In Battle There Is No Law (Review: Trenchgrinder, Demo 2011)

In the space of two demos and a self-titled album, New York’s short lived Atakke seemed to have mastered the art of crust-laden thrash, which made it all the more upsetting when the band bowed out shortly after finishing their Phillip Cope (Kylesa) produced full-length. But every cloud has its silver lining, and lo and behold, most of the band (minus axe-man Sam Awry and vocalist Chloe Puke) have reconvened under the name Trenchgrinder, and whilst traces of the Atakke sound are still present, this is a significantly different beast from its predecessor.

War has been a popular topic throughout metal’s history, from Black Sabbath’s eponymous ‘War Pigs’ to Slayer’s ode to wartime atrocities with ‘Angel Of Death’, and Trenchgrinder fit quite neatly into this long-standing tradition with some dark and thought-provoking lyrics concerning mankind’s relationship with death, destruction, and other typically cheery subject matter. Musically, Trenchgrinder take their cues from Bolt Thrower (who are obviously no strangers to the whole war theme either) with opener ‘The Hunt’ bringing to mind the classic, churning grooves of that band’s ‘War Master’ album. Indeed, if you’d been told that Bolt Thrower had broken their recording hiatus and fooled into thinking that ‘Rapture Of Time’ was a track from their forthcoming album, it’s really only Owen Rundquist’s higher, croakier vocals that would eventually give the game away. Despite not being especially prominent, Owen does a fine job here, snarling his way across the demo with confidence and venom aplenty.

The 9 minute duration of two-parter ‘Destroyer Unmaker / Waking Terror’ is a tad ambitious, but these guys have enough great riffs to pull it off, and never seem to lose momentum even in their more mid-paced sections (the slow, creeping riff just after the intro is one of the demo’s most deliciously evil sounding moments) . Closer ‘War To Wage’ is a total monster of a song and a clear statement of intent; Trenchgrinder are pulling no punches and taking no prisoners with this release! The production may not be the clearest, but who cares when it’s this thick and filthy? The bass tone especially is fantastic, sounding like an enraged warthog rustling through the remaining shrubbery of a barren warzone, and the guitars have a nice meaty quality to them.

It’s great to hear these guys jamming again, and even more so when they’re producing material of such a consistent quality. This is an extremely promising demo, and bodes well for the future - a full-length of this stuff would totally hit the spot. Heartbroken Atakke fans and Bolt Thrower enthusiasts should get on this pronto!

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Deep Within The Catacombs... (Review: Zmajevdah / Emotion of Loss, Split Release, 2012)

This release promises to be one of this year’s more abstract splits, with two experimental lo-fi solo projects teaming up to deliver a terrifying sonic journey into the unknown, namely Croatian grind lunatic Zmajevdah and mysterious Russian drone outfit Emotion of Loss.

This is the second Zmajevdah release to be made available through Grindcore Karaoke, and the material here is a far cry from the hyperactive cyber-grind of ‘Zmajevdah v.0’, showcasing a bleak aesthetic that has more in common with black metal than their previous Gridlink worship. ‘Once, Alienation’ kick starts the EP, conjuring up an incredibly harsh whirlwind of strained tremolo riffs and frantic blastbeats. Once you’ve penetrated its icy exterior, there’s a faintly melancholy essence at the heart of this song. The track quickly and steadily escalates into chaos, with the guitars eventually resembling some kind of swirling 16-bit nightmare before a weighty palm-muted chunk breaks the tension, ushering in an utterly bizarre discordant finish. ‘Once, Alienation’ is certainly a very interesting song, but it’s the next track, ‘Disintegration, Today!’ that finds Zmajevdah distancing itself even further from their former sound, with enthralling results. This song has a kind of decaying yet majestic feel to it, somehow sounding simultaneously cold and harsh but also warm and inviting. Its fuzzy, enveloping aura brings to mind US ambient black metal project Wheels Within Wheels, and anyone who’s enjoyed losing themselves inside that band’s hypnotic hymns will feel right at home here.

Emotion of Loss offer up a daunting soundscape full of vast, transcendental sonic depths that act as an obtuse but strangely fitting companion to the harsher material on the other side. Tentative cymbal splashes accompany a weighty, mechanical drone that gradually evolves into a rich tapestry of ethereal synths and dense, trembling bass tones. Eventually, faint tom hits ring out in the distance, slowly coming to the fore out of the deep, engulfing aural mire, before a crackling cacophony of distorted screams croaks its way into your eardrums as the piece builds to its unsettling climax. When the track does come to end, it feels a little abrupt, snapping you out of the strange hypnagogic trance you’re likely to find yourself in. Despite running for around 14 minutes, it feels like this track could have lasted even longer; it would have been supremely satisfying to have that weird concoction of manipulated vocals and droning bass vibrations build even further, until they reached deafeningly intense levels. Even so, this is still a pretty respectable slab of ambient terror, best suited for inducing nightmares after those hazy late-night listening sessions.

Grindcore Karaoke’s tireless dedication to unearthing the harshest, weirdest, nastiest sounds on the net is yet another reason to love this label (as if you needed another!), and this split is well worth checking out if you’ve been digging some of the more esoteric noises Randall has been selecting lately. Whilst this may not be to everyone’s tastes, open-minded black metal enthusiasts and fans of noise and dark ambient will find much to enjoy here. As per usual with Grindcore Karaoke releases, you can download this one for free, but if you want a physical copy of this split you’ll have to act fast – the tape is being released in an ultra-limited number of 24 (!) through Zugzwang Productions, and is available for pre-order now.

Zugzwang Productions Site

Zmajevdah Myspace

Entomological Blitzkrieg (Review: Violent Restitution, S/T, 2012)

From its humble beginnings as a feral, misshapen offshoot of hardcore punk and the formative death metal sound back in the mid 80’s, grindcore has proven itself to be a highly durable and surprisingly diverse genre. Here in 2012, we’re practically spoilt for choice with all manner of weird and wonderful bands falling under the grind banner, but despite this veritable smörgåsbord of twisted heads that have grown out of the grindcore hydra, there are still those occasions where you’ll find yourself with an itch that only that pure, old-school sound can scratch. If you’ve found yourself itching like crazy recently, then Violent Restitution’s debut full-length could be just what the doctor ordered…

The record’s noise intro slowly creeps in, with frontwoman Mya bellowing gruff exclamations over the top, making the whole thing seem like Bastard Noise’s crustier little cousin. It’s a pretty tense way to start the record, before ‘Liberate’s crushing groove ushers in the next 15 minutes of grinding fury. And once these guys have warmed up, they go off like a nail bomb in a nuclear research facility. Guitarist Sarah belts out riff after riff of heads-down, fists in the air grind goodness and drummer Pierre absolutely annihilates his kit, blasting away with a deliciously crisp snare sound. ‘Evisceration’ is a short, sharp shock to the system and ‘Burning Rage Of A Dying World’ will tear your face clean off if you’re not careful.

If anything, Side B is even more gnarly than the first – ‘Murderous Colonist Assimilators’ doesn’t mess about at all, charging straight out of the gates with a generous portion of venom, and ‘Acculturation’ is nasty slab of outright speed with some pant-shittingly gruesome vocals towards the end. The frantic blur-core of ‘Not In Our Hood You Racist Scumfuck’ erupts into a righteously pissed off d-beat rampage, and when the record ends, it collapses into sinister waves of white noise, the eerie sound of buildings crumbling and machinery failing worldwide due to the fallout of the colossal grind explosion  these three individuals have just unleashed.

The Insect Warfare influence here is obvious, and manifests itself in a number of different ways;  from the band’s name (I’m presuming this is a homage to Insect Warfare’s second EP, which in turn was a tribute to under-rated Canadian thrashers Razor’s album of the same name) and the record’s World Extermination-esque artwork, right down to ‘Patriarchal Regime’ borrowing heavily from IW’s ‘Enslaved By Machinery’ (almost to the point of being a straight cover), you can tell this trio are huge fans of the Texan legends. That’s not to say the band is identical, as Mya’s occasional higher, more feminine sounding shrieks lend the band a slightly different identity, but this trio are definitely part of a recognisable lineage that runs throughout extreme music’s history, and one surely can’t begrudge a young band for trying to emulate their heroes (and often succeeding). 

Violent Restitution’s faithful Insect Warfare worship may not be reinventing the wheel, but when it sounds this good it hardly matters. Plus, with that band sadly defunct, it’s good to see these girls and a guy willing to pick up the torch. This is an extremely solid album, and I can see no reason why any grindcore aficionado worth their salt would fail to go totally apeshit for this. If the band continues on like this, they’re going to make a lot of jaded blastbeat junkies very happy indeed…

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The Prince And The Pauper (Review: Human Waste/Chetwrecker, Cacophonous Grind Storm, 2012)

Split releases can sometimes be a bit of a mixed bag; at their best, they’re a satisfying and horizon-broadening combo of two separate bands that coalesce into a single unified listening experience, but sometimes an unbalanced pairing can leave one of the acts totally outshined by the other. This recent cassette split on DIY label Thrash Mouth Records promises a ‘Cacophonous Grind Storm’, and, to its credit, half of it delivers this and then some.

Despite their generic name (a quick Google search reveals some German goregrinders, an Italian grind band, a bunch of Swedish crusties and a Spanish tech-death outfit with the same moniker), San Franciso’s grottiest sons Human Waste are a true force to be reckoned with, delivering a rancid barrage of filth that spews out of your speakers like a gutful of vomit hitting the pavement after several days of heavy alcohol abuse. After a sample of what appears to be a particularly irate war veteran embarking on a desperate rampage, ‘Left To Rot’ begins with an anarchic and sloppy introduction, before eventually warming up into a no-nonsense Insect Warfare style clusterfuck. This doesn’t let up at all as ‘Return To Nothing’ crashes into your cranium at warp speed directly after with barely a pause for breath. The proceedings grind to a halt as ‘Swarm’ lumbers into view like a severely intoxicated tramp that’s just cornered you in a dark alley, but this doesn’t last long as within seconds we’re launched straight back into an absolutely devastating succession of blasts and shrieks culminating in a crusty groove that would have Extreme Noise Terror foaming at the mouth, before coming to an abrupt stop. Human Waste take no prisoners here, barging in, ransacking your eardrums and then fleeing off into the night just as quickly as they came, like a bunch of dirty, no-good grind marauders with careless disregard for anyone’s personal safety. In other words, this is the kind of good, old-fashioned pissed off grindcore that’s sure to get your pulse racing and your first pounding. Bravo!

Unfortunately Chetwrecker are left standing in the dust by this display of grinding Armageddon. Their crude, super lo-fi take on powerviolence is not totally devoid of charm, but ultimately feels a little half-arsed. Call me spoilt, but their faster sections never seem to reach the same face melting fury as many of their contemporaries, and their slower segments are almost completely lacking in drive and power. These guys utilise that angry Neanderthal vocal approach that normally fills me with joy but even these sound slightly lazy here. Tracks like ‘False Thesis’ provide a reasonable amount of blastin’ entertainment, and some of the song structures are suitably schizophrenic, but it doesn’t help that the band are bringing virtually nothing new to the table, and there are dozens of similar sounding bands out there that are doing this kind of thing with way more intensity than these guys. Whilst Human Waste wasted no time in grinding you into submission, Chetwrecker’s material seems pretty flabby by comparison; if they’d trimmed away some of the fat, their side of the split may have seemed more appealing. It’s hardly the worst powerviolence release I’ve ever heard, but I can’t really give this a thorough recommendation given the vast number of other like-minded acts out there that are way more worthy of your time (the recent To The Point 7” being a prime example).

All things considered, this isn’t a bad split at all, and is probably worth it just for Human Waste’s side alone. Both bands have made their respective contributions available for free via their Bandcamp pages, and you can also pick up the tape for a measly 3 dollars through Thrash Mouth Records (but not if you live in the UK, frustratingly enough!) I know I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on Human Waste, and only time will tell whether Chetwrecker will blossom into a band of the same calibre or not.

Thrash Mouth Records