Grindcore

Nuclear Holocaust, Sailing The Seas Of Nuclear Waste (Selfmadegod 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Sailing The Seas Of Nuclear Waste is a fitting return to full-length form for Poland’s Nuclear Holocaust.

It all started 2015 when the grindcore first started to percolate in Poland as Nuclear Holocaust. To me, it is the thrash punk elements that stand out brightest on their newest work, but in it and in their music from the past you will find a variety of styles and essences. They have so far released two long-players and splits with Leb Prosiaka, Expurgo, and Straight Hate (among others) to go along with their live record and a compilation in 2020. The band is Bloodseeker (vocals), XXX-Bomber (guitar), Overkiller (drums), and Doomtrigger (bass).

There are sixteen tracks on the new album ranging in length from fifty one seconds to one hundred twenty eight seconds. So, in every case, we could say these are sharp punches to the throat, a loud battering to your ears. For example, the first track, “The Last Day of Serenity,” is those things in spades. It is a menacing blender, with gruesome, croaking vocals and belligerent rhythm. The very next song has those underlying qualities in general, too, but it is lighter in aural spirit, despite its title: “Mutant Blitzkrieg.” It is almost pop punk in its clippiness. “The Finishing Blow” has the harder edge of the first song and takes that idea even farther and darker. So, no, the music does not all sound the same even when fundamental similarities are present – each son has its own festering essence.

If you are listening to this album, you are looking for thrashy punk metal, and you’ve found the motherlode. “Undead Hordes Special Forces” is a beautiful spout of horrendous menace with killer riffage, and “Suicidal Paranoia” has a fine crackle to, like a good draw on a water pipe and what comes after that. I also appreciate the aggressive determination of “Like Lambs to the Slaughter,” and the unlikely pace of “Synthetic Sea.” In all, this hard-edged set is ultimately endearing in a black hearted kind of way. Recommended.

Sailing The Seas Of Nuclear Waste is out on Friday, March 3rd through Selfmadegod Records. Peruse the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://selfmadegod.bandcamp.com/album/sailing-the-seas-of-nuclear-waste

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Nuclearmetalpunks

Selfmadegod Records, https://selfmadegod.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Nuclear Holocaust, Sailing The Seas Of Nuclear Waste (Selfmadegod 2023)

Gravehuffer, Depart From So Much Evil (Black Doomba 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Crust thrashers Gravehuffer pull out all the stops on their fourth long-player, …Depart From So Much Evil.

Joplin, Missouri’s own Gravehuffer has been haunting stages and studios since 2010, and even before that under the name Krom. With three previous full-length records in their wake, not to mention the EP and a generous ration of splits, these musicians have been around the block a few times. The new record expands on their previous work and moves into spaces they have not occupied before. Gravehuffer is Travis McKenzie (vocals), Mike Jilge (bass), Ritchie Randall (guitar), and Todd Morrison (drums).

“Blueprint For An Early Grave” opens with a fog horn sounding an alarm and an evacuation notice. Some shit is about to go down. A clobbering riff follows, and a pumping rhythm that leads to the first growling stanza. It is a quick punch to the head, and it gets things rolling nicely. “Slayberry” is another short one, and it is more actively savage than the opener from every angle, but especially in the vocals that hiss into black metal territory now and then. Grisly. The back half is a hop-along reconnoitering, surveying the damage. “The Cryptid And The Iron Bird” expands the metal palette and spreads its wings into a longer form where a wandering can take place. This song in a way presages the anchor piece.

“Brainstorm” takes a different approach, opening on acoustic notes, then proceeding to a creepy whisper. The acoustic guitar returns and you start to wonder where you are. Dual vocals and electric menace kick your cage, making the acoustic returns all the more unsettling. “Go Murder Pray And Die” is a screaming hardcore punk pummeling that has a tasty lead guitar break. Love this song. The big news, though, is the twenty-two-minute epic title track that waits for you at the end of the road. Solemn cello and emotional accompaniment lead off in a direction we haven’t heard before on the album. That is only the beginning, and, given the length of the song, you can imagine the ground that the composition covers. It is a journey of highs and lows, fasts and slows – growling and punishing and melancholy. It is an excellent suite in construction and execution. If you have never heard Gravehuffer before, this album is the place to start. Recommended.

Depart From So Much Evil is out now through Black Doomba Records. Snap it up at the links below.

Band photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://gravehuffer2.bandcamp.com/album/depart-from-so-much-evil

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gravehuffer/

Black Doomba Records, https://www.blackdoombarecords.co/

© Wayne Edwards

Gravehuffer, Depart From So Much Evil (Black Doomba 2023)

Tithe, Inverse Rapture (Profound Lore 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , ,

Tithe’s second album is an earthshaker: Inverse Rapture.

Created in the Pacific Northwest enclave of Portland, Oregon, Tithe has been forging dooming grindcore for the past six years. Infusing elements that could be described in a number of ways, Kevin Swartz (drums), Matt Eiseman (guitar, vocals), and Alex Huddleston (bass) are a trio that wakes the primordial and fashions it into their own dark designs.

“Anthropogenic Annihilation” is a swirling grind up front – perhaps the perfect opening for an album with this title and content. Doom is minced and mixed by the dominating weight of the riff and rhythm. Eiseman’s vocals are a threatening promise presenting an accusation. The hammering percussion is the tie that binds. Excellent. The title track follows, digging deeper into the gloom. It is a wailing of detached souls, lost for so long they no longer search but merely exist in a gyre agony. “Demon” is a short, ravaging piece that flays your exposed flesh. The tempo is blistering and unrepentant, leading into the funereal “Parasite.” These first four tracks are an enmeshing perfection of metal that squanders reason.

The longest song on the record is “Killing Tree.” It is ponderous at first, opening eventually into adjacent lands of dark wonder in the black metal wilderness then moves on to canyons of doom. “Luciferian Pathways Of The Forked Tongue,” coming where it does, is a kind of dismantling meditation that shucks the crust that has accumulated with it dervishly ways. The final notes are uttered in “Pseudologia Fantastica,” recalling “Demon” to some extent, but living its own crushing existence. The album has a relatively short running time yet packs a lethal punch at every turn. Recommended.

Inverse Rapture drops on Friday, February 17th through Profound Lore Records. Listen and buy at the links below.

Band photo by Taylor Robinson.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://tithepdx.bandcamp.com/album/inverse-rapture

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/tithepdx

Profound Lore Records, https://profoundlorerecords.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Tithe, Inverse Rapture (Profound Lore 2023)

Defleshed, Grind Over Matter (Metal Blade 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Defleshed have reformed and have created a new full-length album of blistering metal, Grind Over Matter.

Back when I first listened to Defleshed, I thought of them as a thrash band. Listening back on those albums from the 1990s, I can hear grindcore and death metal prominently as well. Whatever labels we might hang on them, the metal band from Sweden that is Defleshed was a major presence on the international scene in those days, but then in what seemed like the blink of an eye, they disappeared in 2005. Last year, the original core lineup got back together to record a couple of new tracks with the idea of including them on a vinyl boxset of their old material. The sessions went so well that what resulted was eleven new killer tracks that are collectively now known as Grind Over Matter. The band is Gustaf Jorde (vocals, bass), Lars Löfven (guitar), and Matte Modin (drums).

The album starts on “Bent Out Of Shape,” and with the opening notes we are immediately reacquainted with Defleshed. The heavy chop and pounding percussion is a feast for your ears and a strain on your throbbing jugular. Jorde’s vocals are as powerful as ever and the pace continues to be bewildering. The title track cranks next, and it feels like a sort of call to arms. It is “One Grave to Fit Them All” that seals the deal for me – I love this song with its hook and de-balancing act. The title of the album really sinks in by the third song, too, and I start to wonder how much longer can they keep this up. The answer is eight more songs.

The tracks are hard and fast, and on the brief side, running two or three minutes each, which is more than enough to get the job done. Every song has the ability to flatten you. I really like “Dear Devil” for its absolute ferocity and “Blastbeast” – I bet you can figure out why from the title. The closer, “Last Nail in the Coffin,” is a hard and sustained crack to the neck, a flurry of furious metal. If you are a fan of Defleshed then you are going really like the new album. This record is also the ideal gateway drug for new fans. Recommended.

Grind Over Matter hits the streets on Friday, October 28th through Metal Blade Records in a variety of formats. Choose your poison at the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://defleshedofficial.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/defleshedofficial/

Metal Blade Records, https://www.metalblade.com/us/news/defleshed-announces-new-album-grind-over-matter/

© Wayne Edwards

Defleshed, Grind Over Matter (Metal Blade 2022)

Cabal, Magno Interitus (Nuclear Blast 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Danish deathcore band Cabal release their darkly charmed album Magno Interitus.

Springing up not long ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, Cabal is a relatively new band. Their two previous long-players, Mark Of Rot (2018) and Drag Me Down (2020), had all the signs anyone would need to see that Cabal was a rising force and that it had the potential to erupt. The new album, it turns out, is as deadly as spewing lava.

The show starts with an excellent sentiment, “If I Hang, Let Me Swing.” It is noisy, and loud, and sounds a little like what might happen if Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin were smashed together in an industrial hardcore press. There is a lot of shouting and screaming. Clanging abounds, and spacy warbles enter and exit. It’s a situation. “Insidious” leans at first toward the black metal domain before crooking a groove. The title track, next, is a sinister whisper, a dark insinuation, that turns brutal fast and lifts your hide away. The pace is down shifted a bit even as the sentiment harshens and penetrates. This album is a raking.

If you are in the proper frame of mind, this music will affect you. Watch out for “Blod af Mit” because it has a strong industrial stance and a plying energy. Listening to “Like Vultures” is a lot like taking a beating. “Plague Bringer” might be the clearest statement of musical intent on the record, and, in any case, it is the final word so it carries weight. This is not a casual album. It is not something you can take lightly. If you have darkness inside you that needs getting out, this music might be your catalyst. Recommended.

Magno Interitus hits the street on Friday, October 21st through Nuclear Blast Records.

Links.

Cabal website, https://cabalcult.com/

Bandcamp, https://cabalcph.bandcamp.com/album/magno-interitus

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/cabalcph

Nuclear Blast Records, https://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/products/sound/cd/cd/cabal-magno-interitus.html

© Wayne Edwards

Cabal, Magno Interitus (Nuclear Blast 2022)

Languish, Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation (Prosthetic 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , , ,

Arizona deathgrind band Languish see the future in the now on their third album, Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation.

Tucson, Arizona’s Languish having been plowing the musical fields of destruction since 2014. After an early demo, they opened the gates of the end times on Extinction (2015). Pausing for a split with Oryx, they then handed the waiting the world Unworthy three years later. Their music is a blackened death metal brand of grindcore that is a short blade to your kidney and another to your throat. The music is fast, load, and hard, and it keeps on coming. The band is Sean Mears (vocals), Zack Hansen (drums), Ryan Bram (bass), and Matthew Mutterperl (guitar).

There are eleven exterminating tracks on the new album. “Manifesto” is the first egg cracked, and it is an all-out high-speed assault on your self. It is a defining pummeling, a kind of outline for the rest of the set with its growling and grinding. The song starts fast and stays that way. “Last Legs” has a more oppressive ideology at the beginning but just as much heavy throughout. Then “Ripped Remains,” in a way, is the objective combination of the two. The rhythm and percussion coalesce to form the heart of the songs, establishing the baseline devastation while the vocals and careening features color in the darkness.

You can hear doom lines now and then, like at the front of “Parasite.” You always know the speed is not far away. Slower moments create drama and depth and are a significant part of the whole. The eeriness of “Failed State” is a fine setup for “Feeding The Flames,” a song which could be the banner anthem for the album. This is a great set, and I am hoping to see tour dates for Languish pop up soon because I can’t wait witness them on stage. Recommended.

Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation is out now through Prosthetic Records. Listen to it at all the usual places and examine the physical possibilities at the links below.

Band photo by Pablo Vigueras.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://languish.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/languishaz

Prosthetic Records, https://www.prostheticrecords.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Languish, Feeding The Flames Of Annihilation (Prosthetic 2022)

Abaddon Incarnate, The Wretched Sermon (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Irish grindcore band Abaddon Incarnate release their sixth album, The Wretched Sermon.

Abaddon Incarnate started out in the early nineties, and even before that under a different name. They broke ground with black metal and death metal, evolving over time toward the grindcore side of the field. It has been eight years since their last long-player, Pessimist, and fans are more than ready for new music. The band is Steve Maher (vocals, guitar), Bill Whelan (guitar), Irene Siragusa (bass), and Olan Parkinson (drums).

There are thirteen tracks on the new album, mostly in the short and savage territory. To wit, “Rising Of The Lights,” which opens the show. It is bewilderingly aggressive at the jump, with screeching vocals and positively pummeling percussion. “Veritas,” at seventy-seven seconds, is even more to the point. It is amazing how much the musicians can pack into to such a compact delivery vessel, from the squealing guitar instantiations to the insistent pulsing bass, the music is designed to disrupt.

With so many short, fast, loud songs, you might worry they’ll all run together, but they absolutely don’t. “Gateways,” one of my top picks from the album, has a killer lead break and a dire, eerie atmosphere unique to it – no other track on the album sounds like it at all. “Parasite” breaks sour and twists you up while “Into The Maelstrom” is a slight of hand behind a dark veil that raises a sense of terror throughout. Great song. “Resurrected From A Mass Grave” has a delightfully caustic groove.

The brevity works to advantage, overall – get in, do it, get out. “Isolation And Decay” is a long piece that stands apart because of its size and, more importantly, due to its unique construction. The song contains a few movements and pace shifts, although the intent itself never dissipates even when the sounds move from valley to mountain to sea. The last word is “Silent Indifference,” and it takes the set out on a howl. Killer track.

If you haven’t heard Abaddon Incarnate yet, it is time to get with it. Start here, because this album will shake you up. Recommended.

The Wretched Sermon is out on Friday, August 5th through Transcending Obscurity Records. Touch the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://abaddonincarnateband.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/abaddonincarnate

Transcending Obscurity Records, https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Abaddon Incarnate, The Wretched Sermon (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Wake, Thought Form Descent (Metal Blade Records 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , , , ,

Canadian death metal band Wake release their sixth album, Thought Form Descent.

From Calgary, Alberta, heavy music band Wake has built a career by being different, not just from other bands but also from their previous selves. Moving from grindcore and crust toward black and death metal, combining and fusing them, and adding whatever was right and deemed needed is a hallmark of Wake. Over the course of five previous long-players, a couple of EPs, and split, the music is as reliably earnest and unpredictable.

There are eight tracks on the new album. “Infinite Inward” opens like a melodic death metal song and travels on an arc that leads to more extreme environments. “Swallow The Light” has a rambler kind of feel to it in the opening bars, reminding me a little of Mastodon. “Mourning Dirge (Repose of the Dead)” completes the first triplet, sounding for all the universe like a battling starship in an uncertain scrap that could go either way.

After a transition piece, “Venerate (The Undoing of All)” leads the way into part two. The song is a big production with dramatic presentations throughout, pushing even more than the previous pieces, and that is saying something as, up to this point, the album has already been intense. “Observer to Master” plasters rage across the horizon, and then does it again, and then does it some more. “Bleeding Eyes of the Watcher” puts me in mind of sorcery and has me thinking the world is not what it seems to be on the surface. This is a steady one that climbs a mountain then explores the coastline on the other side. Unsatisfied, the music presses on to reveal horrors buried deep. That is where it leaves you. “The Translation of Deaths” is a short reflective cooldown.

I presumed this album would diverge from the previous one because the previous ones had done that very thing to their predecessors. The new album lived up to that expectation and, more than that, provided active entertainment, drama, and opportunities for introspection. Recommended.

Thought Form Descent is out through Metal Blade Records on Friday, July 22nd. Explore the possibilities at the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://wakegrind.bandcamp.com/album/thought-form-descent

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/wakeyyc

Metal Blade Records, https://www.metalblade.com/us/

© Wayne Edwards

Wake, Thought Form Descent (Metal Blade Records 2022)

Ernia, How To Deal With Life And Fail (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Spanish grindcore band Ernia release their second album, How To Deal With Life And Fail.

Formed initially from a couple of the members of Wormed, Ernia is a blasting grindcore band from Logroño, Spain that appears to value variegation, and perhaps chaos, in their musical compositions. Mainlining death metal into the grind framework and then cracking it in every direction has worked out for them. Following up on their self-titled debut (2016/18), How To Deal With Life And Fail might just be the ticket they are looking for because it is a major accomplishment. The band is Omar I. Sanchez (vocals), Gabrial Valcazar (drums, bass), Daniel Espinosa (guitar), and Daniel Valcazar (guitar).

There are thirteen tracks on the new album, all save one running under three minutes. “Farewell Sputnik” begins with a tinkle and a scream before moving on to flat out belligerence. “Q,” up next, has a very punk feel to it, and it goes out on a thrashing ravager ramp. Very nice. “Room Full Of Paper Cranes” is like a car that didn’t pass a state safety inspection going at a high velocity on a rough road until it breaks apart, with a nice little bass romp in the middle.

By now your senses are becoming a little frayed and you are only six minutes in. Suddenly, “Frustration Theory” brings the doom, and then “The Deer Chaser” pops it up for a while, making sure to slip in multiple chops and hacks. “Dharma” is a devastating deathpunk piece. “A Mute Florist” is a chainsaw in a beehive. It is one outlandish expression after another. The final song is the epic “Ikigai,” twice as long as any other on the album. It is surprisingly somber and sad in its first half, then otherwise after.

I am not sure what I expected from this album, but it definitely delivered – which makes little sense because I didn’t know what I was looking for. But there you have it. Recommended.

How To Deal With Life And Fail is out on Friday, July 22nd through Transcending Obscurity Records.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://ernia.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ErniaTheBand

Transcending Obscurity Records, https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Ernia, How To Deal With Life And Fail (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Morgue Supplier, Inevitability (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Grindcore vaporizers Morgue Supplier hit back hard on their new album, Inevitability.

Paul Gillis (guitar, vocals) founded Morgue Supplier more than twenty years ago. Joined by Stephen Reichelt (bass), the pair assemble brutal death metal and grindcore designed to disturb your sense of self. Both are also in Drug Honkey, but the music here is off in a different direction. Over the years, Morgue Supplier has issued two previous long-players and a host of EPs. It has been six years since their last full-length, the aptly titled Morgue Supplier, so we have been standing at the barricade for a while now. It was worth the wait.

The album begins in chaos with “Absurd Identity.” The opening bars are scrabbling madness. A beat and riff becomes discernable eventually, then it comes and goes. The vocals are the howls of a gored bull and the hiss of a diabolical serpent that is being crushed to death. The music is sorrow and suffering juxtaposed with active violent aggression and surrounded by confusion. “Closing In” comes next and is more linear, at least to begin with. It does its own share of twisting and curling amidst the screams, miasm, and turpitudes. “Empty Vacant Shell” completes the first triplet with a strangling odyssey of retribution.

An ominous transition piece brings us to the second triplet. “My Path to Hell” has a fairly clear narrative and “Existence Collapsed” lowers the doom on doleful listeners. The most impressive song on the record for me is “Thoughts of Only Darkness.” Clocking in at over eight minutes, the epic nature of the track allows for more development of musical ideas. It is a journey, but not a labyrinth – you begin to feel how it is going to unfold as you progress and you become part of the darkness. The title track is the cooldown piece at the end, offering closure but no hope. This album is loud and noisy metal that will leave you bruised. Recommended.

Inevitability is out on Friday, May 13th through the irrepressible Transcending Obscurity Records. Have a look at all the related merch and variants available for this release and I am sure you will be satisfied. Links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://morguesupplierband.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/morguesupplier

Transcending Obscurity Records, https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Morgue Supplier, Inevitability (Transcending Obscurity 2022)