Scum Will Rise: Heartless

Heartless - Hell Is Other People
2011, Southern Lord

Their selftitled seven incher from 2010 was my first encounter with Philly ragers Heartless. It was a seething mess of fast and heavy blackened hardcore that promised great things to come. Their music was heavy, uncompromising, furious and sweaty, like some old lost  Slap-A-Ham power violence album. But with better production. A re-released demo and a split with The Blind later (I may have the release chronology completely wrong here, but this is the order in which I heard them) they released Hell Is Other People on Southern Lord last year and, not even a minute into opener Clean Slate, I realise all of my expectations were set way, way too low. I knew the band had potential, but this was ridiculous! Hell Is Other People is possibly one of the top ten full length debuts I have ever heard. Ever. Thirteen songs clocking in around twenty minutes leaves no room whatsoever for any sort of masturbatory Steve Vai-wankery or pointless repetition. All the excess fat has been stripped away here, leaving a cadaverishly lean beast, where no element is kept running any longer than absolutely necessary. This makes Heartless' music ferociously hectic and dynamic and, at a first glance, often chaotic. Almost all of the songs are riddled with sharp turns and neck breaking twists and just as you think you've figured out the structure of any one particular song, it instantly whirls away in another direction.
     This could easily be frustrating to an uninitiated listener, were it not for the bands' excellent song writing skills. Where many groups would leave a muddy, tangled and convoluted impression, Heartless does not. Even in the midst of the confusion and fury there is almost always a hook to which you can latch on, that makes the songs memorable and ... well, almost catchy. Stylistically this is a boiling stew of d-beat crustcore, grind, metal, screamo and old school hardcore, with a side order of dirty-as-fuck sludge and alot of noisy textures and feedback thrown into the mix. I could easily draw comparisons to contemporary bands like Nails, Trap Them and Forfeit, or even Brody's Militia, as well as to long gone legends such as Neanderthal and Infest. I even spot a bit of Melvins or 16 in the four minute epic Cop Out, with its simplistic plodding, doomy, heavy riffage and some truly depressing, life-hating EyeHateGod in closing sludge-apocalypse Hard Feelings.
     Another cool thing about this record, beside the excellent material, is the earlier mentioned short running time: it positively gags for repeated spins. This could, in retrospect, be one of the better releases of last year. Some of the earlier Heartless releses are available free of charge at their bandcamp site, so there's no reason not to check them out.

Incineration prayer: Here come the bastards

Bastard Noise - Rogue Astronaut
2009, Gravity

Bastard Noise - Skulldozer
2011, Deep Six

Bastard Noise - A Culture Of Monsters
2010, Deep Six

And continuing on the topic of power violence and its' progenitors Man Is The Bastard and it's later incarnation, Bastard Noise, here we have three of the bands latest avalanches of earth shattering rumling sludge noise. Even though Bastard Noise are far from as productive as some of their noise/power electronics peers (Merzbow or Government Alpha anyone?), their discography is, none the less, still fucking impressive. They've released scores of cds and cdrs as well as tons of vinyls and ball sacs full of splits and, while the quality of their output has been, if not consistently stellar, then at least it's almost always been, way above most of what everybody else has been doing. And one of the reasons I like them so much myself and still listen to their music (while rarely listening to any other noise artist at all these days) is the fact that they rarely go full on harsh noise on your ass, but rather work with a whole range of sounds and styles and intensities that never gets dull or overly tedious. These past few years the band seems to have moved away somewhat from the pure noise/electronics driven style and, at least partly, gone back to the more power violence-oriented beginnings of Man Is The Bastard, which is a stylistic regression I really like. So, the game here is fizzing, rumbling, raging, spacious (at times almost progressive) power violence interwoven with lots of noise elements and violent eruptions as well as quieter interludes, many of them ambient in character and always very well crafted, with close attention to detail. Don't expect any kind of traditional song writing here. If you do, you've obviously never heard Bastard Noise. The vocals have always been secondary to the music, even though they have moved a bit more up front on these last recordings, driving some of the songs in a more straight forward manner, while before they were almost incidental. There is an odd beauty to many of the more ambient tracks, almost orchestral in a way, while retaining an almost cinematic sense of dread and lurking danger. The running time of the tracks range from just over a minute to around fifteen and everything from the Bastard menu is represented here, from raging grindcore and monolithic, heavy sludge to piercing bursts of feedback mixed with electronic whirs and pulsating analogue synths. All three albums come highly recommended if you're into this sort of thing. And even if you're not, it never hurts to broaden your horizons, does it? Buy here and here.

Disciples of The Skulldozer: Full Of Hell

Full Of Hell - Roots of The Earth Are Consuming My Home
2011, A389

In true power violence-style Full Of Hell's debut full length, Roots of The Earth Are Consuming My Home, kicks off with a short feedback-laden noise burst before it erupts into full fledged metallic hadcore insanity. Openers Pile Of Dead Horses and Endless Drone are in many ways indicative of the bands musical formula throughout the entire album, where maniacal speed is mixed with devastatingly heavy sludge sections. Not that mixing d-beat harcore with metallic riffs and heavy breakdowns, interspersed by ferocious grinding blast beats any way is a unique concept these days, but having honed their skills over their previous releases FOH seems to have learned that brevity, as well as the fact that one great riff is better than ten weak ones, is key to writing great songs in this style. In essence what is boils down to is this: if you can write an amazing song like Rat King, that sates your hunger for heavy as fuck, feedback-screeching, sludge as well as raging hardcore and you manage to do it in under three minutes, then, let's just say you know what the hell you're doing. Which is really astonishing when you consider the fact that some of these guys are barely out of their teens yet. What sets apart this album even further from the rest of FOH's peers is the inclusion of the awesome Bastard Noise-esque noise/power electronics interlude White Mare, that break up the pace of the album in a very effective way. I also dig the way they throw in the almost interlude-ish track The Oars Are Broken where everything is taken down a notch: where the bass does a slow ominous shuffle underneath sprinkled swirls of feedback before exploding into the closing track. This reminds me of something Dead Kennedys did on Moral Majority and a few other tracks. Simply brilliant. The recording here is heavy and crisp without sounding brittle or muddy, which is often the case with this style that centers equally on heaviness and speed, while the song writing is close to fucking perfection. I can hear loads of influences at work here, from d-beat hardcore and breakdown-heavy NYHC to Infest-like power violence, sludge and grind, but they're all interwoven in a way that makes it into something much more unfied and much stronger, mainly due to the stellar song writing. This is one of the very best albums to be released 2011, no doubt in my mind. Buy.

Hardcore cluster bomb pt 4: Short and nasty

Hatewaves - The Tombs
2011, A389

I need to state this before I go on: this EP is TOO FUCKING SHORT! It just is. It needs to be at least twice as long, and then it'd still be too short. I mean c'mon guys, The Tombs is like four minutes long! What the hell?! I need to play this fucker on repeat like ten times to even begin to feel satisfied. So I'm expecting a full length real soon, like pronto, hear? Ok, good. That's settled then. Now onto what we actually do have here on this (way too fucking) short ep. Hatewaves plays a heavy, dirty mix of hardcore and grind that borders on power violence. The songs are (too fucking) short and to the point, like miniature nukes going off one after the other, in rapid succession, sometimes pried apart by weird interludes with samples and instrumental bits (well, one instrumental bit, really). There's lots of movement from blasting speeds to rumbling slow heavy parts but they are all (too fucking) brief so there's not any chance whatsoever of becoming bored for even a microsecond. The vocals are midrange burly screams which is awesome and a nice change to all the manic, high pitched pig-like shrieks and/or guttural, cookie-monster-throws-up-in-the-toilet-bowl growls that are so prevalent in heavy music these days. Like the equally (too fucking) short Taste The Beast ep before it, The Tombs is a rumbling monster of hardcore fury, but this time the music is more narrowly focused and nastier sounding. And a shitload heavier. These guys are moving in the right direction with what they're doing. I only wish they'd do it a little bit longer next time. You know like maybe ten minutes? Is that too much to ask? Oh, and what the hell's up with the cover art? I mean, seriously?

Life made me Hardcore

Dead Language - Dead Language
2011, Iron Lung Records

There's something strangely disconcerting about Dead Language's music. There is an almost overwhelmingly oppressive sense of claustrophobia, rage and paranoia coming off from from these songs, reminding me of Corrosion Of Conformity's Animosity record or the first Die Kreuzen album. And while I can't quite put my finger on it, there is a feeling of a lot more going on here than meets the eye. As if there are hidden layers somewhere in there that I just can't seem to get at. I also get a distinctly Black Flagish angst-ridden vibe that isn't really present in the music itself so much as in the overall tone of this lp. Dead Language (which feature members from Iron Lung, Walls, Low Threat Profile, Running For Cover and the mighty No Comment) plays a nasty form of heavy and fast hardcore that's neither very punk nor very metal, but altogether its own, unique, entity. At times it reminds me a bit of Total Abuse and Ceremony as well as the aforementioned Low Threat Profile or Iron Lung, but Dead Language never really goes all in on the power violence and grind elements, but rather does it's own thing, incorporating those elements without overstating them. The majority of the tracks are short and fast and ferocious, with a real sense of urgency to them, almost panicky, with a lot of emotional turmoil and tempo shifts weaving in and out. There are plenty of hooks and breakdowns and tons of amazing riffs but they never last more than a few seconds, which fit these songs perfectly. The vocals are fucking amazing as well, sounding at times like a hungrier, nastier lower-register Mike Williams (EyeHateGod and Arson Anthem). There is almost no breathing space at all within these nine songs except for maybe the nine minute closing experimental track, fittingly titled Misanthropy, but that's what makes Dead Language's music so utterly devastating. It makes you feel like you can't breathe; as if your life is in danger. I've already lost count of how many times I've listened to this. This could, seriously, be one of the best hardcore records I have ever heard.

What is it? Caught in a mosh!

Xibalba - Madre Mia Gracias Por Los Dias
2010, Southern Lord

On Madre Mia Gracias Por Los Dios, Xibalba lays on some thunderously heavy, downtuned hardcore with a huge side order of chugging metal. It all reeks of Hatebreed, NYHC, old school death metal, Slayer and in their heaviest moments, Korn (!). It's all suffocatingly heavy but in a really good way. I'm thouroughly impressed with the way the band manages to bring that massive weight into the faster tracks (like Obituary) without losing any of the heaviness. Despite the fact that I rarely listen to this kind of hardcore/mosh metal, I 've found myself spinning this album quite a lot lately and enjoying the hell out of it, so Xibalba are, obviously, doing something right.


Harm's Way - Isolation
2011, Closed Casket Activities

Isolation is the latest effort from this Chicago-based hardcore act and it contains a singularly effective mix of heavy filthy hardcore and metal. The album is a seething mess of fury and restraint that immediately takes a chokehold on the listener with the churning noisy power violence intro to Scrambled and keeps that grip tight like a vice for the duration of the album. The music only rarely strays above midtempo (often wallowing deep in the swamps of sludgy power violence and doomy metal) but manages to maintain a brilliant sense of dynamic throughout. The album twists and turns from tiny noisy interludes, to almost industrially tinged metal parts (featured most prominently in Becoming) and old school death metally d-beat hardcore and then back again to chugging moshy breakdowns. The band obviously has a great eye (ear?) for detail, which is something that really brings the songs on this album forward and gives them a stronger sense of structure and an added push, be they churning ominous melodies, dissonant twists or awesome drum fills. Closer track, Pretender, is one of this year's best songs, any and all categories.

10.000 lawyers dead on Robertson/Felt good to just kick back and look at'em/We were fucking laughing at them

Despise You/Agoraphobic Nosebleed - And On And On
2011, Relapse Records

Having been a long time fan of Agoraphobic Nosebleed and the band's particular, ever-evolving, brand of grindcore, I was immensely stoked to see the announcement of their brand new split with power violence old timers, Despise You.
Since I've never really familiarised myself with the latter I was shocked at how completely and utterly Despise You annihilate their partners on this album. Don't get me wrong, I love the AgNb tracks, which range from sludgy slow-as-fuck-moving deathrumbles to vicious grinding assaults, but they're completely overshadowed by the californian power violence act, who incidently may have recorded the most awesomest cover in all of christendom, with their version of punk-icons Fear's old school hit I Don't Care About You (this time titled Fear's Song and with updated lyrics).

This split album, released by Relapse Records, rips through 25 tracks in just over thirty minutes and the styles displayed by the bands work really well together, with Despise You maintaining a very solid hardcore punk snottiness all the way through the tracks and still managing to unleash short amazingly entertaining grinding power violence attacks weaving in and out of the songs; while Agoraphobic Nosebleed's machine-like cybergrind feels less organic, though no less entertaining. The band has forsaken (well, to some degree at least) the insanely short machine-drum grind explosions for which they've become famous, for a more structured, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-breakdown-verse-chorus sort of songwriting, which works surprisingly well for a band like AgNb. Vocally, this time around, they've opted for Jay Randall's raging, snarly vocal style, which in my opinion works better than Katherine Katz's kind of feline and less cohesive voice.

I can't stress enough how amazingly great this album is. I've been listening to it constantly since its release and I just can't seem to stop. This is for all power violence fans who remember the good old days of Slap A Ham Records and were amazed by bands like Infest, Spazz, Man Is The Bastard and Charles Bronson.

To listen to a couple of Despise You tracks off the album just click the banner below.