I Own Some Records

Robocop/Detroit - “Dead Language, Foreign Bodies” split (Give Praise Records 2012)

Being a huge fan of Robocop, the great, if not greatest movie about a robotic cop, buying a record by a band called Robocop was a no brainer.  Add the fact that there is another band on the record called Detroit, the city Robocop happens in, and well sheeet, I couldn’t give up my money fast enough.  

Turns out that the tunes on here are solid as well!  Robocop occupies the a side of this record.  They provide the listener with 6 solid grindcore by ways of brutal hardcore tracks that make stops along experimental electronics town.  I normally don’t dig of super clean production in my grindcore, but this side is just right, a perfect blend of thick heavy as fuck guitar tones and clean drums, but the vocals are insane and dirty, which helps keep everything in perspective. Or something.

Detroit, who come from somewhere in Canada, are the winners of bringing the mosh on this record.  They play that power violence stuff that seems to be all the rage worldwide right now, and they play it well.  Compared to Robocop’s side, this sounds like it was recorded in a closet, there is like no low end on here, probably so the brutal riffs sting your ears that much more. Or something.  Love this shit out of this.

-Log. 

SO MANY RECORDS TO LISTEN TO. 

Coffins - “Sewage Sludgecore Treatment” (Haunted Hotel Records 2013)

I loves me some cover records, when they are done appropriately of course.  For example, if you’ve ever heard Earth Crisis’s cover album “Last Of The Sane”, that is a cover record gone wrong.  It’s hilariously bad.  I’m not going to get into it because I’m here to review Coffins newest release.  Maybe a “what the fuck were they thinking” post will happen in the near future for that Earth Crisis record though.  That would be fun, I haven’t done one of those in a while.  

Coffins have always been a band that proudly wears it’s influences on its sleeve, usually including covers of major influences on their releases.  But generally Coffins will stick to what they are known for; sick, plodding, brutal as fuck death metal like Autopsy and shit like that.  On this here platter of sickness, Coffins explore their sludge and doom metal influences a bit further with a 5 cuts of the choicest cover tracks from Buzzov.en, Eyehategod, Noothgrush, Grief, and Iron Monkey.

The songs are as awesome as you imagine them, Coffins always do their covers justice.  The one thing they do differently, which is hardly a problem mind you, is that rather than delivering vocals in their normal guttural style, they opted to deliver them in the styles of the originals, with screamed vocals.  Not really a problem.

So go over to Haunted Hotel and buy yourself a copy or dig yourself further into the hole known as poserdom.  

-Log. 

Dead Congregation - “Purifying Consecrated Ground” (Nuclear War Now! Productions 2012)

Dead Congregation has got to be my favorite discovery of 2012.  Like they reawakened my love of death metal.  This EP and “Graves Of The Archangels” are both incredible releases and you all need to hear them.  That’s all I’ve got to say about them.

-Log. 

Rotting Christ - “Apokoathilosis” (Nuclear War Now 2012)

Man, if there is anything I dislike more than double or triple LP’s, it’s any quantity of 7 inches beyond the first (in the same release).  Like seriously, it would be cheaper to just do a 1 sided LP.  Or a whole LP.  I hate having to flip so many fucking records.  

I’ll admit it, this is the first time I’ve ever listened to Rotting Christ, but it’s kind of cool, this box set collects their first three releases, so it’s kind of like I’m hearing them as they came out.  Or something.  Also the fact that this is a 3x7” is cool because it’s each separate release on each 7 inch.  So if I wanted to listen to each one about a year apart, it would be like listening to the releases as they were released! But that would be dumb.

So I listened to each of the records, and it’s pretty awesome to hear how the band evolved their style of Greek black metal, in both production quality and song writing.  The best tracks are the two from the “Apokoathilosis” EP, probably why they decided to name this compilation after it.  That shit is awesome, it’s got all sorts of variation in tempo and arrangement from the normal black metal formula; which they perfected on the earlier EP ” Ade’s Winds.”  I don’t know.  Now I’m going to have to track down the LP that came out after this stuff, because I’m totally into this.  

Crappy review.  My mind is elsewhere, particularly on the fact that I’m going to the A389 9th anniversary shows tomorrow.  

-Log.  

All Out War - “Truth In The Age Of Lies” (Organized Crime Records 2012)

Being probably the most popular band out of New York’s Hudson Valley (next to Shai Hulud who I only sort of count), just a half hour or so away from where I grew up, I naturally fucking love All Out War.  That being said, It’s pretty insane that it’s taken me so long for me to hear this.  Most of these songs were rerecorded on “For Those Who Were Crucified” but it’s pretty sweet hearing these early versions.  I will say tracks like “Fall From Grace”, which are new to me, are fucking killer.  You can really hear a new band that totally fucking loves what they are doing, and at the time this came out originally (1997) they were completely fucking unique.  I can’t think of any records from that era that so perfectly combined hardcore and metal, years before metalcore became a cliche of a cliche like it is now.  After finally hearing this, I do prefer “For Those Who Were Crucified” but I grew up with that album, and to me you can’t top it.  But had I never heard All Out War before, I would be bonkers about this.  So yeah, it’s pretty awesome.

-Log. 

All this new black metal stuff to listen to and no fucking time for it.  There is even more on the way too.  Who wants to party tomorrow, wear corpse paint, listen to these babies, and eat pizza until the world ends? And yes, I’m aware the Beherit album is one of their ambient ones.  

Anatomia - “Decaying In Obscurity” (Nuclear War Now! Productions 2012)

Nuclear War Now has been draining my bank account for years now, and it’s because of releases like this that they will be continuing to do so far into the future it seems.

Anatomia are a Japanese doom/death metal band.  Now I know what your are all thinking, “don’t these guys just sound like Coffins?” You couldn’t be more wrong (though they did do a split a few years back and it’s awesome).  Anatomia makes Coffins sound like a punk band in comparison to their brutal, slow, but complex death metal tracks.  On this record, Anatomia really broke out of the slow Autopsy mold, and have begun experimenting with atmosphere, making for a truly disturbing  death metal experience.  

The addition of keyboards and synth pads to the bands dirge really makes them stand out on their own.  Equal parts Paradise Lost (early), Winter, Worship, even a slowed down version of mid-period Sigh on some tracks,  ”Decaying In Obscurity” is totally worth picking up so you brag to your friends that you were into them before they were huge.  This record is stellar. 

-Log. 

Disleksick/Cum Sock -split (Coffin Crawl Records 2012)

It will always blow my mind how clear lathe records are.  Like they are almost not there! I just wish they sounded better.  Like they are always buried in surface noise. 

Not that fidelity would help these two bands.  Disleksick hail from the great white north, in London, Ontario, Canada.  They play violent, shitty (meant in the most positive way possible), fucked up noise grind, and they do it very well.  I want to say that they are like all the other blur/noisecore bands out there, but they have been doing this for quite some time, and really have carved out their niche in the genre.  Like this is sophisticated noisecore, with brutal riffs occasionally poking out through the feedback and blast beats.  Great side. 

Cum Sock is new to me.  Other than having probably the best name ever, they also hail from Canada, but this time Toronto.  Unfortunately their side isn’t as good as their name is.  They play kind of grindcore/kind of metalcore/kind of death metal but don’t really hit any of those bases, and not in a genre-bending technical wizardry sort of way.  It’s just kind of weak.  They are obviously a joke band, but they are pretty awful.  And their liberal use of pig-squeal vocals is very annoying.  I’m so fucking glad that fad died out almost as fast as it started.  

I would say to pick this up for Disleksick’s side, but there are only 20 copies in the world and I’m pretty sure they are all spoken for. 

-Log.  

Hooded Menace - “Effigies Of Evil” (Relapse Records 2012)

Jesus fuck.  That’s pretty much the only thing that kept going through my head when I was listening to this record.  Hooded Menace hail from Finland, and on this record, have perfected their brand of doom metal.  Like this is so heavy if you played it to a bunch of nuns they would probably implode.  Nun-implodingly heavy.  That sounds about right.  

The riffs are so fucking catchy it’s almost not fair that no one else will be able to write them again.  Also this time around the band brings in a lot more melodic guitar leads, which really add something to their already sick concoction.  I’m still waking up from my crazy Thanksgiving, so I’ll end this here.  But all of you need to buy this.  Like two days ago.  

-Log.   

SO MANY 2XLP’S (and one 3xLP) TO LISTEN TO, SO LITTLE TIME! 

Knelt Rote “Trespass” (Nuclear War Now! Productions 2012)

When I heard Nuclear War Now was putting out a grindcore album, I was a bit surprised.  The label usually specializes in brutal death metal, insane black metal, and reissuing essential metal albums of the past that would otherwise be impossible for most people to hear.  After a quick browse through their discography, I don’t see any albums that could really be classified as grindcore.  So I was super intrigued by this album just to see what grindcore would be released by NWN.  

To my disappointment, I wouldn’t really call this grindcore.  Knelt Rote hail from Portland, Oregon and the dudes that comprise this band are also in other killer groups (one of which is most notably a member of L’Acephale who are incredible).  So I don’t really know where to classify Knelt Rote genre-wise.  The songs are to complicated to be grindcore, but on the other hand, they are to brutal to be called black metal.  Another disappointment is that the sticker on the sleeve this came in said they combine harsh noise into their sound, but I really don’t hear it; mostly on a few intros and outros, not as much during actual songs.  If you know me, I loves me some harsh noise.

Don’t let all of this negative talk turn you away however. Knelt Rote is an amazing fucking band.  Musically I’d say they combine the controlled chaos that is Revenge with a dusting Cannibal Corpse or something.  What you get is truly an insane listening experience.  All sorts of shit is going on here, pitch-shifted vocals, jackhammer drum rolls and brutal black metal riffs.  All of this wrapped in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve with strange cover art (you can’t tell from the picture, but there is a logo somewhere on there!).  I don’t know.  I’m a little out of it right now.  But this is a killer record and would fit nicely in your collection if you love insane music as much as I do.

-Log. 

Dagger Of Sacrifice - “Dagger Of Sacrifice” (Graceless Recordings 2012)

Fucking shit, this is an insane release.  Dagger Of Sacrifice is a funeral doom metal band from Norway, and by golly if this isn’t one of the most impressive funeral doom releases I’ve ever heard.  Let’s see, it sounds like it was recorded in a toilet, but the everything is so vile and evil the production adds to the atmosphere.  Plodding doom riffs and tin can drums tell you that this will make you want to die, but there are melodic leads that bring you along and make you feel like there is hope. Until the oppressive guttural vocals tell you otherwise, maybe you should just kill yourself and get it over with; because the two loooooong tracks on here (repeated on both sides of the tape) aren’t going to shine any lights for you.  

Apparently this was recorded back in 2003, and somehow a label in Tennessee got a hold of it and made it available to the masses.  Well at least 200 of the masses, because that’s how many copies of this are floating around.  If you can score a copy, I highly suggest it, it’s so choice.  

-Log.