Midnight Madness and Beyond: WILD//TRIBE

Wild Tribe - Endless Nights
2012, Rescued From Life, Punkalive, Under The Surface

Wild Tribe is a six-piece out of Fort Worth, Texas, created out of Unit 21 and Tolar, which were basically combined into one huge-ass  hardcore juggernaut.The preview streams on the bandcamp site of their debut record (collectively released on Rescued From Life Records, Punkalive Records and Under The Surface Records) had me all worked up and itching to get my hands on a copy and now that it's finally here, I can say without a doubt in my mind, that this piece of vinyl is one of the best hardcore albums released so far this year. Combining a metallic sound with aggressive, simplistic d-beat style hardcore is nothing new in any way (Anti-Cimex, Totalitär, GISM etc), and neither is having dual vocalists duelling and doing a call-and -response-type singing, but what these guys do is way way beyond that, even if the basic structure to their style owes alot to Swedish and Japanese hardcore. Alot of the power from their music comes from the fact that they simply fucking rock! And they aren't afraid to let their metal influences shine through, either. They play with an intensity that hooks you from the first few bars of the opening intro and they write really catchy hardcore with lots of memorable vocal parts and riffs. I keep hearing shades of RKL, Broken Bones, Rancid, Christ On A Crutch and World Burns To Death in Wild Tribe's music, as well as tons of Motörhead or Diamondhead-style riffing, often laden with quick guitar licks tossed into the mix whenever possible. The production is close to fucking perfect here, all the elements are given lots of space and everything is clearly audible, which is awesome because it lets us hear those amazing bass runs that would otherwise be lost in the cacaphony. The really cool thing about this  record is that it captures so many of the good things about hardcore that is often lost in other bands/recordings: we get aggression and speed without the muddiness of shitty recordings, we get the complementing dynamics and force of dual vocalists (both of whom have really distinct and personal voices), we get the melody and catchiness of hardcore/punk while never losing any of the intensity and we get alot of truly rocking singalong-parts and the youthful exhilaration and rush of honest, passionate and well-played rebellious music that defiantly extends two middle fingers to the powers that be. Shit does not get any better that this.

Stream parts of the album from the bandcamp site here.

I am the one, Orgasmatron/The outstretched, grasping hand

Lord Mantis - Pervertor
2012, Candlelight

Since I had never heard of the band before (yeah, I know, I'm a moron), I dove into Lord Mantis' latest album with a clean slate and no preconceptions (which is a rare thing these days, when info overload at times tend to remove your ability - and, to some extent, even the need - to make up your own mind what to think and feel about things in general, and music, art and movies in particular). Maybe this fact made it easier in a way to ingest the music and consider it on it's own merits rather than some pre-colored notion of what to expect. After a bit of research I found that the band features some rather illustrious people within the metal community, from bands such as Nachtmystium, Von and Indian. Which, in hindsight, probably explains the truly stellar music we get on Pervertor, I guess. Either way, Pervertor is a beast of immense proportions in all of it's aspects, from writing to production and execution. It is steeped in sludgy riffs, varied but often slow, rumbling tempos and a rather eighties-feeling kind of doom metal that I loved from the very first instance. These songs are catchy as hell, especially considering the style of music presented here. What we get is filthy blackened sludge/metal with lots of tremolo picking, rumbling double bass drums, wicked rocking hooks, earth shatteringly heavy riffs and venom-spitting, snarling vocals almost as ferocious as those of Steve Austin of Today Is The Day. There's actually more than a vague resemblance to TITD in the general progressiveness and tone of Lord Mantis' music, though they're never drawn towards the same kinds of extremes as TITD. A few key aspects that sets the band apart from the brunt of their contemporaries are the brilliant, inventive drumming and the mind blowing, almost Cobalt-esque, winding riffs and melodies, alongside the fact that all of the songs keep evolving, never ever becoming stagnant or repetitive. Songs like Levia and Septichrist has me smiling like an imbecile every time I hear them, because they're that goddamn catchy and good! Oh, and the main riff on closing track The Whip And The Body is the greatest Motörhead-riff Motörhead never wrote. We have some Album-of-the-year-contender shit right here, folks. Dig in.

Do you want total war? / Unleash the beast in man once more?

Total War - 8 Track Demo
2011

On this brand new demo Vancouver's Total War unleash eight tracks in just over nine minutes and it's all about raging hardcore punk. I hear similarities to such notables as World Burns To Death and Tragedy, as well as an apparent love for Japanese and Scandinavian metallic dis-core. It's unceasingly aggressive and anthemic yet somehow vaguely melodic. The pace is intense and seldom drops below whiplash speed but it never gets anywhere near boring; the songs simply aren't long enough to become dull. Each and every one of them is like a punch in the face, with lots of ripping metallic riffs and lots of bouncy d-beats. Nothing fancy just shit that gets the job done. Me likes.



Obsessor - Obsession EP
2011, Tankcrimes

Here we have two fairly short tracks of perfectly executed old school deathrash with a huge dose of crusty punkiness thrown into the mix. This is raging hardcore as much as it is metal and I keep thinking of British 80's metalpunk act Warfare when I hear this. This is a killer ep with a really cool retro-style of metal that's much in the same vein as that of Toxic Holocaust, only rougher and less frilly (and considering the almost complete lack of frills in Toxic Holocaust's music you know this is some rapid fire no-nonsense shit). The pace is frantic but never really blistering fast, just thunderous midtempo blasts with a huge Motörhead, G.I.S.M and Venom influence, with gruff shouted, rather than screamed, vocals. The production is kind of raw and rugged but it works pretty well even though it feels a bit too brittle at times. I'm pretty pissed off that there are only two measly songs on this thing. More! Now!



Suffering Quota - Suffering Quota Demo
2011

This demo blew me clear the fuck away on the first initial listen and that's not something that happens very often. These five short tracks are some of the very best I've heard in the genre for quite some time. It's a rare thing to have a blend such as this where really memorable grindcore bleed so easily into both hardcore and thrash as well as death metal and to have it played so astonishingly well is nigh on unheard of. The songs are all short but they are constantly moving forward, continually throwing in little twists and turns into the mix. I really dig the vocals as well, because they aren't the usual fare of high pitched shrieks and cookie monster growls. They rather remind me of Scott Hulls vocals for Pig Destroyer. In fact alot of the music on this way too fucking short demo remind me of Pig Destroyer. Perhaps that is why Suffering Quota's music clicked so strongly with me. I'm truly looking forward to hearing more from these guys.


All three above releases are available for free downloads. Just check the links and you'll find them.