Ripped To Shreds

The fifteenth installment of Metal Blade Records’ popular Metal Massacre compilation series takes the stage.

It all started in 1982 at the very beginning of the storied label. The first Metal Massacre compilation had some incredible artists contribute to it including Cirith Ungol, Avatar, Bitch, and Metallica. The anthology was an annual event for many years until the end of the 1980s when the new ones started to come out only sporadically. It is nice to see the fires lit again for the first time since 2016.

Here is what is on the new compilation. 01. Midnight, “Masked and Deadly” (exclusive), 02. Poison Ruïn, “Demon Wind,” 03. Fuming Mouth, “Master of Extremity,” 04. Many Suffer, “The Trees Die Standing” (exclusive), 05. Temple of Void, “Leave the Light Behind,” 06. Ripped to Shreds, “撿骨 (Bone Ritual)” (exclusive), 07. Rude, “Omega,” 08. Midnight Dice, “Starblind,” 09. Smoulder, “Warrior Witch of Hel,” and 10. Mother of Graves, “In Somber Dreams.”

As you can tell from the contributor list, there is quite a range of music here from straight up heavy metal to punk to death metal to doom and all points around and in between. It is worth noting that a few of these tracks are exclusive to this release (marked above), at least for now. That’s a good reason to check this album out along with the rest of the solid tunes.

Metal Massacre XV is out on Friday May 21^st through the label at the link below. Recommended.

Links.

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

A Grindcore / Death Metal split to raise your weekend from the dead: Exhumed from Eastern Tombs.

Brain Corrosion is a Grindcore band from Taiwan. There is not a lot of information about them besides their Facebook page which reveals they are a trio and they have released an EP, a demo, and two splits since 2009. On the new one, they contribute eight short brutal hammerings with loud brittle percussion, elaborate coarse vocals, and a few audio clips to fill out the episodes. Three of the songs are also on an EP available at Bandcamp called Legal Innocence from 2017 (I am not sure if these are new versions on Exhumed). They are ripping it up and cleaning out your pipes for about 13 minutes – it’s a treatment you need some time to recover from before taking again.

Ripped to Shreds is a San Jose Death Metal band that is the creation of mastermind Andrew Lee who has different bands for live performance in the US and in Taiwan. There are several Ripped To Shreds albums out, including the new full-length Luan that was released in April this year. For Exhumed, there is one new track, “Rotting Stenches Unknown,” and three short covers of well-known Hard/Grindcore songs. The new song is in the Death Metal vein, and it is right on the edge of Hardcore as is rears back and splits your cerebellum with intense ectoplasmic energy.

This is the first time I have listened to either band. Exhumed From Eastern Tombs is a worthy introduction and puts you on the right path to find out more about these bands if you like what you hear.

Out now, you can joined the excavation at Bandcamp. CDs, t-shirts, and bundles are there, too. If you go specifically to the Ripped To Shreds Bandcamp page for the split (second link below), there are also vinyl variants for sale that are scheduled to ship in October.

Links.

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/exhumed-from-eastern-tombs

https://rippedtoshredsdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/album/exhumed-from-eastern-tombs

https://www.facebook.com/braincorrosion

https://braincorrosion.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/rippedtoshredsband

https://rippedtoshredsdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/