalist, decorously played, but still a bit unripe. Even if the booklet is thin (just one leaf), the cover art is spectacular. Eerie, grim and grotesque, this art director Arthur Axe is doing good things.

VUOHIVASARA (fin): “The Sigil” Lp Cd 2007 Iron, Blood & Death

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VuohivasaraI am surely getting annoying but I have to strengthen my assertion that is not the kind of black metal that i “feel” being real Black. Vuohivasara means Goathammer in Finnish, which is a good name for a Black Metal band even if Finnish always sound a bit too sweet for this music to my ears. And well, of corpse they’re from Finland too, fool.

Vuohivasara plays traditional post ’90 Black Metal, something that has become surprisingly rare today with this recent Blasphemy revival (damn, I would have never thought to say these words with contempt one day just ten years ago). Fast, cold, eerily melodic but encrusted with a hammering combination of Kill/Watain touches which gives the music extra variation compared to that shit that was so popular in Norway last decade. I personally spite this kind of vocals, definitely too high pitched to sound demonic, but musically this is not bad stuff: the songs have a definite form and the guitarwork is decent, with solid drumming for this kind of music. Other that that there is not much to say, you got some dissonance and remote choruses in the background at times too, even if it’s nothing as orchestral or sophisticated as Deathspell Omega. Good production too, raw but definitely clean, honestly I am not caring much when we talk Black Metal about it anyway.

The booklet is indeed well cured, with interesting lyrics about sacrifice and incantations of death which are always a pleasure to read. Simple layout but at least something looking professional from this good Mexican label called Iron Blood & Death. I suggest you to check out their releases becouse apart from this one which I deem too average, it also has some interesting things in the roster.

PUTRID WHORE (Ita): “Pornified” split Cd with EYETOFUK (Ltu) 2007 Grindhead

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Splatter WhoreSplatter Whore‘s side offers a bit more in terms of intensity and fullness of sound compared to Eyetofuk. Instead of sounding like a collection of sampled Nailbomb songs, their intent seems to be way more into traditional cyber-Goregrind with lots of mid tempo changes and a sound that well, isn’t the more convincing of the world either, but still better than their cd mates.

Honestly speaking, I don’t like much the riffs themselves, in particular the fact they’re a bit too fast to crush with heaviness, and too slow to shred with ferocity. Mostly it’s a collection of real average guitar chords, stuck together with some samples and a cricket vocal approach that probably would fit better an American Death Metal band in the vein of Sikfuk or Bound and Gagged than dirty grind. They’re however the best thing on their side anyway.

Of all the songs I probably liked most the mast one, “Please Fuck Me!”, as it’s probably the most weird and wicked of them all. Cover art looks like a variation of Mike Diana’s old works. Funny and cool… even if comic book art is getting a bit inflated.