THE ROCK THAT KICKED MY DICK IN THE DIRT IN 2K11.

First off, I - for the most part - fuckin' HATE year-end (so-called) "BEST-OF" lists.

I myself do like to make lists of good music, but fuck if one record is really all that much better than the other - at least when you cull it down a bit, ya know? There's a soundtrack / music for every moment in life, correct?

This list will be in alphabetical order, but other than that, you probably will only agree with me on four or five things on it. It ain't gonna be anything fancy either, basically cuz I don't have the time to do that - I need to get cracking on this instead.

Shit that hella-slayed in 2011:

ABNORMITY - IRREVERSIBLE DISINTEGRATION.
There's some CRAZY / COOL shit going on in Moscow…

ABSU - ABZU.
It's fucking ABSU, Bitches!!!

ACEPHALIX - INTERMINABLE NIGHT.
Way too fucking awesome for a shit-label like Southern Lord, sadly. They won't do anything with them, watch.

APOCRYPHON - 2011 EP.
Kick-ass death-grind from SF from the mind of Shelby.

AUTOPSY - MACABRE ETERNAL.
*Legend Status*

BIG END BOLT - MECHANICAL RACE CREATION.
More. Moscow. Madness…

BRAIN FAMINE - S/T EP 2011.
These guys hit me up personally, and while I do NOT promote new bands on The L-R V, these (two) guys fucking KILL IT.

CARLTON MELTON - COUNTRY WAYS.
My old pal Andy Zen Guerilla (drum-beast) churns out some early-Pink Floyd-isms for a new (de)generation…

CITIZENS ARREST - SOAKED IN OTHERS BLOOD.
*Daryl Kahan Alert #1*.

CLOUD RAT - S/T & FEVER DREAMS.
Young Michiganders who play the Powerviolence to my liking, indeed…

CONDEMNED - REALMS OF THE UNGODLY.
This is INDEED one of THEE VERY BEST albums of the year, kid.

DENIAL FIEND - HORROR HOLOCAUST.
Blaine Accused is on it. He ain't in the Accused no more. WTF!?!

DESPISE YOU - SPLIT W/ ANB.
I could two shits about ANB (Love ya, Witte - really). Despise You is more powerful than ever.

DISMA - TOWARDS THE MEGALITH.
Daryl Kahan makes the list TWICE!!!

DORAID - DEATH LINE CITY.
The Japanese will always be inherently cooler than any of us…

FINAL ASSAULT - DEAD BY DAWN.
Finlandia old-school thrash that certainly doesn't sound like it was made by a pack of 20-somethings…

FUTUR SKULLZ - S/T.
Some S.F. (former) math-rock heavyweights quit fucking around & decide to stop denying the power of the riff…

GOD HARVEST - 2011 DEMO.
One sheer ass-kicker of debut - this unit blows away their previous bands' legacies, etc. Wow!

HAZZARD'S CURE - S/T.
The new "Best Kept Secret in S.F." SO. FUCKING. GOOD…

IMMOLATION - PROVIDENCE.
Immo fucking KILLS. Always.

LOW PLACES - SPIRITUAL TREATMENT.
I didn't want to like this - thought it would be some Converge / Integrity worship - but nope… A39 Records never disappoints… HC still exists, kids.

LOW THREAT PROFILE - PRODUCT #2.
*Infest Alert! Infest Alert!*

MACABRE - GRIM SCARY TALES.
*Legend Status*

METH DRINKER - S/T.
Drug-Sludge from the lower colon of New Zealand. Don't forget to wipe!

NUCLEAR CULT - BETTER NIGHTMARES.
The future of hardpowercrustviolencecore…

ORIGIN - ENTITY.
I buy my strings from Paul Ryan at Guitar Center when he isn't on the road. He has (crazy) facial hair(s), etc.

PULLING TEETH - FUNERARY.
A total cock-punch right here. Like eating a handful of vicodins while drinking Everclear & then getting naked in a bathtub full of jello followed up w/ a blow-job whilst sky-diving w/o a parachute, er…

RAW RADAR WAR - WHITE DEATH EP.
*Shout out to my homie Jonah - the man does no wrong, ever. More RRW please!!!

SATANIC BUTCHER - ANTI-HUMAN THEORY.
Really wrong but oh-so-right Mexican Blackened Death. Yum!

SECTU - INUNDATE.
Cold Swedish tech-death that does not bore. Me. Anyways.

SUFFERING LUNA - S/T.
From out of nowhere they arise once again…

TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION - UBI NIHIL VALES, IBI NIHIL VALES.
"Hater" was great - as is thier total output - but this short blast is the perfect size…

TRIAC - ALWAYS MEANT TO HURT YOU.
Baltimore is a tough town, and these guys are proof of that.

TROGLODYTE - WELCOME TO BOGGY CREEK.
Joke band or not, this record serves up some rippin' Yeti-metal. Kansas City BBQ is vastly underrated, by the way.

VACCINE - CRIMES IN BLOOD.
Solid powerviolence - that means it sounds scary (like it should).

VISCERAL DISGORGE - INGESTING PUTRIDITY.
Baltimore-meets-Moscow (on many different levels). Not just in the Death Metal department…

VOID - SESSIONS '81-'83.
All you need, really. Fucking blow-away shit. You don't have it yet? Huh!?!

WAR MASTER - PYRAMID OF THE NECROPOLIS.
Classic-sounding Death Metal from Texas. I'm a stickler about young bands that emulate the old-school sound, but this record stands completely on its own w/o sounding "retro".

WARHEAD - NEVER GIVE UP.
Hardcore the way that only the Japanese can do it. Glad these guys are still slogging about…

So there you have it.
My list of the shit that came out in 2011 that struck a note in me.
I'm sure your picks are different - and that's ok, too.

FUCK 2011 - HAPPY NEW YEAR, ETC.

STATE OF CONFUSION.

Mid-Eighties manic / blistering hardcore from the mean streets of Boise, Idaho.

While there plenty of frantic moments on this recording, you will also find something "more" to their particular brand of hardcore - melodic isn't a good way to put it - but I'd say there is a bit of a Die Kreuzen sound that rears it's beautiful/ugly head now & then. You can't go wrong with that...

Of course they were pals w/ Pushead back in the day, but still… no one really gives two shits about this band. They added Doug Martsch on guitar down the road, and then they changed their name to The Treepeople. While a couple more people started to give a shit, that band eventually morphed into Built to Spill. Now I'm thinking that MAYBE three Built to Spill fans MIGHT actually like State of Confusion, or Treepeople for that matter.

Either way, this is a classic HC record from the culture-locked middle of Amerikka that is unique in it's approach to the genre.

A must-have.

State of Confusion - A Street

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THE CLASH.

Never-before published photo of the Late, Great, Joe Strummer, kickin' it down to the homeless in NYC.

Today's post is a tribute to the one & only Joe Strummer, who passed away nine years ago today. There is no need to expound on how much of an impact he made on myself and a million others on this planet - even in his absence, his legacy continues to matter…

R.I.P. Joe.

Happy Holidays to all of you who stop by here regularly to download, comment, etc.

The Clash - The Vanilla Tapes

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ROTTING.

So I'm digging around the 'ol internet to find some clues as to who these dudes were & where they originated from - Newmarket, Ontario / Canada is the place. It turns out John-Muthafuckin'-Candy is also from said suburb of Toronto as well.
Newmarket also claims that creepy fucker Jim Carrey as a former resident, as well as a ton of (of course) NHL greats, etc.
Anyways, that's enough in the Great White North history lesson for today.

Rotting were around in the mid-Nineties, and they played a "Canadian-styled" version of the Swedish Death Metal. Nothing unique, but nothing bad either. A solid listen for sure. Enjoy.

Rotting - Crushed

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ASBESTOS DEATH.

If you're a regular visitor here to the L-RV, then there's no fucking doubt that you're aware of who the fuck Asbestos Death was / is.
On top of that, this here live set sounds pretty fucking nice - especially since it's been 20 fucking years since this show happened.

They were unique at the time - most likely under appreciated - and you can hear the beginning of the "classic" Sleep sound coming into being (maybe just a bit less Sabbath worship). Either way, it's fuckin' beautiful…

Asbestos Death - Live @ Gilman St., Berkeley, CA 1990

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POISON IDEA.

The Kings of Punk make yet another return to The L-RV - I'm not quite sure, but they may hold the record for most posts around here - this time it's a great sounding bootleg from the classic "Feel The Darkness"-era. Solid as fuck all the way through, the Boys from PDX "take it out on a bunch of schoolboys" at U.L.U in London, U.K. on this one. Like I said before, great sound - a tad bass-heavy, but well worth more than a few listens. Great solos abound, and an on-point Slayer Hippy is always hard to beat...

Record Bootleggers Are Potential Millionaires

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(My proficiency in (a lack of) posting is part of the overall charm - actually, it's pretty annoying, right? Sadly, that probably won't change anytime soon - unless you want to pay my bills).

FLESHGRIND.

It seems strange to me to see a lack of love for this recording (according to various reviews on certain renowned metal "archives", etc).

While these deranged death-heads from Chicago may not have been the most unique, they were definitely killing it fourteen years ago when they released this fury of a record. Hints of Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, etc.
Not "groovy" by any means, but there's a feeling of "laid-back brutality" going on here which I really dig. Sounds like they might be holding back on the bludgeoning tempo at times. Interesting…

Fleshgrind - Destined for Defilement

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PINK FLAMINGOS.

So maybe that's not a photo of one of Gremany's oldest & greatest rippin' hardcore/powerviolence bands ever, but John Waters is indeed punk as fuck as well….
Blasting drums, crunching guitars, out-front caterwaul? These guys had it in spades. They had power to spare - they did a split w/ Man Is The Bastard - and had they been from the U.S. then possibly more people over here might recognize that.

Either way, I'm preaching to the choir here, or your about to embark a 34-song discography of yet another unsung HC band.

Enjoy - (all four of you that come by to download and actually comment)...

Pink Flamingos - Crippled Silence

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VILE.

You know, I don't venture out on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) much - I like to drive my car and shit - plus, I don't like being shot at by armed transit cops - they aim to kill - and they have been very sucessful in that aspect. Google "BART cops kill" if you don't believe me.

What the fuck does this have to with Vile?

Well, I do know that Concord, CA lies 30 miles east of San Francisco, and is the name of one of the main BART lines / stops. That D-Bag Tom Hanks & Luke Muthafuckin' Skywalker himself - Mark Hamill - were from Concord, dude! Also, according to Wikipedia, Concord at one time was also known as "Drunken Indian"!!!
Real fucking nice, pioneering Northern Californian forefounders…

Another thing that is little known about Concord is the affinity that the madmen from Vile have for bands such as Cannibal Corpse & Suffocation. It is apparent in their sound - maybe more so on the C.C. side of things - but they are more than merely aping said sound. These guys thrash like crazy, and - because they are from the East Bay - they have a tad of that "Exodus Attack" in their attack, comprende'? Good stuff.

Vile - Stench of the Deceased

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CIVIC PROGRESS.

Here's some somewhat recent (and totally fuckin' decent) hardcore - no metal in it - just straight up old-school first-generation American Hardcore from St. Louis, Missouri.

Lots of fast, noisy riffs, stop-and-go drums, bass lines rumbling right behind the guitars, and manic vocals over top. Although these guys were around in the last few years, these recordings have a "quality" about them that makes them sounds like they are straight out of 1983 or something.
Not retro by any means.

Now, I gotta give credit where it's due, and today I wanna give FASHIONABLE ACTIVISM a shout out for turning me on to these guys a ways back. Thanks for always being one of the best blogs out there - seriously - every post is gold, baby - and for the inspirado, etc.

Below you will find everything F.A. uploaded on his original post, as well as a few other C.P. gems that - as far as I can tell - round out their discography. If I'm missing something, or you have more info for me, let me know - the internet yield on these guys ain't much, but their "punk rock prowess" is indeed chock full of fury…

Civic Progress - Civic Progress

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RASH OF BEATINGS.

Eleven minutes of pain, paranoia, fear, anger, & "all-meat-no-filler" power-riffing, repeatedly pummeling you into submission.

I ain't never been to Fort Smith, Arkansas, but a town with "Hell on the Border" as it's motto, I can now understand how a band as fucking hostile & relentless-sounding (as these guys) came to be. They flew way under the radar, and it's not suprising that they were never on Relapse.

Pure fucking grind - that is hard to find these days. Get some.



Rash of Beatings - Rash of Beatings

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Off to Hawaii for a week - see you soon.

ANTiSEEN.

Pulled out an old favorite today - some "Destructo Rock" for you from the Queen City (Charlotte, N.C.).

ANTiSEEN is a veritable juggernaut of blood, hatred, barbed wire, washboards, un-PC thinking, & punk rock mayhem all wrapped up in a sleeveless flannel Confederate Flag.

Love them or hate them you're just gonna have to "eat more possum"…



ANTiSEEN - Eat More Possum

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SARCOFAGO.

This record was recorded on Satan's Wax-Cylinder Dictophone itself...
1987?
Brazil?
FUCK YES!

The guitars / bass / drums played on this recording were complete enemies - there is no "in unison attack here".
Said / alleged instruments attacked the fuck out of each other at all times, unreleting in their pursuit of domination!

Vocals that barely range out of the "I just got punched hard & repeatedly in the throat" area, but when it does venture up from the decrepit cesspool, they go for the outer orbits & hit that "angel screaming/dying in slow-and-painful agony" zone.

At times, this record almost sounds as though it is playing at the wrong speed - but man - it is SO fucking RIGHT…

NECROPHAGIA.

Leave it to a bunch of creepy fuckers from small-town Ohio way back in the early Eighties to create this first-generation thrashy-death metal masterpiece!

Horror lyrics, hints of gore, plenty of speed, a smattering of doom, buckets of brutal/creepy riffage, topped with layer upon layer of raspy "cretin-esque" vocalage - this is one of the very first death metal album that sounded like this, kids…



Necrophagia - Season of the Dead

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ICKY BOYFRIENDS.

There was never anything cool about these guys when they were around - do you even know who the fuck they are - probably not, unless you lived in S.F. in the Nineties & were into house parties, small shows at venues at warehouses, smoking speed, etc.

What the fuck happened to MY San Francisco?

The fucking bands that come out of here these days are so fucking ball-less / so fucking "not scary" / so fucking not original - of course there are a few exceptions - but for the most part, this town has become obsessed with sissy-haired white boys in women's jeans jumping about playing crappy pop-influenced BULLSHIT.

• Fuck your fixed-gear bike.


• Fuck your "weird beard".


• Fuck your coffee shop.


• Fuck your "skinny jeans".


• Fuck your "fully sleeved overnight" trendy tattoos.


• Fuck you fat "girlfriend" with the big sunglasses.

(The Icky Boyfriends were never appreciated when they were around - they still aren't - but they were fucking genius back in the days before the internet ruined everything that was cool. One of a kind band, really, but you won't get it)…





Watch the Icky Boyfriends' full-length movie
"I'M NOT FASCINATING"



Icky Boyfriends - A Love Obscene

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VOIVOD.

Everyone who visits here has a favorite era of Voivod (I'm assuming, of course).

I myself was weaned on those first three records in their discography, and it is hard for me to say those aren't my favorite, but when it comes down to it, I pretty much celebrate their entire recorded output.

I have a bunch of muddy-sounding live tapes from The Eighties that will always be some of my favorite musical things to listen to, and while Angel Rat is a record I don't pull out often, the demos for that recording have been quite compelling to these ears as of late. Gone from this one is the icy-screech of bitter cold Canadian thrash; in its place we find a spaced-out & discordant Die Kreuzen-meets-King Crimson vibe.

To put it in layman's terms,it kinda feels like you're riding out an opium high while floating along in arctic waters on a slab of sheered-off glacial ice, per se'…



Voivod - Angel Rat (The Demos).

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FEAR.

It shouldn't take much for you to realize that Fear was arguably one of the greatest punk/hardcore bands that ever took the stage.

As players, they were highly underrated in the chops/skills department - these dudes could play - and their style was unique.
Excellent songwriting, with some serious acid-tongued socio-political / motherfucker lyrics to boot.

Lee Ving needs to write a book, or have someone write this man's life story, as he has (so far) lead a seriously charmed life.

No need for me to keep preaching to the choir, so go for it and grab this great-sounding recording of the boys tearing it up in Hollywood on Halloween Night way back in 1979 - were you even born yet?

(I was twelve, by the way)…



Fear - 10.31.1979 Hong Kong Cafe, Los Angeles, CA

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BATTALION OF SAINTS.

Well, it's about fuckin' time those fighting' boys from "America's Finest City" made an appearance here, isn't it?
These guys walked it like they talked it - the majority of the early members never made it out of The Eighties alive, sadly.

Guitarist Chris Smith had a unique approach as far as HC guitar-playing went back then - you either loved it or hated it. Either way, you took notice of what these guys were doing when they came on, and I'm pretty damn sure you got the fuck out of there way when they were doing it.

I would think most of you have this already, but if you don't, now is the time to appreciate this classic hardcore material from the halcyon days of S.D.H.C…



Battalion of Saints - Second Coming

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. : FOUR YEARS OF L-R V : .

So, the Fourth Anniversary of Lo-Res Viscera came and went last week.
I'd say it went by without a bang, except for the fact that I was in Reno, downing some brews in 94-degree temperatures. I was in the midst of a week-long family & friends sabbatical to the North Shore of Tahoe at the family house up there. A week away from The City makes it so that I love my home even more…

I've been switching up quite a few things in my life as of late - new job, more time w/ my old lady & kid, done a bit of traveling this summer, had some downtime, etc.
Along with those changes come some visual changes around the L-RV as well. Trying to clean up the clutter a bit, keep it clean, etc. The content will still be the same old bullshit you've come here for - I'm speaking to all four of you, ha ha - and hopefully, I will start crankin' the content a bit more than I do now.
It's been bugging me that I've been lagging beyond the usual "one-post-per-week" pace that I usually roll with, and while I'm still not interested in inundating the internets w/ 4 or 5 posts per week, I am still gonna keep flying my freak-flag high as far as the death/thrash/hc/powerviolence/grind goes.

My ear hasn't changed a whole lot over the years, but I am fortunate (I think) to be one of the few who never "outgrew" the loud/obnoxious/abrasive stuff - in fact - my thirst for the chaotic/unsettling stuff is what calms the savage within myself more and more these days. I hope you feel the same, bro.

So… Enough with my long winded-ness, but let me just extend a thank you to those of you whom I have had the pleasure of hearing your stories about the bands we both like - it makes it worthwhile and is a big reason why I still do this. There will be some dust around the edges here and there for a bit, but in the end the music will be there. Thanks for listening. New post coming soon. Promise.

EXCRUCIATING TERROR.

The past month has been one filled w/ travel, beer, relaxation, BBQ, beer, good times & beer, so I thought I'd be a pal and punch you right in the dick via this unrelenting slab of violence & aural abuse courtesy of a few gnarly cholo-grinders from the Southland.

These guys came & went way too fast, but the good shit never lasts long, does it? If you're looking for a contemporary band flying this brand of freak-flag, search for BLOODY PHOENIX in the archives of this here blog (if you haven't got that already)...



Excruciating Terror - Divided We Fall

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VENOM.

Okay, so it's been awhile since the last post - nothing new about that - but I've been in Detroit & Mid-Michigan revisiting the family / old friends / new friends / dive bars old & new.


During a moment of clarity between the beer runs & bar runs, I split from my Mom's farm & headed in to "the city" for some free Wi-Fi action at the Wirt Public Library in Bay City & I posted up a little classic-something for you - enjoy!

"Lay down your souls to the gods rock 'n roll!

Metal ten fold through the deadly black hole,

Riding hell's stallions bareback and free.

Taking our chances with raw energy"...

Venom - Black Metal (Deluxe Expanded Edition)

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DETERIORATE.

First of all, look at that cover art and tell me how could this possibly suck? It doesn't.

There is a case to be made for small-town America in the fact that sometimes it is places like Penndel, PA that drive you to release that pent-up sameness of the day-in / day-out small-town mentality, and luckily for us, this is what transpired in the form of Deteriorate. What they brought to the table back in 1993 was some solid American Death Metal. Torturous throat bellowing, chunky riffs, fat bottom-end bass pummel, & some solid drumming driving the way through the cacophony.

A rare-as-fuck lost classic of the genre - relive it or discover it...



Deteriorate - Rotting in Hell

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RIPPIKOULU.

Glacial-expanse heaviness.
Down-tuned guitars drenched in treble.
Flatulent bass slinging.
Drug-coma sludge-pummel drumming.
Add a rusty tree-chipper of a throat to bring it all together & there you have Rippikoulu.

Sit back and "relax" as they create an excursion through some of the muddiest, coldest, HEAVIEST fucking death-doom your busted ears have ever heard.

Unlike most of the death metal that came out in the Early Nineties, these cold-filtered bastards from Finlandia certainly knew how to make one feel like you were in alone in the scariest place on earth (or hell..?) - (in a good way, of course). Fucking classic, bro.



Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia

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TERVEET KÄDET.

Some serious Discharge influence on this (of course) here fine record (aren't they all?) from the oldest hardcore band in Finlandia.

Interesting guitar tones; at times I am reminded of Killing Joke as far as that goes (a GOOD thing!), a ragingly-pained vocal delivery, & while the drum mix is flatter than Christina Ricci these days, the Healthy Hands are re-fuckin'-lentless in their attack from start to finish. There's some trippy/noisy/heaviness buried in here as well, which also makes for an interesting listen.

Not your typical European HC record by any means. This is quality all the way through, kid.



Terveet Kädet - Deep Wounds.

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CHILDREN OF GAIA.

The "City of Drizzle" (Sao Paulo) in Brazil is known for many things - great food & beautiful people being among those - but a vegan hardline metallic sXe band as well? Indeed.

Children of Gaia held it down for the better part of a decade with their dark & brooding take on the militant metalcore sound. Lots of heavy chugga-chugga, shit-tons of bottomless-pit breakdows, and a fury of deep-throated vocal anguish.
Their version of "thug core" is unique in that the leads (if you can call them that) aren't full of pick squeals and such - they keep it dark at all times. Good stuff if you have a soft spot for the old-school metallic beat-down HC…



Children of Gaia - I Pray to Watch You Bleed

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STRAW DOGS.

I'll have to admit that back in the day, I wasn't much of a fan of what the F.U.'s had become, but John Sox's vocal delivery intrigued me in a "WTF?" kind of way? Super-nasally, yet super unique - dude had some deep pipes to go along with that though, and that kept me wondering. "How the hell does he sing like that?"

Some riffs on this here record are some straight-up heavy metal 80's-style stuff, but I got hooked on that "Young Fast Iranians" jam they did, and while I've been a dude who preferred "a bit of metal in his hardcore", this record somehow worked for me. Seriously, there are some killer fucking riffs delivered on here. Take "Cavalry" for instance…

These days I prefer "a bit of hardcore in my metal", and these days, this record gets a lot more play around here.
Rockin' stuff from one of the best hardcore bands there ever was - don't let that scare you…



Straw Dogs - We Are Not Amused

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