Fleeting Fatality (Review: Fatal Nunchaku / xKATExMOSHx 7", 2013)

(Take two, since it decided to eat all but the last word of my post and I made no back up eurrgh #firstworldbloggerproblems)

Hey kids do you like Powerviolence? Of course you do, why else would you be giving this bottom of the barrel blog your patronage? However the genre-idolatry of the likes of Fatal Nunchaku and xKATExMoshx would suggest the band are the types who would have I <3 Powerviolence bumper stickers and wear to court a No Comment t-shirt without the slightest hint of irony to address their numerous noise complaints. What I am trying to get at is that both bands know Powerviolence like the back of their hand, and have the musical twitch to prove it. 

First up is French underground powerviolence veterans and one half of a well documented euro tour with the now defunct Ocksen: Fatal Nunchaku. Fatal Nunchaku thrash around with the utmost tomfoolery, adjoining caustic riffs with curt tempo swaps and employing a completely irrational vocal attack, contrasting rabid yapping with Spazz like bellows; the yapping identical in form to what one might expect from a hyperactive choleric chihuahua - and I use that comparison as a term of endearment. Its a lively, absurd musically sarcastic splurge of adrenaline, sweat and laughs; somewhere in the vicinity of kinsmen Sylvester Staline, although which of the two is the more loony remains to be determined. 

As if made to measure the Charles Bronson-esque Lindsay Lohan/ white popstar burnout syndrome parody band xKATExMOSHx occupy the b-side. Continuing from their well received ST 7" , they continue to beat their extreme case of ADHD afflicted punk as if it were competing at the Grand National; who likes slow music anyway? Its the devils medium for old age pensioners and doom metal fans, and if you ain't hitting above the 180 bpm mark you are pretty much wasting everybody's time. The band are full tilt the moment the needle comes to contact with the wax, offering a 4 minute somersault of hit the ground running and don't look back type bpm therapy. It exemplifies that xKATExMOSHx need a full length, given there is no graceful let down only high octane shenanigans by the time the release ends you are mid stage dive, the bore of reality crashing in as you as your face collides with your chest of drawers 

Powerviolence on the whole is going wonderful if opposing directions, we have a new vanguared of cimmerian tinged powerviolence in balaclava types like Water Torture, Sex Prisoner, False Light (to whom Dead Chemists Records is gracing use with a long overdue physical medium) and Disciples of Christ tunneling into dark corners, whilst bands like Fatal Nunchaku and xKATExMOSHx showing us its still a dependable fun and lively genre. 

Fatal Nunchaku / xKATExMOSHx

EveryDayHate (Poland)

Aim Down Sight Records (Germany)
Bad Feeling Records (Italy)
Cimurro D.I.Y. (Italy)
Dead Chemists Records (UK)
Dickhead Records (Italy)
Eatshitbuydie Distro/Records (Netherlands)
Ebruitez Records (France)
Farce Attack Records (France)
Fondation Weinberg
Get Syro (Italy)
HYGIENE RECORDS (Usa)
No Bread! (Russia)
No Way Asso (France)
Wee Wee Records (France)
You’re Next Records (Israel)

Thrashcore is my Mistress (Review: Yattai, Fast Music Means Love 2013)

Yattai - Fast Music Means Love

Whether you perceive it as a pitfall or not, when the foot slams on the pedal most fastcore shares that indistinguishable guitar blur as all those riffs lament into one another, the odd astounding one jumping ahead of the stampede, hooking you for a moment or two before being trampled back into the swing of things, a cycle which repeats itself in perpetuum; Such was the paradigm of fastcore. Inverting this schematic by offering concise, clear and catchy riffs one after the other without any inclination towards industrial blandness or repetition would be French posthaste grindcore inclined fastcore greyhounds Yattai. 

I would hesitate to call it a game-changing reformulation despite its heavy departure from tradition, not only in light of its capsized presentation, but also in that unlike most fastcore acts who tend to draw inspiration from parent and sister genres: hardcore and powerviolence, Yattai take their inspirations from less canonical, but equally valid sources such as Grindcore and death metal; ultimately giving fastcore one of its most refreshing face lifts to date. All genre pandering aside, Yattai's unorthodox method is of comparable strength to other fastcore players, and have even gone so far as to have penned their own innate eccentricity; a hallmark often found in the best of the fastcore buffs, although no where near as barking mad as Quattro Stagioni or Hellnation, nor on the same level of awesomeness, the certifiably insane madness puts a flavour in motion that's easily lapped up and thoroughly enjoyed throughout, and often serves as a line of connectivity across all those speedball passages they whisk through. 

Its rampantly fast, and manages to tout a fine line between managing its impulsiveness and being well thought out giving them the right amount of push in development, but also very good at keeping the listener on their toes. Furthermore there is an inherent twangy groove in the cogs too, one set in a wiry frame and contributing the overall edginess and another push into the left of centre play field they gambol around. Contagious riffs aside (although there as some truly succulent Magrudergrind type power chord crunching types to tear into), the vocals and drum work don't slack off and make equally valid contributions to Yattai's flagrant meanders. Vocals are spot on, nothing too extreme nor guttural just sensical shouts that amplify the mood and disperse any tension, and the drum work present is exceptionally excitable and diverse, offering a really nice variation of blasts, at no point slipping into meaningless or serving as an instrumental metronome. Everything just gels together rather attractively and culminates in what is a really well rounded product, a must have for any fans of fast music, and if one you dare bitches it ain't punk enough to be fastcore: ta gueule putain!

Bandcamp / Facebook 

Sick Society (Review: Whoresnation / Doomsisters 2012)

For a band whose rate of motion jolts from urgency inspiring haste to steamrolling power chord crunching instant deceleration and acceleration occurring in the time of  a heart beat, French grind Goliath's Whoresnation manage to bolt down a guerrilla grind offensive worthy of resistance to the dystopian surges that thematically crashes through their work, making their concrete and lead trudging and back alley fight or flight scenarios as emotionally austere as they are adrenaline inducing, a ruthless combination put to devastating effects and leaving little to the imagination. However Whoresnations defiance to the Brave New World of the 21st century, are hardly fantasies born of fiction, but hard felt bitter hostilities aimed towards the ever burdening and consuming nature of so called civilisation and the need to conform to its often detrimental and hypocritical standards, snarling teeth at issues such as populist herding demagogy of the political elites with powerhouse track Leadersheep and the devouring hollow nature of unbridled capitalism in opening blast parade Career.  Whoresnation paint a gritty depiction of present society, but this follow up to their wonderful LP (available here under a name your price model) makes their current and future contributions to the genre overwhelmingly exciting. 

On the flip side grind cousins Doomsisters share this animosity much in a not too dissimilar vein by way of down tuned sludge terminating into a rancorous shrieking cacophony of crust and d-beat perversions. They don't quite match the bpm of partners in thoughtcrime Whoresnation, but their spirit of resistance is by no means any lessor, bringing punk to its most sour and belligerent form, with verbal lashes screeched out in vernacular maliciousness. My french may not be what it once was, but words like fascistes, raciste and manipulation leave no need for translation. Their musical effrontery especially in the more agitated states are highly energizing and kindle a Liberté égalité, fraternité sentimentality by means of protest. There is a nice set of variation in their song writting too, scandipunk puncture Inverse Reverse draws many parallels to Livet Som Insats a likeness that serves them very well and final track Rien Ne Change draws the resistances dying breath in a mid paced crawling dirge of ashen howls, a great end to what is a demanding album.  I had been meaning for a while to check out their 2011 7" based on a glowing recommendation by Gautier of Yattai (an equally punishing grind/speed freak of a band to whom a review is still well overdue), and this split has shown me what a fool I have been in neglecting to do so.

I couldn't of asked for a better pairing at all, the synergy developed in their musical differences, but shared repulsion to the pitfalls of modern day society make this a split not easily forgotten nor one to be passed over lightly. 

Everydayhate

Whoresnation / Doomsisters

The Year of the Pig (Review: UNSU, The Filthy 2012)

““The history of the twentieth century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The twenty-first will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power.””

— Eric Schlosser

UNSU - The Filthy

French filth-mongers Unsu sound exactly like Rotten Sound dragged through total unending squalor and rampant filth, casting a similar level of high end complexity and technical skill sets that have bench marked Rotten Sounds grind contribution, but shanking great fetid shards of filth in a chaotic stabbing frenzy into the mix. 

Aside from the general hit em hard and never surrender mentality the release fixates on with undying fanaticism, as if dead set on giving you a glass jaw, groove is a surprisingly big factor they lumber around. Repulsive riffs ripping and tearing forth asunder, regurgitating much from the cavities of death metals contribution to dirty riffs, dirtier tones and wall tearing breakdowns. Despite the glaringly saturated influence of Rotten Sound and occasional hints that may be construed to be an independent Nasum influence (of which they have a mighty fine cover of, but even that sounds alot more like Rotten Sound than Nasum), the primary tone and habit of the release is boastfully death metal in every way, the prangs of grind being a logical go to point when the rhythmic bones need to let off some steam by degenerating into a barbaric mass of blasts and cordial riffs. 

Musically the performance is a tight one, each element in the equation is heavily dependent on the others; no showmanship,just teamwork and they certainly have that down. This all for one and one for all consistency gives them nice thick flow of abhorrence as they steer the release from one musical pasture to another. The exception to this overall approach and their previously detailed sound would be the first track Napalm in the Morning, which is far more casual and out of character  with less of a focus on brutality, but serving as a platform for the listener to the eventual filth hammering they serve your way.

The first five tracks have a very evident set of boot shine applied to them, however from track 6 right to the very last rumbles of the final track; number 17,  we get a long list of live recordings, musically still in the same vein, but it doesn't take a genius to work out there will be a sufficient drop in audio quality. This kind of detracts from the album experience, and is a bit of a demoralizing jolt when it occurs, and would probably have served best as two separate releases, but looking from an objective point of view there is plenty of material to enjoy, provided of course you don't mind listening to live recordings.

My major crux's with the release are twofold, the first is the rare use of pig squeals and vocal inbreathing to generate vocal depth, although very much in line of the general pig theme they are representing such as greed, filth, depravity etc it's personally a kick in the balls that undermines everything they have done, and detracts such a great deal from the experience. And sadly even when doing the standard vocal plough, something just irks me the wrong way about it. My second concern is that the release lacks a certain hook, the rampant filth is a great tool they employ from a great deal of influences, but these influences don't always come together as one, and as such may be rather divisive. 

UNSU really do have alot of potential, because they really have done well to show case it here, but they are bridging a great deal of genres from grindcore, brutal death metal and a little bit from deathcore, and for someone very hung up in one genre the protrusion of those other genres rather than their integration negates much. However for those of you who are more tolerant, and happily listen to either genres, then perhaps you may find UNSU to be the convenient middle ground you have been looking for. 

LP To Do Massive Bong Rips To All Week

 Hey guys so I have some cannabis left over from my week long fighting and camping excursion I recently took. So I'm packing that mother fucker up and getting ripped to give a real update. Sorry it's been so long bros. I just moved to Philidelphia.
 For sure a band I can't listen to all the time, much like Fugazi or the Deftones, but Gojira is one that always get my blood stirring and metal ear perking up. "From Sirius to Mars"  is their third full-length album and it came out around seven years ago. They also released "The Way of All Flesh" in 2008, which I thought was a huge fucking disappointment. To be expected though, people were giving out Metallica and Meshuggah as comparisons. Those are correct assessments however and is probably a contributor to why their sound evolved on the 2008 follow up and on their new album "L'Enfant Sauvage". Which is French for something, who fucking speaks French today?
 Sonically they most resemble early Metallica in song length, format and some atmosphere as well as Strapping Young Lad for production, atmosphere and volume of emotive energy. Gojira and SYL straddle that line of progressive and thrash where Metallica early on were straight thrashers giving little thought to studio time and dynamics. Gojira utilized their time, in what I'm assuming is a secluded studio somewhere in the rolling green hills of France, to create a soaring epic display of melody, song writing and fucking heavy metal in their grandiose masterpiece, "From Mars to Sirius". Like SYL, Gojira do a perfect mix of crushing metal riffs with technicality, clean singing and harmony, then they find a heavy groove and just carve that mother out. This technique recalls SYL again as well as Pantera whom Gojira have a lesser affinity for. It's so beautiful to listen to after you've taken five or six huge BRs(bong rips). My favourite tracks can be narrowed down to "From the Sky", "The Heaviest Matter Of the Universe" and "In the Wilderness". They do a good job of displaying all the things the band is capable of doing well.
 Like I mentioned earlier, I can't listen to Gojira all the time like I can Insect Warfare or Black Sabbath or the Bad Brains. I have to be in a particular "mood" to really get into it. Maybe it's partially because of the clean singing with just straight up slow parts intermixed with the mid paced riffs amongst the blitzing metal shrapnel. Too much filler and not enough shrapnel makes for a boring hand grenade, catch my drift Deftones? Gojira sort of lye in the middle between Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me if that makes any sense. Maybe it's the overuse of that fucking click-track, pro-tools out, sterile triggered double bass. I can not STAND it when metal bands ruin a perfectly good concept like mid paced double bass and man does Mario Duplantier ruin it. Take a fucking break from that shit man, learn something new and interesting. There's even a part in "Heaviest Matter.." where he could play a real short sustained blast, but no. He plays all fucking mid paced and like a girl. Not okay. Not metal enough!
 With all of these minor quirks, good and bad, this album is still hauntingly beautiful and utterly crushing all at once. Except the song "Unicorn" and "World to Come". Delete them and never bother wasting your time. Nevertheless this is a great album for getting stoned and going on long bike rides or epic road trips. Do yourself a favor, download this and give it two or three full listens before casting it aside like you did all those old Fear Factory CDs we wanted to be good, but really never were.