Ruinous Reality (Review: Death Toll 80K, Harsh Realities 2011)

Death Toll 80K - Harsh Realities

You would think for a nuclear-free country Finland would lack the Megatons possible to reduce cities into nothing but wastes of concrete and ash, but then you would be wrong because right now Finland is currently brewing one of the most devastating weapons known to man. Don’t get me wrong with or without warheads when on the defensive Finland has an astonishing reputation for turning the entire country into one bloody Bermuda Triangle, but now Finland goes on the offensive with Death Toll 80K.

Death Toll 80K grind excruciatingly hard, so hard it would appear their name is but a disclaimer, the band fixed on monophonic terminal abrasion able to bring down sky-scrapers in the blink of an eye as they pellet the earth with their shrapnel packed cluster bombs of grind. The closest material thing to emulating that wonderful cacophonous rancour the band emit would be to stick a grenade in your mouth, pull the pin, count to three and boom. A lot of bands can boast being heavy, but few may match the steely and ever tightening grip Death Toll 80K exhibit.

The band pick up just round the corner from where Insect Warfare – World Extermination left off, dropping a bit of the clunk and instantaneous shell shock for a significant elevation in vitality and reactivity, spontaneously dashing and grooving from one volatile chain of exertion to another, laying waste to each and every crust debased rhythm they tear through. Looking deeper into Harsh Realities through the Insect Warfare lens, we see that vocals and percussion remain fiercely faithful to the World Extermination skill set, a flattering reproduction to some of grindcores most valued assets.  String work is the major differentiating factor though, still very much in the same vein of total ruination, but brazenly hoisted to a more vibrant, clear and systematic approach in an endless succession of decisive killer riffs, a phenomenon that ranks amongst my favourites.  It’s not all down to that wondrous thunder trebly riffing, the amazing production values support the power structure too laying a thick base sound, keeping a tight and complimentary contrast between the raw and more sophisticated.

Embrace total sonic annihilation! 

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Electroviolence (Review: Limbs Bin, Primitive Response 2011)

You try so damn hard trying to justify the beauty and sonic richness of Noise by using elegant terminology to describe it and giving it its own metaphysical abstractions, a task you rinsed and repeated with the utmost care, and just at the very moment you feel content with the idea that noise may sit along other pieces of "high culture" a hunch backed noise gargoyle comes along, pisses on your splendour, vomits on a Picasso or two and rapes a number of bystanders before finally being hauled back to the sanitarium. 

The Noise gargoyle in question would be Limbs Bin a demented clamour whose grotesque aggregate of powerviolence, grindcore, noise and power electronics takes on a philistine depiction of what in no way, shape or form may be said to be resemble anything pleasing, and having having mixed and matched too many extremities ends up being a series of greyish splatters. But grey is good colour for limbs bin, it represents the storm clouds brewing in his sonic shitstorm, and the regurgitation of concrete and asbestos he so violently sprays around, in fact grey is where the release calls home and flourishes in its own degenerate primitivism. 

Take opening track Primitive Response, opening up with retro soviet sci-fi circuit bending one is greeted with something out the ordinary and with the promise of adventure, but instead one is lured into an echoed cavern of drum rolls and vocal shouts, before a manic stabbing frenzy flashes in, exasperated by the claustrophobic tightness and surrounding darkness. We see the corruption and gutting of the ANb paradigm in track Sweeps Walk, no guitar, just noise, vocals and drum machine this hollowness that is rather unsettling and disturbing. This nightmarish set up continues to unfold, the horror ever growing and more sickly with each passing track, this growth in hostility coincides with ever strengthening of noise and its dark manipulations. Idealistically the release is at its most creative with penultimate track Citadels, breaking free of its twisted contortions and letting loose a richly complex hypnotic miasma, but whether this is a flourishing of character, or just an extravagant lure into the jaws of grand finale Fix Me is yet to be determined. 

I will be honest, although I genuinely totally dig Limbs Bin, I think most will not, it remains wholly abrasive and pursues with fierce dedication a manifestation of what can only kindly be described as an ugly mess, its like choosing between a picture of a nice car and that of a car crash, and I pick the latter. To misquote one person or another: in a society where everything has been done before, destruction remains the only true expression of creativity. 

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Didn't You Know? (Review: Abjured, Life You Know?! 2011)

Application For Swedish Naturalisation

Name of Applicant: Abjured

Place of Origin: Halle Saale, Germany

Date of Birth: 2005

Current Status: Adept in Swedish Grind

Reason for Application: To Finalise assimilation with Swedish Grind

For those of you still confounded by this unprecedented and absurd introduction to a review (I am still in two minds whether it is a nifty break away from convention or the worst example of reviewer creativity since people reviewing what they expect an upcoming album to sound like… yes seriously some people do that), but the point being is that German Grind racketeers Abjured are an integrious aspiration to Swedish grind, an identity they have interpreted with intimate precision and bold affection.

Life you Know?! Is the more substantive moments of Nasum’s impassioned grind arch annexed to the formidable riff work of General Surgery’s rhythmic whirls, tipped with death metal rolls, extrovert rhythmic swabs and a singular pinch of hard rock thrown into the mix too. Ultimately being a breeze of conventionality and creativity that is here to revile with impunity.

Weighing in at 17 tracks and flaunting a run time of just under half an hour, Abjured offer plenty in the way of content, maintaining a consistent momentum to their work that continually drives a full bodied and fast paced grind work out from start to finish engaging the listener throughout.

The majority of their work is a streamlined grind constant, a distinct laceration of sound that gives a menacing fiendishness to their work whilst subtle riff escalations and rhythmic steering carve out an artistic character to band and give each track sufficient departure from the last to make each track shine on its own, whilst still retaining the continuity to the overall bloom of the album.

There are a few select moments that jump the gun, breaking from the curt confines of the release, with guitar solos breaking forth and rolling in extroversion of harmony and commanding string work experiences one would associate with metal acts and rock, but with the metal break aways still holding a grinding fracas still scrimmaging in the backdrop. Although these moments are unorthodox and very much alien to our listening experiences a certain shock value is attached to them, but these instances of genre hopping don’t detract from the overall experience, they may seem out of character in my review, but in the music there is an inherent sense of their belonging.

Arguably the listening experience of Life you Know?! Is one best enjoyed as an album listened from start to finish rather than select tracks, in order that one become acquainted with the entirety of what the band offer. They may dub their music “Waste Town Grind”, but there is certainly an underlying nature of co-ordination, well thought out development and overall charm to what presents itself as a reinforced grind offensive with a censure to socio-politics. 

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Reconstruction of Grind (Review: Self Deconstruction, ST 2011)

People often note and remark the seemingly inhuman stamina and unrelenting skills that athletes possess, with people often hypothesising that with choice pairing and selective breeding a super race of humans can be established. That being said I think certain areas of grind have developed in such a fashion that not only is the remarkable dexterity employed by such musicians bordering entirely on a physical limitation as a species, the simultaneous need for the mind to process, create and unravel this complex and rapid succession of riffs and blasts employed by the more tech orientated acts is doubly taxing and pushing the human body to new limits both artistically and physically.

Not quite the genre leader  of technical and speed overload grindcore aka the Gridlink approach, but one to keep a keen eye on and a band befitting a place in my breeding program featuring the more nimble and creative musicians that a few generations down the line I would of created a subspecies of man quite literally built for grind, would be the proactive singularity that is Self Deconstruction.

You only have to consider the made in Japan stamp to know that one of if not both these statements will hold true

a) The band are incredibly amazing.

b) The band are incredibly unique.

Self Deconstruction would amply satisfy both statement a and statement b on the strength of their 4 minute 48 second self-titled demo, which as a release is as charming as it is quizzical, leaning to more creative and out the box strategies in handling the balance between technicality and denseness of sound, whilst still maintaining that pivotal grindcore feel to the release.

It’s certainly one of the freer and liberal approaches to grind, drawing a number of methodological parallels with Discordance Axis and Swarrrm, but ultimately in content and delivery being very much its own creature. The elements of empowerment rest heavily on the contrast in the technical complexities offset against the frantic expressive vocal wandering. With the exception of the opening track there is a noticeable lack of blastbeats, yet that neither detriments the release nor disqualifies it’s grindcore credentials, the drums being yet another interconnected layer in the technical fold, bringing more diversity to the table and being the kick factor by annunciating the more profound clinch moments.  

The string work would be the sort to give Matsubara a run for his money, being that rich blend of clean, profound and catchy, often jolted in quick succession and sometimes dragging notes out to rein in the tension, always retaining a free spirited vibe and unorthodoxy that accounts for much of the releases charm. Vocals being a presentation between two distinct types of lyrical screaming, the unexpected alternation and development between the two adding a nice fractal pattern to the release.

As demos go I don’t think they can get more promising than this, the band not only showcase a great and fresh take on the grindcore blueprint, they show off an exceptional amount of skill and potential too, they need only carry on what they currently offer and they will be rapidly infecting our playlists, the mere thought of actually improving on what they have already offered is making my head spin. 

Year Of The Goat (Review: Ramlord, Stench Of Fallacy, 2011)

It seems like every man and his dog has formed a blackened crust band in the past few months (not that I’m complaining of course, in fact it’s almost surprising that it took this long for the rampant aural grit of hardcore punk to fully embrace black metal’s harsh, lo-fi aesthetic), but New Hampshire trio Ramlord do it better than most, bringing in a whole host of diverse influences and, of course, kicking out the jams with a raging ferocity. Part of what sets Ramlord apart is their refusal to limit themselves to the standard ‘Tragedy with a few old Mayhem riffs’ shtick that many of their contemporaries are content to run into the ground.

Of course the standard reference points are all present and correct (which is apparent before you even press play - there’s a definite whiff of Hellhammer about the artwork, and that logo has got to be a nod in the direction of Amebix), but the band aren’t afraid of embracing their sludgier side, with the riffing in closer ‘Total Doom’ veering close to Sabbath territory in places. There’s even a surprisingly prevalent powerviolence influence at play here too, which manifests itself at numerous moments during the album’s relatively short running time. ‘Godcrusher’ is faintly reminiscent of early Man Is The Bastard, albeit with a fine coating of filth that would make Doom proud.

Despite wearing this veritable smörgåsbord of influences on their collective sleeves, Ramlord manage to weave this all together in quite a unique manner, and at no point do any of the album’s twists and turns feel forced or clumsy. The band have somehow crafted a sound where sludgy micro-dirges with Spazz style shared vocals segue seamlessly into all out black metal blastbeat blitzkriegs. ‘Where The Waves Crash’ is a fine example, kicking off with a frostbitten whirlwind of Transylvanian Hunger inspired riffing, before a punishing d-beat section collapses into a barren sludge wasteland, and yet still feels very cohesive and engaging.

While there’s no doubting the song writing on offer here (not to mention the riffs!), the production is unfortunately not quite on the same level. It’s not bad by any means, but the guitar could certainly do with a bit more meat on its bones in order to compete with the trebly drums and screechy, reverb tinged vocals. That said, the guitar tone seems quite appropriate during the more black metal influenced sections, and lends the album a very distinct personality and atmosphere.

With ‘Stench Of Fallacy’, Ramlord have succeeded in creating an incredibly absorbing racket that will appeal to a wide range of extreme music fans. It’s rare that you’ll hear a band combining powerviolence and black metal, but even rarer to hear a band that does it with such aplomb, especially on their first release. Since ‘Stench Of Fallacy’ was released in March last year, the band has already put out two splits (with punk three-piece Condensed Flesh and experimental black metal duo Cara Neir respectively) and show no sign of slowing down, making these guys a band that definitely warrants keeping an eye on. Highly recommended!

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