HYDROPHOBIA.

We all know that the Japanese People are inherently cooler than the rest of us, & while these fellas from the oldest city in Japan may not have invented anything new in the grind/gore/death/grind department(s), they cull all the riffs, grind, pummel, blast, & shred from bands we all know & love (like Carcass / Brutal Truth / Cannibal Corpse, etc).

That's a formula that you can't go wrong with.

(To be completely honest, I found out about these guys by connecting w/ the bass player of this band on Instagram. He "liked" some of my photos, so I checked his out & his stream was interspersed w/ grind-metal madness & fluffy little puppies, etc. I'm all like, "WTF?", etc. I look a little closer at his profile & it says, "I play bass guitar in Hydrophobia.")
BAM!!!

There is still hope for the internet sometimes.

Hydrophobia - Human Shredder

Link in comments.

ASSÜCK.

Without a doubt, this record is 15 minutes of serenity - to these ears at least.

Assück melded the best of both worlds - grindcore & death metal - like no other.

There are no weak spots on this "album" - other than it only being 15 minutes long - but then again, this is all killer w/ no filler. Insane musicianship abounds here - shit, these guys would be killer in any genre w/ the chops they possess - but just because they are masters of their instruments doesn't mean they can't write sick riffs.

This record is a testimonial to the musical supremacy that these heavyweights from Florida possesssed. Essential!

Assück - Anticapital

Link in comments.

Yes, the blog is still active - not so frequent I KNOW, but unlike so many other blogs, I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE. November has been a crazy month here in SF (Giants World Series Win, Halloween, hangovers, work, real life, a Presidential election, more holidaze coming up, etc). Let's party!

BOLT THROWER.

Simply put, this is a masterpiece album that mixes the best of fast & heavy.

A total juggernaut of brutality, 23 years later it's still hard to beat.
Downtuned beyond downtuned, but with a sense of purpose, the riffs on this thing are top-notch.

Doom-laden & heavy, this record sounds like you're stuck in a giant, cavernous sewer pipe w/ the almighty Bolt Thrower pummeling you w/ their chaotic rock mastery from the other end; the double bass (just a bit behind) teamed with the thunder-thump bass lines of one Jo Bench the whole time creating an uneasiness that feels just right...

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)

Link in comments.

FOUL STENCH.

Take a big blast from the well-used & uncleaned bong of this "stuck in the Nineties" death metal scum squad from the "gem-covered streets" of Dayton, Ohio!

Foul Stench are stuck in the Nineties BECAUSE THEY WERE AROUND IN THE NINETIES, SON!

You won't find much technical merit here for the most part - just big FAT riffage, deep groove, caustic thrashing, and a big smattering of "cough-to-get-off" guttural bellowing over the top.

Sprinkle some of this shit on your bowl- a band that doesn't take itself too seriously, yet GETS THE FUCK DOWN in all seriousiness, Foul Stench is worth checking out.

Foul Stench - Eternal Rot

Link in comments.

Back from Michigan - it was hot as fuck - (just like your mom)...

ENTOMBED.

Pretty much a perfect album all the way around…

It's funny / sad to me to think of how many new bands have totally copped this sound, and are making way more money than Entombed ever have - worst part of all is that most of the kids these days don't realize this. Hopefully, they will be smart & go back to check out the originators of the Swedish Death Metal Sound, ya know? (Sometimes the internet ruins everything).

This record is 22 fucking years old now, & it still shreds giant hairy rhino balls all fuckin' day.
Swedish Death Metal that set the standard - FUCK YEAH!!!

Entombed - Left Hand Path.

Link in comments.

GRAVE.

Absolute perfect early Swedish Death Metal played with stylistic perfection. Heavy as fuck, relentless as fuck, and brutal as fuck.

This record goes straight for the jugular every second of every song. Tasteful drumming, dynamic riffing, and from-the-depths vocals?

Works for me…

Grave - Into The Grave

Link in comments.

DAMAGED.

I thought I'd start your new year off with some completely ugly neanderthal-styled grinding-death metal pummel-action all the way from Victoria, Australia - also known as the home of Victoria Bitter (Lager Beer, ya fuck!)

Damaged didn't get much respect when they were around in the mid-Nineties - at least not here in The States - but that hairy-fat-guy-in-the-cowboy-hat who sings for that "World's Greatest Grindcore Band EVER" (on Relapse) and writes for that fucking shit-awful metal magazine from Philadelphia - sang for them for a minute, so that is probably most people's introduction to these crazy Aussie Bogans.
It's hard to pin this band down - one minute they sound like a mid-era Napalm Death, and the next minute they lock into some chaotic groove that is as noisy & loud as it it is brutal & aggressive.

Definitely an intersting band / recording for the time. A hidden gem, per se'. Check it out.

Damaged - Do Not Spit / Passive Backseat Demon Engines

Link in comments.

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

Link in comments.

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

Link in comments.

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

Link in comments.

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

Link in comments.

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)

Link in comments.

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

Link in comments.

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

Link in comments.

ERODED.

I've been sitting on this one for a while now; it's so fucking good that I have had a hard time trying to figure out just how to describe this…

Japan has been home to some of the most brutal (and beautiful) bands on the planet - this band is a precursor to 324 - one of my favorite grind bands of any era.

While the grind rears it's underappreciated head in small doses on this here release, what you get most of the time is some solid thrashy/heavy/death-infused metal - all with a crazed, Japanese neanderthal screaming some beautiful guttural-speak over the top. It goes from heavy one minute, to stony as fuck the next. A great fucking record that to these ears would seem to be an inspiration to other Japanese bands like Swarrrm, 324, Taiho, Greenmachine, etc.

Fits great next to those expensive & out-of-print Hellchild records neither you or I own…



Eroded - In

Link in comments.

PUNGENT STENCH.

I have been obsessed with these guys once again - it's nice when the internet gets all "Zer" on you and stokes you by re-awakening you to bands you forgot about cuz your hard-drive is nearly 400GB deep…

Heavy yet catchy, this is classic old-school death metal with an in-your-face quality that I find quite enjoyable - the guitar tones on this are excellent / interesting ones - who plays a Tele in the death metal world, right? I dig that (I own one, as well as a Les Paul) about these Austrian madmen - a bit of bucking-the-trend, etc.

To (loosely) quote Bob Slydell, I myself "celebrate their entire catalog"...



Pungent Stench - For God Your Soul… For Me Your Flesh

Link in comments.

LIVING SACRIFICE.

Seein' as it's Sunday and all, let's get a taste of some straight-up rippin' thrash from these Little Rock, Arkansas metal "warriors for that God guy"…

Whether you are believer in that kind of stuff or not, there is no denying that this is a sick record. I'd say this is the Christian metal world's equivalent of Slayer's "Reign in Blood". There are many similarities, but it still has something all it's own. Nice old school rhythmic thrash riffs, better solos than Kerry King on most days, and lyrically they aren't bellowing in my ear to join them on their walk with Christ, so it's all good with me…



Living Sacrifice - Living Sacrifice

Link in comments.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately - my life has been consumed by THIS for the last month. I've been doing nothing but logging hours at work shipping, co-ordinating, lifting, packing & all the other logistics behind it. If you're into skateboarding, definitely check it out, it is fucking killer, and we're all proud of it.

Thanks for sticking around - all four of you, ha ha.

SEPSISM.

When I was a little shit of about 4 or 5 years old, I remember seeing an advertisement in a Thor comic book that featured a poster of a long-haired biker on a chopper wearing a denim vest with a skull and a rocker below it that said, "Pacoima".

I've never been there, but I do know that it's a tough little town on the edge of Los Angeles that claims some high poverty levels, mucho gang activity, etc. It's a very Latino community as well, claiming bad-ass actor Danny Trejo & "La Bamba" Ritchie Valens as residents.

That's your history lesson for today.

Sepsism also claim Pacoima as home, and are some bad-ass motherfuckers in their own right.
They put an unrelenting Southland twist to the vintage NY Death-Grind style; touches of Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, etc. yet they are no clone, mind you. Lots of nice chugging riffs, heavy breakdowns, hoarse gutturals, etc.
There is also plenty of blasting going back there on the drum riser, but they also have no problem slogging around in the viscera, ala' Devourment. You'll either love it or hate, you know how it goes around here…



Sepsism - To Prevail In Disgust

Link in comments.

CONVULSE.

Quite possibly the unspoken Kings of Old-School Finlandia Death Metal, Convulse always give me that rare feeling of aural bliss & contentment that I get from like bands such as Repulsion,Terrorizer, Morbid Angel, & Incantation.

While these guys don't really sound like any of those guys, they do bring tasteful/powerful elements of the aforementioned, along with that same kind of unbridled aggression that really warms my innards - mid-tempo drumming that leads to the heaviness, chaotic/buzzing distorto chugga-chugga riffing for days, & a thick-and-chunky guttural growl slathered over the top that brings about a foreboding darkness to your ears...



Convulse - World Without God

Link in comments.