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

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HELLCHILD.

One of my all-time favorite bands, this should not come as a surprise to many of you - it's most likely one of your favorites as well, no?

Hellchild bridged the gap between hardcore & thrash/death/grind with a sense of intelligence - even their burliest/heaviest/grindy-est moments came off with a painstakingly-heartfelt precision.
There was a lot of soul running deep in the work they put out there, and Harakawa is the fucking BEST when it comes to gutturals in my opinion.
His pipes bellow the most beautiful of all pain, desolation, madness, sadness & anguish I have ever known.

If you didn't already, you certainly won't now - this is for the rest of US.



Hellchild - Circulating Contradiction

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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

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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.

BEOWÜLF.

The Mid-Eighties Crossover / Thrash phenomena has always been a favorite of mine - I'm not afraid to admit that. As a culture-locked teenaged skate-punk growing up in mid-Michigan in those days (I think I've mentioned that before), those bands just spoke wholeheartedly to me.

For me, bands like Beowülf fueled many a heated session, or a long late-night road trip to infiltrate spots in cities far away. While they may have been overshadowed by the infamy that was garnered upon that "other" band from Venice, these guys slung a mean vato-loco thrash-style somewhat akin to the likes of, say, Motörhead meets Discharge, but definitely with that "gangsta flava" that Venice Beach is famous for.



Beowülf - Beowülf

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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

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