DEAD MOON.

There's nothing to hide behind here, and it's not like Fred Cole needs to - motherfucker lays his whiskey-soaked soul out there on the regular - his wife Toody by his side, each of them slinging & swinging their rock-axes through the depths of murky vulnerability.

In the end, they always come through, and if there's one dude in rock 'n' roll who is on the same level that Lemmy is, legend-wise (it certainly ain't Ozzy any more, son), it's Mr. Fred Cole. Dude has been slugging it out on the stage for 48 years now, and the plan is that THERE IS NO PLAN (other than to keep laying it down on the daily until the day he dies).

With soul power like this, there's no need to worry about the immediate future from what I can tell.

Dead Moon - Hard Wired in Ljubljana

Link in comments.

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.

GAMMACIDE.

PURE FUCKIN' THRASH RIGHT HERE, SON…

712m.p.h. riffs blowing past your earholes all the way from Shitlicker, Texas, these fellas tore it up pretty fucking good back in the day - they even threw in some blast beats!

Blast beats in Thrash? That's what I said…

To these ears, I'd file this away next to some other stellar acts / albums by the likes of Sacred Reich or Dark Angel, and - for some strange reason - I get the same kind of feeling when I listen to "Cause For Alarm" from Agnostic Front.

You results may vary, but there is NO denying the power of the riff(s) on this one.
Truly a classic Thrash Metal album that hasn't gotten the love it should.

Gammacide - Victims of Science

Link in comments.

ANGRY SAMOANS.

No need for a punk history lesson here, instead we'll just get to the (leftover) meat of the matter as I finally get around to posting up again after the Turkey Day Madness (as it was around these parts anyways).

For your aural satiation today, I offer up a collection of the first four albums from one of L.A.'s earliest punk, er, "hardcore" bands. They remind me at times of a So-Cal version of the Dead Boys, but on different drugs, etc.

A classic bit of punk history here, grab it here... .

Angry Samoans - The Unboxed Set

Link in comments, (sorta).

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!