Apathy in the UK

The Rotted - Ad Nauseam
2011, Candlelight Records


Following searinlgy hot on the heels of last years Anarchogram EP, brit death metal quartet The Rotted's new album, Ad Nauseam, continues along the same lines as it's predecessor, dishing out fucking stellar death metal, painted with a brush dipped in punk attitude and sound as well as a murky hue of crustiness. These songs ooze a drunken youthful disregard and disdain for conformity and normalcy and flips the middle-finger at just about everybody ("fuck the left and fuck the right, stand straight or fall in line. No gods, no laws, no lies, until I die") even though these guys all must be in the thirties now. Which is impressive in itself because this type of attitude can often become just, well, sad, when done not quite right. But it's also impressive on another level, because that attitude and (a?)political fury was never really apparent in the band's past incarnation, Gorerotted. The band morphed into it's present form after Gorerotted dissolved due to "creative differences", that catch-all reason of seemingly all break-ups in the music industry. I actually didn't 'discover' Gorerotted until they were already gone, and even though I actually really enjoy their abrasive, dirty take on gore-death metal (which is a rare thing, since songs called Stab Me 'Til I Cum and Gagged, Shagged & Bodybagged, while funny, rarely inspire confidence in me, unless they're written by either Carcass or Exhumed) the music of Gorerotted doesn't even come close to The Rotted. I knew as soon as I heard the first few pummeling bars of opener Anarchogram Sun, with its stripped down, thunderous bassline, like some Bolth Thrower war machine, rolling over a heavy d-beat, that I would fucking love this album. And each song thereafter only solidified that first crucial impression. There are a few tracks that harkens back, somewhat, to the bands gorier more technical style as Gorerotted but they never fully commit to pure Carcass worship anywhere on the album, which, to me, benefits their style, as well as the album. Some of these songs are ridiculously catchy. And I mean this in a good way. At times The Rotted remind me of a less technical, brittish, version of Misery Index, with their equally punky attitude towards modern death metal. And while we're on the subejct of bands I'm reminded of while listening to Ad Nauseam, there is a huge Entombed vibe going on in Non Serviam, with its anthemic, fist pumping chorus of "I will not serve!" and chugging, very basic, very 'metal-y' chord progression. And it's perhaps that, at times, simplistic style that attracts me to The Rotted's music. Don't get me wrong, these guys are are highly proficient musicians and really talented song writers. And it's exactly that great ability to use simplicity to their advantage that, at least in part, make them such great song writers. Why complicate shit when there's no need? There's enough diversity here to sate anyone into this kind of drink- and drug-fuelled (they're brits, so of course substance abuse is heavily involved here: I mean they have songs called Drink Myself to Death and Angel Of Meth) sonic rebellion. Admittedly the brunt of the music is fast, often ultra fast, with hyper-speed tremolo picking and blast beats, but there's lots of variation and lots of different moods displayed on Ad Nauseam even though much of the fare has a real solid in your face 'fuck you' attitude to it. This is for fans of death metal and hardcore punk alike. Killer shit for real.

On Earth as it is in Hell

Yeah I know, it's been a while. I won't make excuses, I won't pretend you really give a shit if this blog exists or not and I won't waste anymore of your or my time with this preamble. New shit I've listened to these past few days reviewed below.


Sulaco - Build and Burn
2011, Handshake Inc

Sulaco has been around since 2003 and even though I've seen the name around and heard of them I'd never made an effort to actually track anything of theirs down. It turns out I'm a bit of a fuckhead. Because I should've. Sulaco oozes energy from every available pore and orifice. There is a Converge-meets-Trap-Them sense of unstoppable urgency going on here that's impossible to not get hooked on. There are semi-mathy prog parts, lots of insane almost b-horror movie like melodies and a huge dose of Brutal Truth grindness/weirdness, both rythm-wise and in the riffing. The more I listen to this album the more I get an almost caleidoscopic feeling off of Build and Burn. I mean, shit there's a huge death metal presence here, loads of dirty punk as well as an almost, well, dare I say it...emo-esque sense of melody. There are heavy as fuck sludgy, almost doomy, parts and there are pure blast beat sections that weave in and out of it all, often driven by those mathy odd horror movie melodies. I am so incredibly pleased to have finally gotten my shit togehther to listen to Sulaco because it's most definately worth it.


Young Hunter - Children of a Hungry World
2011,

Young Hunter, hailing from Tucson, Arizona, sounds like they just stepped out of a time warp straight from the late sixties and they spin huge, epic doom yarns mixed with drugged out psychedelic rock and stoner elements in a way that completely blew me away. There are even black metal-ish segments thrown in for good measure, with blast beats and all! Amazing. This is living-in-a-van-smoking-dope-kinda-music, it's I-wanna-move-to-the-desert-and-do-peyote-music, this is Charlie-Manson-is-a-friend-of-mine-and-he's-groovy-kinda-music. With a modern twist that somehow eludes my attempts to pin down. Imagine mixing Jefferson Airplane, Black Sabbath and Kyuss and letting it all pass through the digestive system of both Boyd Rice and Hunter S. Thompson. That's what Young Hunter sounds like. Kinda. Their stuff is available through bandcamp. Go there and listen for yourself.


UFO Gestapo - Grandemmisair
2011, Streaks Records

Grandemissair is the latest offering from vaguely proggy, heavy doom dealers UFO Gestapo. There's a huge Sabbath presence in these songs but there's also a dirty, ADD-kind of punk vibe going on that's a bit Black Flagg-y if you get my drift. This isn't only all-out sludge in the EyeHateGod sense of the word, but there are lots of loose structures here, lots of weird, noisy parts and lots of spaced out jams. But there are also brief, wicked, blasts of unrestrained hardcore fury, that break up the plodding monotony that's inevitable in this kind of music. There is a strong sense of 80's hardcore to some of these songs, reminding me at times of bands like Flipper and early The Melvins. I know next to nothing about the band except that they're apparently from France and that this is their second full length release so far. Really good stuff.

Relax, it's only paranoia

Amebix - Sonic Mass
2011, Easy Action Records

It's been a while since the last time Amebix released anything, and even though they seemed to be on a permanent hiatus for a long while, there must have been some sort of smouldering remnant left of the fires that used to rage in them, because now they're, finally, back with a new album. Last year they released an ep, as a taster I guess, but it kind of flew by me without making any real kind of dent. But fuck shit Christ Almighty this full length album is seriously killing me! I don't think I'm jumping the gun here when predicting that this will most assuredly be on many a year-round-up lists. It will definately be on mine. What the band has done here fucking boggles my mind. I can't properly express how wild, confusing, beautiful, dark, aggressive, deep, filthy and poly-levelled this album is. It's like the old Amebix, but with sprawling Cthulhu-ian octopus arms and trunks that reach much farther than the old band ever did. They now sound like Amebix circa 1985 mixed with bits and pieces of Killing Joke, Neurosis and a dozen other bands I can't think of at the moment. But it's still not a close enough description of what the band sound like. There are times at which they sound eeirily like their younger selves the way they sounded in songs like Largactyl, Nobody's Driving, Axeman and Drink And Be Merry; crusty rumbling metallic bass lines covered by rugged, barbed-wire guitars and vocals that makes children and senoir citizens pee themselves. At other times they're like some atavistic, mutant remnant from the dark, plastic, faux art decco caverns of the new wave-80's where synths paint deep dark murals over which sparse rumbling bass and clean guitars weave in and out. There are aucoustic parts, paired with clean somber vocals, as in the amazing title track and the equally stunning, fucking epic, opener Days and there are nasty flurries of filth and rage as in the massive, mauling Shield Wall or Sonic Mass Part 2. There are huge, monumental songs (not necessarily in length though - only three of the ten tracks are longer than five minutes) that take multiple listenings to even begin to take in and there are shorter, much more direct songs that hit you like a hammer. I am so excited by this album it's ridiculous. This is how music should make you feel. I just hope we won't have to wait another twenty-odd fucking years until the band releases another album. But if they do and it's anywhere near Sonic Mass, it'll definately be worth the wait.

Face the feast of powder

Death Grips - Exmilitary
2011, Third Worlds

Brutal, noisy, weird avant garde hiphop. That's what this is. Dunno who made it, dunno why and I don't really care. All I'm concerned with is this: It kills! The scope of my knowledge of hiphop/rap has never been what you would call encyclopedic or even vaguely moderate. Sure I've listened to the sassy swinging sounds of the Beasties, the politically potent pontifications of Chuck D and his soul brethren, the equally politically laced lamentations and litanies of Consolidated and maybe a few others, but in all honesty, rap never really did it for me. That is, until I heard the Exmilitary mixtape by Death Grips (I have no clue why it's called a mixtape. To me it's an album, but hey what the hell do I know?). This is some whole other level of shit right here. This is downright evil. The beats are huge and oftentimes kind of odd and the music, most likely collected and scavenged from hundreds of places, is fierce and not a little bit disturbing, in a Whitehouse/Sutcliffe Jügend kind of way. Not that this is anywhere near any power electronics kind of territory, it's just that it's noisy and unhinged and more than just a bit bipolar. As are the vocals and the lyrics, that are often like stream of consciousness style rantings and at times really confrontational and aggressive. Check out the band's (is this even a band?) website for free downloads, webstore, videos and lyrics. DON'T miss this, whatever you do.

Dead stare for life

Low Threat Profile - Product # 1
2010, Deepsix Records

Low Threat Profile - Product # 2
2011, Deepsix Records

Damn. This must be some of the most intense shit ever to be pressed on vinyl since Corrosion Of Conformity released their Animosity lp, way back when. That album scared the living shit out of my younger self. It scared me and yet it drew me in like some evil black vortex. I remember being shocked to the core of my being and totally blown away by Mike Dean's fang-drippingly rabid and barely human vocals on Prayer, Holier and Kiss Of Death; how he snarled and raged like some sick cornered animal; how the music was the most viscious, bass throbbing, distorted nightmare sounds I had ever come across in my fifteen years of living. It was some seriously sick twisted shit and my younger self was so not ready for that.
This was in the good old days of vinyl records, lyric sheets and proper album covers and attention spans that spanned... well, more than just a few bars on each track - and back then you actually made an effort to listen to the albums you bought, were given or had stolen. So even though Animosity was a horrific fucking soundtrack to a nightmare I stuck with it and learned to love the album and began regarding it as one of the absolute top ten albums of my life. As I still do. What still resonates with me now, a whole bunch of decades later, is the unrelenting force and raw primal rage the album displays; it's like diving into some completely alien mindset where the main psychological driving forces are stark paranoia and mind numbing fear. It's a journey deep into some unknown dark, humid abyss, where there is no light at the end of the tunnel, no reprieve from the weight of the darkness around you, compressing your lungs, slowly choking you. It's that fucking good.

Just like these two records by Low Threat Profile. They are the epitome of what hardcore, in my opinion, is all about. Raw, undiluted, unbridled emotional turmoil. These two releases are like miniature nukes, containing short, wicked fast bursts, extremely well executed, of feral, raging hardcore. The band comprises a veritable whos's who of power violence veterans and hardcore notables and these guys bring the thunder way beyond any of my preconceieved notions or expectations. Product # 1, being a seven inch, contains eleven songs while the lp (Product #2) contains fifteen and together they make up a discography, even though it's short so far, that utterly annihilates everybody else in the game today. Except maybe for Dead Language, who they share members with. There is so much to take note of here: the production, which is clean and crisp, and, though perhaps a bit on the dry side (on the lp), very open and suitably heavy; the to-the-pointness of the songs themselves, short, aggressive but always fully developed with great bass runs underneath the guitars; the amazing vocals of Andy Beattie, that are some of the best in the history of hardcore, oftentimes sounding eeriely like Tom Araya; as well as the intensity and atmosphere of the music. It is obvious these cats have been doing this for a while and aren't some arrogant newb knowitalls. The songs on these two releases are so forceful I get an adrenalin rush everytime I listen to them. The songs are all very distinct and memorable which in itself is a rare thing in this genre where songs have a tendency to blend together and sound sort of the same in the end. None of that shit here though. I can't say enough positive things about these two records. If you like your hardcore fast, primal, sweaty, angry and vaguely mentally unstable, Low Threat Profile should be the fix you've been jonesing for.

And yes, I'm aware that I've mentioned C.O.C as an opener in a review of a band with members from Infest, No Comment, Iron Lung, Lack Of Interest etc two times now, but it just worked out that way and I truly don't give a damn and besides, Animosity is one of the best hardcore albums ever recorded, so there.

I see the evil in your savage heart as it cuts right through the sky

Today Is The Day - Pain Is A Warning
2011, Black Market Activities

Today Is The Day is back with a new album, new members and, partially, a new sound. The band has almost completely sloughed off any remnants of the psychedelic, progressive noiserockiness they've become known for and, to a certain degree, trimmed down the material into more traditional rock n roll structures. This makes for some - probably intentionally - bizarre effects, like the very AC/DC-esque riffage in the title track or the anthemic cock-rock chorus in The Devil's Blood. At the same time this trimming has opened up the playing field for a slightly more commercial sound, that is perhaps more accessible than some (or most) of their older stuff. Also there are some much calmer, somber - almost ballad-like - tracks on the album, one of which, titled This Is You, for some reason reminds me a lot of Tom Petty And The Hearbreakers. But, just because my overall impression of the album is one of restraint that doesn't mean the band has somehow lost their way artistically or musically. Not at all. Quite the opposite. The music on Pain Is A Warning is throwing off sparks in every concievable direction, positively seething with barely contained rage and with its paranoid gaze set on external enemies and internal demons alike. The album never goes off the extreme deep end like the band did on Kiss The Pig and Axis Of Eden, but lyrically everything still oozes with anger and a holehearted disgust towards the majority of humankind. I have a feeling Steve Austin wouldn't mind a serious culling of the human herd if it ever came up for discussion.

But wether this percieved misanthropy is only lyrical posturing, satire or heartfelt sentiment it is quite clear that Austin is one of the best song writers in the scene today. I find myself smiling like a rabid dog, my head bobbing in syncopation, every time I hear the Satyricon-esque riffs in the opening of Wheelin' or the epic Manowar-like grandeur of Slave To Eternity. This is vintage TITD only with the excess fat trimmed away, the vision more acute and the execution more precise. There is still some time before I've managed to completely digest the album but I have a feeling PIAW will be of of this year's top releases.

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.