Macabre - Dahmer (2000)

Macabre's a band I never get around to revisiting often, but don't let that fool you, I think they're a fairly interesting and quietly influential act that had a pretty big impact on the deep-dive serial killer studies that other bands like Church of Misery have continued with. They also occupied a niche seemingly to themselves, where numerous genres combined, no one of the thrash, death metal, punk or grind really dominating the rest, and then the insertion of humorous elements into the music also transforms them into a carnival of Midwest extremity. The first four albums in particular have the most to offer, with these sprawling track lists, few ideas left on the cutting board, and though the tongue-in-cheek qualities can become distracting, they can mete out some mean fucking metal on your ass.

Dahmer is the band's exploration of its titular serial killer and it spends equal time tackling this topic, comprised of 26 tracks, most hovering around the 1-2 minute mark, a few beyond that, but that's where a lot of the grind aesthetic comes in here, because the band isn't always playing a million miles a minute with the splattering vocals and accelerated hardcore you'd expect. Many of them take a punk rock approach with gang shouts, accessible riffs, and then this is alternated with hyper-thrashing pieces that catapult themselves into the death metal spectrum. But they also delve a little deeper, with some more dissonant thrash riffing that even reminds me of Voivod, like in the opener "Dog Guts", and they'll bust out these solid leads that also seem pretty ambitious compared to the surface level of their style. So the idea that one could ever write Macabre as some group of gory goofballs would be misinformed. They are crazy motherfuckers who put an emphasis on exploring different sounds and then unifying them behind a chosen theme, which is conceptually impressive, even when it's something really zany like the thrashing surf rock of "Do the Dahmer" (something Ghoul might have picked up on).

Ironically, it's this variation that can both work FOR and AGAINST an album like Dahmer, because the shorter track lengths mean a lot of the stronger, evil riffing ideas will be broken up and you never quite get enough if you're digging them. Like the churning caveman death metal of "Hitchiker" ceding to the "In the Army Now" anthem, or the blasting, chaotic "Bath House" giving way for the "Jeffrey Dahmer and the Chocolate Factory" tune, which is essentially a twisted cover of the Oompa Loompa song from the old Gene Wilder film. However, by that same argument, every time I think I've gotten my laughs in and am about to phase out, they'll shift back into some more intense and interesting, so I can imagine that the scattershot inspirations and execution of this album might be an attempt to dive into the psyche of a character like its own subject. But I do think overall this might be an aspect of Macabre that has held them back from greater success, it's not like Mr. Bungle where the musical freakshow is the entire DNA of the writing, but something they swap on and off. It doesn't always land for me, either, but this and a few of their older full-lengths hit more often than not.

The vocals of Nefarious and Corporate Death are impressive in their versatility, from gutturals and sneers to higher pitched wails that you might not expect, and then the gang vocals I mentioned before. The guitars have a nice, organic tone to them which seems to work well across the constituent genres, frilly enough for the crisper thrashing riffs, fluid enough for the punk chords, and then some solid effects on some of the leads. The bass playing is quite busy and plunky, and this is a component which can even be highlighted within the sillier tunes, and I could say the same for the drums, these guys are just an overall, musically impressive act even if they only exhibit briefer bouts of technicality among the more simplistic, accessible writing. All told, there's not a lot I can really compare this with, or maybe just too MANY things to compare it with...some of the faster, thrash/death parts recall some Deceased of the same era, and there are obvious punk and hardcore references, but say what you will, Macabre is quite unique, and if you can pull yourself away from the Netflix documentaries, this is quite a bat-shit but well-rationed exploration of the infamous cannibal and necrophile.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://murdermetal.com/

Impaler - One Nation Under Ground (2000)

With all the rage over nasty speed metal acts like Midnight over the last decade, it's a little surprising that Minnesota's Impaler wallows in such relative obscurity. Not that they're entirely unknown or unapproachable, they've got a pretty decent internet presence and continue to record and play gigs even after decades; but their love of horror flicks, wrestling, their mesh of speed, heavy metal, and punk, and the cinematic gore and camp of their stage shows seems like it's a concoction that should have appealed to a far wider audience, especially as they've just been doing it for so long and never really turned from their path. Maybe they don't write the most impressive licks, but they've got the heart and sincerity in spades, a speed metal institution forever destined to sit below the radar.

One Nation Under Ground was their fifth full-length album released through the now-defunct Root of All Evil Records, and while the production had come a ways from their earlier efforts like If We Had Brains ...We'd Be Dangerous or Rise of the Mutants, the style is roughly the same. Simplistic rock & roll riffs played with metallic energy and slathered in Bill Lindsey's signature splatter-punk vocals, which can range from a more meaty bark to something more petulant and punky, with lots of gang shouts thrown in there for good measure. The way he exaggerates his style with that grimy, constipated edge almost reminds me of Alice Cooper, one of his biggest influences, as enforced by the presence of a "Teenage Frankenstein" cover which is second-to-last on the album. The drums have a great tone to them, the bass and rhythm guitar are fairly clean in the mix, but manage to catch a little bit of that infectious punk vibe you'll recall from a lot of your faves in the 80s. There are plenty of lead guitars, too, usually with more of a bluesy, reckless hard rock feel to them, fitting to the rhythm riffs but not too memorable on their own.

There are 15 tracks here, almost all weighing in at around 2-3 minutes, with just a couple that go longer, like the darker, doomier sounding "Under the Dirt". Occasionally they'll incorporate a spoken sample, or some special effects like the bell and howl you hear in the depths of "Dead as a Doornail", to keep you on the page with their horror influences. Once in awhile the riffs can get a little bit more thrashy as in "Call of the Wild", but the majority of them are more rooted in punk and straight hard rock; almost all of them do feel as if you've heard them elsewhere, even by the standards of 20 years ago. Thankfully, the production makes up for this a little, the instruments and vocals sound brash and bright and energized. I guess my other complaint would be one that I'd apply to a lot of horror-punk, psychobilly or horror-influenced metal in that the musical choices themselves rarely evoke the more evil and dark side of the genre. There's nothing creepy ever happening outside of those aforementioned samples, effects or Lindey's gruesome vocals, the tunes could use a little more dissonance, atmosphere or 'evil' note selections to make them stand out...

...but again, I've had this issue since the Misfits. It doesn't make the music bad at all, but it's more like attending a Halloween party with your family, bobbing for apples, carving a pumpkin and having a good cheer rather than getting chased through an abandoned, dilapidated asylum by a serial killer or supernatural entity. The lyrics are fun enough for what you get, tributes to old or campy horror flicks and they even have a nod to Bill's love of wrestling entertainment with "Cage Match Tragedy". The Alice Cooper cover is pretty decent, and the material is consistent over the 41 minutes, but it just doesn't stick with me for long after I'm finished. It seems mostly built to go along easily with their live shows with all the blood, guts and debauchery that ensues, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/impalershockrock

Abscess - Horrorhammer (2007)

Dennis Dread has got to be one of my favorite cover artists working today, and California's filth merchants Abscess had the honor of dressing up their records with his distinct black and white artwork numerous times, my favorite of which was 2007's Horrorhammer. I'll also go against the grain and say that this was hands down one of my favorite albums from Reifert's post/pre-Autopsy project, while understanding the complaints against it...that it's not quite so gruesome as their output before it. But I'm not going to lie, I've had a bit of fun when cranking this record and I love its focus on the more upbeat material and really clobbering you over the ears. Horrorhammer lacks any degree of subtlety, it simply lives up to its title and for that I am grateful.

I'm not saying I entirely love the album, but when I'm in need for a grisly, high-body-count reel of death metal, speed metal, crossover and punk, graced with Reifert and company's unmistakable vocal ugliness, this one scratches my nethers. You could think of it as a halfway point between Autopsy and Seattle splatter-gods The Accüsed. Velocity meets carnage on a freeway of cult exploitation, but I don't want to mislead you into thinking this is monotonous. There are some faster, simpler cuts here like "Another Private Hell", or mid-paced like "Four Grey Walls", which are essentially pure punk adrenaline made different only through the vocal presence, but quite a lot of them have brief, slower sequences, sometimes just an atmospheric clench on a few dissonant chords, or some of the obvious death/doom that creeps back into the sound with a cut like "When Witches Burn", one of my favorites in their whole catalog. I love the guitar tone this time, not too abrasive but keeps its corpulence whether fast or slow, and sounds great with the rocking leads that often burst from the rhythms like a cannibal baby from its womb.

The drums and bass sound equally cool here, but all of this stuff is simply in support of the undead elephant in the room, those abusive vocals, just as loose and unhinged as Chris' mainstay, and thus more genuine feeling than most monotonous guttural orators which don't sound nearly as sick as they'd like. And even better, they sit equally as uncomfortable across whatever genre component Abscess is using at the time...the more accessible punk parts, the speed/death licks or the doomier sequences. Just enough effects on them at points to make them feel as if they're raving and barking at you from the sepulcher, or chasing you down a tight alleyway at night behind the butcher's shop. To some it might seem a bit garbled, but the energy there completely matches the waxing and waning of the musical muscle, or the oft-shoddy transitions between sub-styles. The instrumental title track is cool, as are the lyrics, simple and gory as they are. To be honest, there aren't a lot of truly catchy riffs, maybe a half dozen on the disc. But when those do appear, like the intro lick to "Hellhole", they do kick some serious posterior, and it's an album so compact I find no problem listening through the entire 35 minutes, as it congeals together so well like clotted blood.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Cape of Bats - Violent Occultism (2015)

Devil Master's Satan Spits on Children of Light is one of my favorite records to come out in 2019, so I was naturally curious to check out more of what the musicians behind that have released throughout the past, and as it turns out, two of them have been involved in an even longer-lasting project called Cape of Bats, which has tread a similar stylistic path over a wide array of demos and split recordings. Violent Occultism is the one full-length to date from that entity, and I'm surprised it's not spoken of more often, since it's an effective merging of black metal and punk aesthetics. Not quite as evil, and not quiet memorable, but still filthy and formidable enough that fans of the one will almost certainly get a kick out of the other.

Essentially, Violent Occultist is hardcore/punk given a rubdown of raw black metal production, and splatter-sounding punk vocals that at times definitely approach a rasped inflection. Into this they will integrate some more melodic or tremolo picked metallic sequences that help the tunes straddle the line between the genres. For me, riff selection is absolutely critical to punk rock because so little of it sounds more than lazy plagiarism of predictable patterns, and I think Cape of Bats definitely pass that test as they go for progressions that feel a little more like ticked off, antique hardcore (Minor Threat, etc). These chord choices do a great deal to help the band careen off them with the more metallic pluckings, half-wrought sloppy leaps, and evil melodies that ramp up tunes like "Death Kami" to the next level. They're not perfect, I mean I've heard a lot of these riffs in the past, but just unique enough to make it all feel fresh as a sum package. Bass is not a factor, just tinny sounding drums, hissing garage black metal guitar tone and vocals that sound shat straight out of hell.

The songs run a range of very brief to somewhat dense for the style, and there's plenty of variety among the thirteen. Creepy synths, a few watery, spooky goth rock guitar lines and other nuances help break up the material so it just doesn't feel like you're being hammered repeated by the same tricks, and I found myself actually favoring the tracks here that were around three minutes or higher, like "Weeping Daughters of Jerusalem" and "Ultimate Evil", which were genuinely creepy and stick with you about as strongly as most of the Devil Master material. The lyrical subjects here are also really cool, drawing on diverse occult themes from all over the world, almost coming off too brainy and philosophical for the music itself, but then again I really enjoy that contrast. Diego Bureau's cover artwork really seals the deal; colorful, grotesque, and frightening. This is a rather cool surprise and well worth checking out if you're into their other project, or really any sort of black/speed or black/punk hybrid as long as you're cool that they play it really...fucking...raw, not enough to bleed out your eardrums but you may develop a headache at the appropriate volume.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://capeofbats.bandcamp.com/

Atrament - Scum Sect (2018)

A lot of the bands performing in the crust/D-beat medium these days all carry a particularly Swedish tone to their guitars, often injecting a little dissonant post-hardcore personality, but sticking quite closely to that scene in terms of production values and how the flow of the riffs hit you over the head. Scum Sect was a little refreshing for me in how it handled this approach with a little more ugliness and vitriol. Sure, you're going to hear those punk rhythms that get traced right back to the Discharge lineage, fueling this procession of punishment; but these Californians wrap that up in an envelope of black and death metal aesthetics and even toss in some dissonant, Voivod-like riffing sequences which manage to keep the material atmospheric and interesting.

The backbone of D-beat riffs here also does a lot to trump your expectations...sure a number of the chord patterns will seem familiar at first, but they often veer into an unexpected note selection or get interspersed with tremolo picked death metal fills. It's still accessible and fulfilling enough for those who adhere to more typical acts in the style, but there's just enough gloom and obliqueness to offer a more sinister depth. The vocals are also a little beyond the pale, where normally you get the raving political hardcore barking, here is a rather sustained blackened death inflection which sounds like this shadow hovering over the instruments, with just a enough effects-driven finesse that it doesn't come across as dull or cheap. A broad guttural which often trails off into a bloodier rasp. The bass is a pretty thick, bombastic presence alongside the rhythm guitars which fattens them up rather than trying to stick its nose out elsewhere, and this works well enough here although it wouldn't kill them to drift off on their own for a few bars. The drums have the perky reliability usually associated with this style, nothing too complex but he'll toss a lot of timely, thundering fills to keep the pulse.

I do like that they often break out into the tremolo picked sections, that instantly adds a lot more of a replay value to the usually chord-centered style, and I feel Atrament usually gets enough variation to cover what they're crafting into a typically 2-3 minute track. I also liked the use of a breakout mid paced thrash riff s in "War Seed", just these smaller little dynamics go a long way to keeping the album from getting too samey...and it does on occasion, don't get me wrong, but even then you'll have a few subtle highlights to help you map out one track from the next. Pitch black, driving, menacing stuff here, instantly standing out from the flock of bands that approach this more from the hardcore perspective, which is sometimes pretty damn awesome, but others too predictable. I don't know that Scum Sect is quite the peak for this band, there's plenty of direction to grow into, broadening their higher pitched picking and atmosphere, but it exceeded the baseline expectations.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://atrament.bandcamp.com/

Gorgeous Frankenstein - Gorgeous Frankenstein (2007)

Misfits alumnus Doyle has a solid history of attempting to mesh together the horror swagger of that infamous punk entity with a more metallic edge. The best example of this was probably Kryst the Conqueror's Deliver Us from Evil EP in 1990, which had a bit of a Christian streak running through it and was surprisingly not all that bad; I can remember a few friends and I listening to it back in the middle of our high school days. Granted, that material never really turned into anything long term, and if the quality of this eponymous Gorgeous Frankenstein album is anything to judge by, perhaps the sealing off of that particular punk/metal path is really for the better; because this is quite bad.

The core here is a slightly more muscular Danzig style of simplistic hard rock and metal with a bit of Glenn's vocal antics being delivered through the performance of Landon Blood. The riffs are a sort of amalgam of very basic thrash, heavy metal, stoner doom and swaggering bluesy bar metal possessing the banality of a Black Label Society, only far less of the guitar proficiency. The riffs progressions are extremely mediocre across the whole album, with some predictable chugging and groove riffs meant only to work up the manliness of the vocals and the gang shouted chorus parts. It doesn't help that the tone of the rhythms sounds like crap, going for a noticeably more live feel but ending up rather annoying and amateur, especially when being used to perform some of the most insipidly boring chugs and squeals you've ever heard. There are some decent attempts by some backing synths and other atmospherics to try and dress this all up in a more appealing package, but it's really just a clutter of stuff that Pantera would have laughed out of their recording sessions back in 1989.

As mentioned, the vocals are real similar to Glenn Danzig, although once they pick up into a more howled, angry timber as in the depths of "Man or Monster", there's also a clear Rob Zombie style, strained growling influence, only nowhere near as harsh, memorable and charismatic. The drums are loud and clappy, while some of the bass lines seem a little too buzzy and filtered, used often to anchor the really bland bluesy swinging riffs in cuts like "Devilgirl". The lyrics are also very basic, but I wouldn't say they were one of the weak points, occasionally offering out some engrossing or titillating horror lines. Gorgeous Frankenstein is essentially a flesh golem stitched together by numerous other bands before it which have carved out excellent careers imbuing their hard rock, punk or industrial metal with the macabre, Gothic and kitschy traces of horror...but take away the life-giving lightning of catchy songs, or the distinction of those bands, for a fairly lazy and easygoing impersonation. It's not completely awful or incompetent, as there are a couple ideas here or there which make good sense, but I forgot it entirely in less time than the 35 minutes it took to get through the songs. You've got a lot better options out there, including some of the other albums members of this band have been involved with.

Horror-meter: Five gestalt corpse-things out of ten.

Verdict: Fail [4.75/10]

Rostok Vampires - Transylvanian Disease (1989)

I had encountered the name Rostok Vampires a handful of times through the 80s and early 90s, probably referenced in some zines, or perhaps the 'thank you' list in some album's liner notes, and I thought whoever they are, they sound kind of cool, as we often would think scouring the metal underground before being faced with the reality. It would be around a decade before I'd tracked down any of their music, which happened to be their first full length album, Transylvanian Disease. Cool band name. Cool album title. My expectations were that this was going to be some sort of horror crossover/thrash band, but in reality that's more what they evolved towards on later efforts, like their sophomore Misery, which had a lot more metallic riffing across its tracks than this debut, which is more or less a straight horror-punk record with only a few brief guitar parts one might classify as thrash or heavy metal of any sort.

Transylvanian Disease is essentially a hardcore punk album, very heavily influenced by the Misfits, as you can tell by the happy, predictable punk riffs wed to the pained, howling, Glen Danzig-a-like vocals and gang shouts. The difference is that, contrary to what the cool cover artwork implies, the lyrics and song themes don't seem terribly rooted in horror. Perhaps a little of the imagery conjured in the lyrics of a few tracks, but largely this is a mix of the personal non-conformist punk shtick with some social and political lyrics, such as "Faith" which covers Islamic extremism, or "Gun" which might be a criticism of firearm ownership, though the lyrics are fairly minimalist. So right away we've got this huge thematic disconnect which only breeds some degree of disappointment, after seeing that illuminated graveyard, dark trees, and thinking this was somehow going to be some creepy crossover. Just know this in advance, it looks a lot cooler than it sounds. Now, having said that, the Rostok Vampires debut is actually not all that terrible of an album, if you're into the punk and hardcore sounds of the early to mid 80s and seek out records that followed along that path.

The album opens with a screaming sample and then breaks down into a drum-driven, groove which frames some stock rock chords and weird, atonal leads, all before the inevitable circle pit thrust with the raving vocals that places itself somewhere between the Misfits and Minor Threat. The guitar tone, drums and general atmosphere are actually quite good, it sounds snug with its times and that automatically lends itself to a sincerity a lot of genre fans really crave. The songs don't seem like they required a whole lot of thought to conceive, split between some energetic muted hardcore riffs and punk 101 chord progressions, but there's at least a little bit of fire lit beneath these Germans, a little more anger and rawness, rather than the kitschy drive-thru horror vibe of Danzig, Doyle and crew. Bass and drums are about as frantic as this genre got back them, and you certainly get the impression that if this were played on a stage in front of you there would be a whole lot of mohawk-slinging shit kickers whipping their leather jackets and spikes around. Although once the lead guitars break out, and there are several whipping around, a few of the true might have gotten confused.

The Vampires seemed comfortable in this sound, but apart from a few slightly darker riffs or breakdowns where the tunes seem to mutate towards more 'core or metal, it's just not a set of songs that have really stuck with me whatsoever. I would never pick this one out of a lineup against the Misfits, Ramones, Black Flag, Seven Seconds, The Exploited, Agent Orange, or any of the other early punk and hardcore that I often find myself spinning through the decades. They offer a little more than some shallow impersonation of the American and British scenes, to be fair, but really didn't seem to have hit their stride at this point. Coupled with the missed opportunity for some creepy, atmospheric, unique Euro punk or hardcore that really embraced the horror theme that their moniker and album title imply, it was quite a disappointment when I at last got around to listening to it. I'd easily recommend heading straight for their heavier, thrashier albums like Torment of Transformation and Misery, but if you're super invested in that 80s heavier punk sound then you could do worse than Transylvanian Disease. Just keep the fangs and fake blood in storage, because this album does.

Horror-meter: Two out of ten pretty gravestones.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

Haunted Garage - Possession Park (1991)

Possession Park is a record I remember more for the place in which I didn't initially purchase it than for any of its musical ingredients, a small shop in a neighboring town which only hung about for a few years but had a wonderful owner who maintained a small specialty metal sections. Largely cassettes, since CDs hadn't fully exploded by that point in my neck of the woods, they were all over the racks, but for whatever idiotic reason I stuck up my nose at them, defiant of their inevitability in replacing the medium I had already blown so much of my paper route money and allowance on. But there was the Haunted Garage full-length debut, possibly one of the few tapes I didn't actually liberate from those shelves, constantly staring at me week in, week out. This was a time in which I had honestly started to lose some faith in Metal Blade, not only for the swing of metal trends at large but because they had begun to populate their roster with utter mediocrity like Skrew and Junk Monkeys and simply couldn't be relied upon as often as Slagel and company had been throughout the 80s.

Listening back on this lost and forgotten record now, I feel like my decision was the right one, but not because Possession Park is an utter shitshow. This was essentially a crossover thrashing punk vehicle which was helmed by Dukey Flyswatter (aka Michael Sonye), an actor for some low budget horror and exploitation flicks like Nazi Surf Punks Must Die whose own infamy has long outlived this musical project. The cover promises EXPLICIT LYRICS and some Satanic Amusement Park fun, possibly with zombies and clowns and all manner of colorful 80s horror kitsch, and staring at the artwork kind of arouses nostalgia for Halloween parties with stuff like green punch, bobbing for apples, ghost decorations made out of bunched up tissues and really bad Dracula costumes. So at the very best I figured I'd be in for a metallic "Monster Mash" with some more controversial fare, and yet it doesn't really deliver on any of the promises that its outward aesthetics might hint at. The lyrics do delve into campy horror flicks and possesses a little inappropriate edge to the lyrics, but it's hardly like they're just uttering 'fuck' and 'shit' in endless succession throughout every single track, at least not where I can make out the lyrics. It's actually a little more of a timid experience than you think you're getting into, but not one crafted without a modicum of competence.

Musically this is a mash-up of party punk rock and the sort of harder crossover that West Coast bands like Cryptic Slaughter and Suicidal Tendencies popularized. A closer comparison could be drawn to the GWAR debut Hell-O, before they adopted a more thrashing edge to most of their material on the sophomore. Airy, distorted riffs involving just a few chords here or there, no more than you're like to hear on your average Offspring joint, but brought down to street level by the plunking bass lines and the urban edge to what patterns those chords are fashioning. There are a lot of lead guitars which were very similar to Rocky George's approach, bluesy and wailing and elevating the songwriting from the graffiti-smeared ghettos into a more fanciful 'metal' territory, but rarely memorable and in some cases just plain excessive and unnecessary to the detriment of the tracks in which they were placed. As a general rule with this record, the more filthy, shorter and 'punk' the tunes get, the more respectable they seem, with stuff like "She-Freak" even coming across like a bastard stepchild of the Misfits and antique Voivod. But even though there is some coherence to the style throughout, there is a sense here that Haunted Garage wasn't 100% sure what they really wanted to accomplish, a flaw that is forgivable on a debut album but doesn't exactly endear it to me either.

Bands like this often lived or died on the distinction of their front men, but while Mike Muir and Glen Danzig and even Excel's Dan Clemets put their own individual stamps on their bands that happened to be supported by great music, Dukey Flyswatter often gets lost in it. Personally I find that he sounds like a raucous blend of GWAR's Oderus Urungus and Blaine Cook of The Accüsed, with a lot of Rob Zombie's splattered rock & roll waaahs and yeaahhhs thrown in there, but the lines he spits out just feel sloppy and goofy and not to the music's benefit. Probably more entertaining in a live setting where he's got other antics to sate the crowd, but on the disc here it just never feels nasty or catchy enough to care, especially when the material he's shouting over is just paint-by-numbers boring rock with a slightly punk frill to it. Tunes like "Torture Dungeon" are all right because of the mean turns taken by the guitars, and his tone is effective, but even then there's just nothing special on Possession Park that will keep you engaged beyond just a handful of spins through some of the better numbers, and the rest are vaguely tolerable for just a single play.

The production does tend to hold this together. Drums are lively and tight enough to flirt with both the standard rock momentum and hints at a faster, hardcore lethality, while the bass lines are fat enough to support themselves even if they're just following the guitar. Leads are always apparent and take charge, but the gain on the rhythm guitar can feel a little too grainy next to the vocals and rhythm section. Still, it's often bright enough to forgive this, and the album sounds more professional than I would have expected, and probably more than it even needs to be, since fans of this niche often value the smattered, violent and lower fidelity mixes which enhance the vitriol and aggression of the bands. If you like how Scumdogs of the Universe or America Must Be Destroyed sound, though, then you're not going to have much of a problem here, and when the band stretches itself a little with acoustic guitars or weirdo guitar sci-fi effects ("Little Green Men"), it's handled pretty well.

Haunted Garage trends a little weakly for me, and doesn't manage to attain the levels of fun and engagement that many of its peers achieved years before it arrived. It also commits the crime of naming a subpar song "Welcome to Hell" when there's already a perfect song called "Welcome to Hell". BUT...it's not completely awful, and the band themselves must have felt some spark of nostalgia since they've recently reformed. If you're a huge splatter rock/crossover fan or you really enjoy all those GWAR-related gimmick bands like Green Jelly and the X-Cops, then this is a curiosity you might wish to at least sample, but Possession Park is not some absolute failure that I can entirely write off without acknowledging some of the corny care that was obviously put into it. But man, I miss that little record shop. I'd have gladly blown the $7.99 on this tape if it could have helped keep the place in business.

Verdict: Fail [4.75/10] (my horns grow, they swell)

The Lurking Corpses - Workin' for the Devil (2014)

The Lurking Corpses are one of those fondly spoken-of bands deep in the heart of the US scene that I've taken far too long in getting around to check out. Not that the results of doing so have proven all that fruitful, but these guys definitely have a party metal atmosphere about them which rescinds any real effort to take them too seriously. Which leads to an obvious question: 'If they don't, then why should you?' Frankly, I doubt they want you too...this is a band which plays campy horror death/thrash for fun, imbues it with a healthy heaping of punk, rock & roll and traditional heavy metal aesthetics and then use their lyrics as paeans to the classic horror films and stories which inspired them. 'Death' in the Nunslaughter/Deceased sense, not exactly Morbid Angel or Bolt Thrower. Band members have handles like 'Cousin Eerie', 'Friar Frightengale' and 'Lord Vladimir von Ghoul'. Really, this is fit for Halloween keggers, apple bobbing with just the hint of a razorblade...maybe being in there...somewhere. Thrash for killer clowns, or Addams Family fanatics. Better yet, The Munsters.

What manifests musically is some very stripped down, semi-meaty death/thrash/heavy metal circa King Fowley's October 31, but with tendencies to swerve off directly into Misfits-land, like in the verse of "The Leech and the Worm", or the chorus of "Tonight", where the simple punky chord progression is festooned with Lord Vladimir's best Glenn Danzig drawl. In other places like the opener, "Workin' for the Devil", there are higher pitched shrieks which I can only guess are an attempt to scratch a King Diamond itch, but these are an exception to the rule. Von Ghoul isn't just strictly trying to bite off his inspirations, though, so he throws in a more churning mid-ranged growl, or a ghastly growl like in "The Legend of the Swamp Hag". Variation isn't exactly a problem, and he strives for at least some charisma, but I often felt like the vocals felt too impromptu sounding, lending the record a loose and 'live' vibe, which isn't in of itself a flaw, only I just never found many of his lines convincingly catchy. More like goofy and serviceable, which mirrors my impressions of Workin' for the Devil as a whole, an album that is probably decent for a few cruises through the neighborhood on Halloween night, spraying some pumpkin spice confetti on the unwary Trick or Treaters, but not much valued beyond that...

The riffs are alright, but all pretty safe and stockroom for punk, thrash or even the proto-power metal sequences, to the point that I can't point out a single moment that impressed me. Leads are present but disposable, lacking the emotional impact they generally require to stand out. Lyrically, it all tends to vie for the rhyme scheme, with plainspoken imagery linked directly to the films they celebrate (like The Gate). Production is vivid and never lacks in punch, and the cover art colorful without completely stepping into comic book caricature land ala Ghoul. There are also a considerable 15 tracks, of varying lengths and styles, including a cover of Slayer's "Tormentor" to top it all off; yet this actually doesn't end up working in the album's favor, because it feels like too much average material for too long. A myriad of decently placed samples throughout the songs help shape the kitschy horror theme, but without strong, explosive riffs or highly atmospheric moments to capitalize on them, they seem almost like an afterthought. We know silly masked bands are capable of also producing some excellent music, hell just listen to Scumdogs of the Universe, We Came for the Dead or Destroyer....this album just doesn't seem to strive for much. But, despite these many critiques, I didn't actually hate this at all. It's aware of its limitations, consistent in its formula. Promises and delivers a little whiff of nostalgia, parties hard, and then flies off on a broom. A B-movie you'll throw on for mood, never for story.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Lurking-Corpses/199078861463

Violation Wound - Violation Wound (2014)

Violation Wound is raw metal-punk interpreted through the imaginations of Autopsy god Chris Reifert, bassist Joe Orterry (Zombie Holocaust) and drummer Matt O'Connell who had previously played with Orterry in another band called Fog of War. The project was formed quite recently in the summer of 2013, and so what we're hearing on this debut album is actually some fertile ground which has had only a modicum of time to properly develop. And that suits the trio's M.O. well, because the fuel here is pure riffing punk aggression with perhaps a fraction more depth than you're going to find from some awful Orange County sunshine pop garbage. That's not to say this is entirely inventive or left of center, but it's dirtier than usual with some inbred appeal to fans of crossover and splatter core....whether that's Cryptic Slaughter or The Exploited.

Now, I am one picky mother fucker when it comes to punk rock, far more so than with death metal, and almost all my favorite stuff in the genre hails from the 70s or 80s when you could pull out those trite 3 or 4 chord patterns and rock my face off with a distinct, charismatic vocalist. Since then I've leaned more towards the Gothic or post-punk niches due to their propensity for more creative riffing, something that seems to elude the vast majority of 'true punk' bands no matter how much alcohol they can down, how many car windows they can kick in. To me, 'punk' is rather self-defeating when instead of rebelliously shaping music, so many acts are just recycling the same boring riffs we've been hearing over and over since they were stolen from rock & roll in the 60s/70s. But if a band seems dirty enough, passionate enough, and just a little bit out of the box, I'm usually forgiving enough...I'm not sure I can be with this album, because while for all intensive purposes it's meant as a fun, expendable experience, the 2 minute or under tunes are plagued with generic chord patterns that don't seem particularly exciting, and might have been with a little more effort.

I say that with the caveat that: 1), Volition Wound is not at all a 'bad' or annoying first attempt, and 2) I think it works quite as intended by Chris and his companions. There is constantly an audience for these sorts of cruising, cruddy riffs and this might well be celebrated by crusties, skaters and disaffected death mavens the world over. As advertises, it's honest and simple and ugly as fuck, soaked in beer and sweat and so it gets that part of punk or hardcore proper. I actually dig Reifert's growls over the brighter, sunnier punk chords, a cool contrast, but I'm far more into what he does within Autopsy. The bumping bass lines and driving fills here don't add much personality, but plenty of enthusiasm. 18 tunes, 26 minutes, not a lot of depth and none was sought: a pretty straight paean to the forefathers of the style, whether that be the Stooges, the Misfits, the Damned, Black Flag or Minor Threat, and for some this is going to prove enough, but others like myself who want to hear punk music invested with something hellish and unique will have to seek that out elsewhere.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Violationwound

Dodsferd - The Parasitic Survival of the Human Race (2014)

Sleep is for pussies, and as Wrath and crew roll on with their tireless body of work, they prove it is unnecessary to create of some of their most raucous and feisty material yet. Coming off two of their strongest black metal works in 2013 (A Breed of Parasites/A Cursed Heritage), Dodsferd takes one by surprise with a more directly punk-inspired, angry set of riffs and raw production choices that almost had me feeling that they had mislabeled a new record from their alter ego Nadiwrath. It wouldn't be the first time that influence bled over into the Dodsferd discography, but unless they can write a better set of riffs the next time out, I hope it should prove the last...

This is meant to sound street-like, with intros that involve ambient, often riotous urban noise, and a raw production rivaling even their most malicious black metal material from the past 12 years, but those are pretty much where the compelling choices end. The real issue I took with The Parasitic Survival of the Human Race was how plain and uninteresting the riffs are. Pretty much standard high velocity punk rock & roll chords you could hear from any sort of throwback over the last 30 years, more muscular than the seedy punk or horrorpunk that inspired them to head in this direction. Naught but bulky, predictable chord patterns that have been written a hundred times elsewhere, with a minimum of Hellhammer swagger and a few bursts into more accelerated black metal territory. This is an album where the sheer attitude, aggression and atmosphere are all that keeps the music afloat, because the four originals that front-end the experience are mutually dry in the idea department, whether they're surging along with faster, groovier chords or straight angry US hardcore stuff like "Doubting Your Worth".

Now, there's no question that Dodsferd love this base simplicity, and I didn't hate listening through this; I simply wish they'd pad that adoration with a more interesting variety of notes...maybe some dissonant chords in there, or eerie picked harmonies to accent the workmanlike chords which don't sound like they took a great deal of effort to conceive. I'm all for hearing this style of blackpunk, only I want there to actually be riffs I remember afterwards; like on Darkthrone's Dark Thrones and Black Flags, a masterpiece of the style with some amazing, surprisingly intricate guitar progressions. Another album I could compare this to would be Horna's Sotahuuto, which likewise had some arguably banal chord selections, but that album was so saturated in filthy fucking evil through the production and vocals that it hardly mattered. Here, I felt like the 6-7 minute track lengths were too long to feature no riffs that stick or sequences that took me by surprise, it was just basic stuff with Wrath's pissed off vocals spitting over the top to deliver the much needed personality...

If the Misfits cover ("We Are 138") is the most exciting part of the record, then you know it wasn't that infectious; not that I dislike the Misfits, on the contrary, but I've heard so many of their songs covered so many times that I almost want to hold up a Stop sign when I encounter them. In Dodsferd's case they were clearly one of the compulsions that led them to eke out the blackpunk territory, but considering how starved the original content was effectiveness this doesn't really offer a grand finale, when the riffs leading up to it were basically just like Kvelertak's mostly-boring sophomore album, or any other recycled 'rebirth of rock' punk from the 21st century, only uglier and more vicious. Not that the Greeks were ever incredibly creative through the years, nor was that necessarily the aim, but after a strong 2013 I was sort of hoping that they'd continue to climb, and this is just sort of a step sideways and back. The aesthetic they're chasing is a cool one, but needs more risk, more detail...they're a better band than these riffs reveal.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

Crystal Castles (III) - 2012

Ed note: the album review contains notes on a live show, which was held at The Beacham in Orlando, FL on 16 April 2013.  Crystal Castles took the stage roughly around midnight after opening act Doldrums.

From the outset of Crystal Castles' third self-titled effort, you can tell not everything is right.  Even before listening, the album art invokes some sense of discomfort.  It features a hooded figure shrouded in black except for its maniacal grin--female?--embracing a naked male form.

 The opening track immediately begins with a nightmarish siren of sorts, perhaps signaling some fel beast coming from planes where reality is unstable.  Slowly synths stagger forward methodically, and we hear Alice Glass's voice for the first time.  Here she is lulling, but it's not long before her distorted, airy, distant pseudo-punk vocals begin shouting, almost unintelligble, except for one line: "I AM PLAGUE!"  Almost as if that is the only part of the song we are meant to understand.

Alice Glass is the unquestionable image of Crystal Castles, adorning most all of its merchandise in offbeat ways.  A bloody, Madonna-esque drawing.  As two pink, naked succubi with their tongues lolling.  That image carries onto the stage, with her torn tights and punk boots, thrifted clothing hanging loosely off her gaunt figure.  She drinks directly from a large bottle of vodka in one hand she carries with her frequently, the fiery cherry of her cigarette occasionally flaring up in the dark on stage.

Her performance is littered with her crowdsurfing, while she continues to sing.  It's become a fetish of fans to do everything they can to touch her. When she leaps down, there's a sudden surge of bodies forward in the crowd and it's easy to find yourself completely flattened on all sides, like Kirby.  There's other assorted hijinks that, perhaps, should stay with those who saw that individual show.  Needless to say, Alice is a miscreant.

Ethan Kath, who represents half of Crystal Castles, is less prominent yet equally impressive.  He was honored, along with Alice, together, as the #1 Icons of 20 Years at Lollapalooza.  Live, he is found usually slumped over, tinkering with his keys and nobs and pedals and switches, typically quiet except to occasionally berate the crowd for not being loud enough.

Interestingly, though Kath and Glass both come from punk backgrounds, their contemporary music sounds decidedly electronic: specifically (III).  Certain tracks would make instant dance club favorites, especially one track called "Sad Eyes," whereupon its beginning literally everyone in the crowd started jumping up and down rapidly.  A personal favorite for obvious reasons.

Each song is beautifully cut from the same fabric, customized and woven back together into a beautiful quilt of dark, electronic goodness where dark lords command skeletal stormtroopers, as the landscape slowly fades into a pixellated, poisoned point in the distance.  Faded black, shot through with purple, blue, pink and blinding white.  Banners of false prophets streaming in the wind.

Perhaps the most charming thing to me about Crystal Castles is its refusal to take itself too seriously.  Alice and Ethan make a true spectacle of a show, and played almost two sets when I saw them.  They're a true treat, and to venture sounding like a fanboy, one of my favorite acts.  I often pine to relive the show I saw, a bittersweet feeling.

Post-it note: Doldrums was impressive as the first act, featuring an odd looking frontman who spent most of his time singing using a custom-built suitcase with vocal effects built in it to make himself sound female or terrifying, and anything else he desired.  The band is unique and worth investigating.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.314159.../10]

http://www.crystalcastles.com/

you can't disguise sad eyes

Children of Technology - Mayhemic Speed Anarchy EP (2012)

Though never the most reticent of metal bands, Italy's Children of Technology really wear their hearts on their sleeves so boldly that the bloodstains will never come off in the wash, no matter what super strength detergent used in the purge. A colored chrome logo proudly transforms the group's logo into something belonging to the past, giving impressions of Razor or other such 80s blitzers, and the 7" EP's title of Mayhemic Speed Anarchy provides a blunt summary for those not yet in the know about their retro pandering style. This is a band courting a hybrid of punk, speed and thrash metal aesthetics which has generated a healthy chainsaw buzz through the underground in the past few years, and the tracks here are in no rush to break the mold whatsoever, which is business as usual, and what many are no doubt looking for in their sound.

"Mayhemic Speed Anarchy" is thus pretty standard fare for the Italians, a wall of forceful, brazen punk chords pumped up to early 80s metallic acceleration and woven through with crazy fits of lead work and corrosive gutter bark vocals redolent of the crossover splatter titans of the past, complete with screams that recall old Razor or Slayer in their petulant sense of infectiousness. The drums and bass are simplified and streamlined to accompany the narrow selection of riffing, but I enjoyed the pumping low end tone and the rather thrown-together, authentic feel of the beats nonetheless. Problem is there just isn't all that much here, and the main guitar progressions feel as if they've just been paraphrased from numerous crossover/punk influences and barely spiced up beyond the leads. This is energetic, propulsive stuff fit for a circle pit, but it never really goes beyond that, and I found it inferior to a number of tracks from It's Time to Face the Doomsday, their first proper full-length from 2010 which was pretty good. I definitely derived an aesthetic appeasement from the tune, but it's not catchy enough for many replays.

The B-side is better, but that comes with a caveat that it's a cover of Swedish punks' "Computer World" (from their 1989 album Faces of Death). The riffs are again pretty straight punk rock, but there's a bit of natural dissonance to the chords which gives it an almost archaic Teutonic aggression. I also really dug that unhinged wildness of DeathLörd Astwülf's pavement scraping growls and grunts here, and the band's frivolous solo work complements the momentum of the original rhythm guitars. Of course, I was already a fan of this original tune, so I'm probably a bit biased in its favor, but Children of Technology manage to have some fun with this and make it their own due to the vocal variation. All told, Mayhemic Speed Anarchy isn't a bad little 7" if you're in the mood for a collectable, or if you enjoy C.O.T. for their past works, but with just around 7 minutes of content, it wouldn't be a great starting place for newcomers, who could make a b-line for It's Time to Face the Doomsday or the Chaosmutant Hordes EP.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.facebook.com/COTofficial

Bonehunter - Turn Up the Evil EP (2012)

Bonehunter: now there's a name which should inspire some dread, whether or not you're a Steven Erikson fan or you just haven't got the desire to wind up a trophy for some cannibals after they steam your flesh off your skeleton and devour you. True to the title of this EP, and their chosen moniker, these Finns play a brand of blackened, snarling thrash sauteed in heaps of lewdness, occult innuendos and sexual carnage. The brash, primitive nature of the writing brought me back to the first time I heard groups like Impaled Nazarene or Abigail, with a clear punk inspiration in the riffing progressions, but a production scheme and caustic, rasping vocals that clearly belong to a black metal influence.

Turn Up the Evil is short and to the point, opening up with a pair of nymphomaniac witches chanting some laughable erotic ritual rhyme before the repulsive propulsion of the guitars kicks in. Drums are kept pretty simple with a punked up pummeling redolent of Venom, and the chords flow along like dirty bodily fluids dripping off a goat carcass roasting on a spit in Hell. Love the reverb to the vocals, and how they sneer menacingly and atmospherically above the more street-level, straightforward music. Bass is kept in line with the guitar patterns, to be expected in this niche, but like Japan's Abigail, the joy is in the Finns' raw and primitive approach to songwriting. It invites no nuance. It gives no shits about technicality or flair. The lyrics are hilariously smutty and direct, bordering on misogyny but much less lasciviously refined as an album like Latex Cult. Lines like 'I want to lick your cunt so bloody!' and 'ram through their hymen with supremacy' are pretty common here, so if you've not got the stomach for a ballistic, evil orgy then I doubt this will hold much attraction. Then again, the title track is more or less just a tribute to the band's influences...

The group basically moves at two tempos, a steady mid-paced rocking hybrid of punk and thrash/crossover, and then a more uptempo hardcore velocity, and they tend to drift between the two. They don't use a lot of muting in the riffs, and where they do it's usually some breakdown intended to make the listener go nuts and start shit kicking people with his spiked boots. Surprisingly, the most metallic ingredient on the EP are the evil sounding harmonic leads strewn out over various bridge rhythms, which I was surprised by. Not because they are necessarily the greatest solos, but because often bands of this ilk are all too rhythm oriented and eschew the practice altogether. It gives me the sense that Bonehunter would be capable of a more distinctly 'musical' aim if they so chose, but it just doesn't fit their modus operandi. Turn Up the Evil isn't so refined and riff based as a Bewitched or Witchery, but if you love pussy, ass, grime, blood, splatter and cheesy Satanic lyrics, and you enjoy a marathon of old Onslaught, Bathory, Venom, Possessed and so forth, then there's a very base charm to this music which I simply cannot deny, even if it's been done many times.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (spare no man, spare no child, spare no woman)

http://bonehuntermetal.bandcamp.com/

Astrum - Tales of Witchlore (2011)

I'll give Kentucky's Astrum some credit. They are one damned straightforward band, seeking little more than to punk up the formula of grisly proto-black metal pioneered by Tom G. Warrior and Hellhammer back in the early 80s. Simple, almost sludgy guitar tones propel the leaden rock beats while Timpaler von Mulciber's constipated bark draws a clear comparison to that Swiss icon. To that extent, Tales of Witchlore succeeds more than its predecessor Apocalyptic Dawn, an album of good intentions that was somewhat crippled by an occasionally messy vocal meter and crude instrumentation. It might not feel 'leaps and bounds' beyond in terms of songwriting quality, but it definitely cracks a few more poseur skulls.

It's the antithesis of complexity, for example, but you can easily circle pit the shit out of a track like "Triumph of the Black" or "Devil Worshipping Bitch", because there is something so lewd, honest and menacing about the guitar tone. I was having flashbacks to Sheer Terror here, a surge of filthy hardcore charisma, even if Astrum don't write riffs that are quite so catchy. Of course, there are some pure punk/hardcore riffs present, like the chorus bits in "Blood and Sand" or just about all of the calamitous, crashing "Master of Rock", but the oozing, bruising and fairly loud guitars render them no less of a threat. Timpaler's vocals might not always have the most effective of syllabic patterns, but they definitely seem tighter here than on the last album, so that is also a definite plus, and I liked how he threw the reverb over the chorus to "Devil Worshipping Bitch" (though the volume was mildly overbearing). Also, even though it's twice as long and much more of a direct Hellhammer style than the others, the closer "Gray" had some promise to it, some crushing rhythms which felt like a punch straight to the colon.

I think the one lingering issue of importance that I took away from Tales of Witchlore is that the straightforwardness I mentioned earlier often works to the songs' detriment. Usually the tactic here is to fill a 2-3 minute track without a simple riff or two, maybe a bridge with a solo, and call it quits. This isn't itself an awful technique, but with such simple notation, a few alternations, twists and turns in the tracks wouldn't help. A fraction of added depth to each would have gone a long way towards making each of the pieces more sinister, dynamic and effective. I realize that one doesn't approach a band like Astrum for a highbrow experience, more to kick the mud off the old combat boots; but there is a bit of space here where the repetitive (often similarly structured) verse riffs might have been better molded with a few subtleties.

Otherwise, the gripes are few. At first I found the cover a little cheesy, but hey...an illustration of a cute, naked witch sitting in a pentagram? I'm a hetero living in Salem, Massachusetts, so who am I to complain about that? The lyrics aren't bad at all if you're into the old Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer stuff; some are even funny ("Devil Worshipping Bitch"), and there are a few thinly veiled tributes in "Spectrum of Death" to Celtic Frost which I found amusing, but mostly they continue along the paths of the occult and impending nuclear Armageddon that were prevalent on the debut. Astrum might also seem not so unique, as there a number of other bands who pursue the same, simple strengths of their shared inspiration, but a lot are European, so it's fairly badass to have one here in the South. Perhaps I might not have the most glowing opinion of Tales of Witchlore, but all told, this IS a step forward for the band, and really, they're only a few strides from developing into something pretty damn fun. It might not be the perfect soundtrack to some necromantic rite, but hell if I couldn't listen to this while kicking some Avenged Sevenfold fanboi in the face.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (you can hear their cackles crack)

http://www.myspace.com/themightyastrum

Bones - Bones (2011)

When Chicago's Usurper broke up a while back, it left a void out in the Midwest of crude and authentic US punishment. Not that I was a fan of all their albums, necessarily, but certainly their earlier efforts Diabolosis and Skeletal Season were formidable exports of brutal black and thrash metal that not many bands here were producing. Thankfully, the graveyard has been restocked with a fresh set of Bones, a band as primitive and simplistic as their name might imply, which rekindles the hostile hearts of Jon Necromancer, Carcass Chris and drummer Joe. Naturally, there are going to be comparisons made to the trio's alma mater, and the vocals and guitar tone are certainly redolent of the earlier Usurper records, but if anything, Bones is more bludgeoning and less subtle than even that formative incarnation.

The emphasis here is on neanderthal crushing death and thrash with a clear inspiration from the crustier side of punk rock. I've read many comparisons to Motörhead, but in truth this only manifests in a few of the more punk-fueled tracks like "March of the Dead", "Good Die Young" and "Lonely Death", in which you might also hear a hint of early Discharge. The majority of the record hits like a thrashing, belligerent weightstone, the crunch of the guitar and the massive and distorted bass competing in the mix alongside Jon's angry vocals. Some of the slower, thrashing pieces like "666" are engrossing enough to bang the head along to, but most do not focus so much around the riffs as they do sheer volume and raw force ("Bloodlust", "Bitch", "Slowburn"). They also incorporate a cover of Devastation's "Apocalyptic Warrior", thick and destructive as all hell breaking loose, with a messy but sincere lead bled across its bridge, which serves as a good fit for Bones, and a fitting tribute. Mind you, this is not the Texan Devastation band who released a few albums through Combat, but the Chicago underground group who had one self-released full-length in the 80s.

The key to Bones is that one must totally set aside any expectations for complexity, because the riffing is even more basic than most of Usurper's output. Like so many of the punk-influenced powerhouse thrash, black and death metal acts, the notation can often prove too predictable and creatively bankrupt to leave an impression, and while the wrath and energy of these veterans is never in question, that can sometimes be the case on this debut. There are very few moments here of surprise or hooks so memorable that they'd warrant profuse replays, and certain tracks are notably more catchy than others. That said, the fact that the trio is so ungodly loud and sincere goes a long way to compensate for any of the lagging tunes, and they never set out to write a record worthy of perspicacity, only pummeling fortitude. To that extent, Bones works, and it gives us something to look forward from these old, mighty hands.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/bonesofchicago

Autopsy - Shitfun (1995)

Well it IS shit, but it ain't so fun. Autopsy's 4th album might be a meager half-truth in advertising, but it's not at all surprising when one considers past tangents (the Fiend for Blood EP) or the direction the band was leaning towards with Acts of the Unspeakable. Punk and sludge had become the dominant flavor in the band's developing devolution, and while there are fewer aesthetic differences in the lyrical concepts of Shitfun to its predecessor, it does feel as if the spade wielding, festered cemetery caretaker of the California crew's formative years had been supplanted by a gaggle of delinquent trailer park pukes who think its fun to eat poop and explode frogs with firecrackers or what the fuck ever to pass the empty days.

This distinction is largely musical, as the lyrics offer the same mix of rambunctious annoyance and a more methodic, ghastly obsession. Reifert continues to communicate with a balance of his early gutturals and splattered punk narrative, but even when he's pinching a groan out it does not seem to have the same effective power as Mental Funeral or Severed Survival. Shitfun has 21 tracks on it, and in my opinion that's about 13 or 14 too many, because as hard as it might be to believe, there are some atmospheric moments amidst the slovenly coprophilia that manifest the creepy overtones of the past, in such installments as "Humiliate Your Corpse" or the slow, drudging "Praise the Children". "Blood Orgy" and "Maim Kill Maim Rape" both have a bouncing crepitation to them which proves worthwhile, but the majority of the tracks are laden in wholly forgettable punkish or dull proto-doom slop that immediately exits brain left. Songs like "Shit Eater", "Geek", "Bathe in Fire", "I Shit On Your Grave", "An End to the Misery" and so many others have about 5-10 seconds of plausible but effortless creativity that offer only a fraction of this band's net worth from the older albums.

Shitfun really feels like a band bored out of its mind, but not so mindless of its audience that it would abandon its prior dynamics entirely. There is a pretty good reason for this: Autopsy had already decided to call it quits, and transition into their new incarnation Abscess. The material here is little more than a transitional galleria of grotesque odds and ends that would not have complemented the value of either Acts of the Unspeakable or Seminal Vampires and Maggot Men. A depot for half-formed ideas. A clutter gutter. A heavily swollen contract filler with no ambition other than soaking in its own bodily fluids and stinking up its environment. Honestly, I'm amazed that this album doesn't 100% suck, but at the same time I'm glad that the members had realized their interests lay elsewhere and cut the lifeline before releasing something even more sill than this. These days, we have Autopsy back doing what they do best, so it's kind of difficult to hold a grudge over this misstep, but of the 55 minutes here there are only 10-15 not worth an immediate flush down the the maw of the nearest porcelain deity.

Verdict: Fail [4/10] (no funeral, no fear, no remorse)

http://www.autopsydeathmetal.com/

Sodom - Get What You Deserve (1994)

Having renewed their approach to extremity on 1992's Tapping the Vein, Tom Angelripper and company decided not to simply repeat themselves, but explore their tendency towards raucous punk rock to its natural conclusion. The result was Get What You Deserve, a pretty severe splatter/party album which fuses this attitude with the band's metallic fundamentals, for a fairly unique sound that remains entirely Sodom. The bass becomes the central instrumental here, which is unusual despite the 3-piece configuration: Tom has always been an impressive, thick player, but the guitars were there to match his prowess. Here, his distorted lines are the dominant force, after which Tom's death barking, Atomic Steiff's relentless pounding, and Andreas Brings' thin, savage tones splay out in descending order of importance.

Get What You Deserve is rather a mess, but a hot mess reeking of blood, alcohol and semen, like the dire cover image might suggest. Most importantly, it's fucking heavy. Turn this up to an appropriate volume and the bass will rattle your bones and teeth, almost like experiencing it in a live setting. Certain of the tracks rely on pure punk rock aggression, like "Die Stumme Ursel", "Eat Me!", "Fellows in Misery", and "Erwachet", all of which fester in the simplicity of the familiar riffing (Sodom have never written interesting punk tunes, settling with the standard chord progressions) and Tom's omnipotence in the mix. But there are also tunes with a little more bite to them: "Jesus Screamer" is a ripping, hardcore blasphemy; "Delight in Blasphemy", "Gomorrah" and "Into Perdition" rekindle memories of In the Sign of Evil and Obsessed by Cruelty; "Tribute to Moby Dick" is a riot of slow, doomed thrash and whale samples, completely unexpected even if the riffs are bland.

The album is closed with a cover of Venom's legendary "Angel Dust", only too natural in this environment of originals, for that band was likewise influenced by the excess of punk attitude and simple songwriting which Sodom are emulating here. I won't lie and say that Get What You Deserve belongs among the band's more recognized works. Personally, I'm just not a fan of the guitar tones, no matter what sacrifice they are making for the raw swagger of the basslines, and more importantly, I'm not a fan of the guitar writing. It seems almost an afterthought here, and my favorite memories of this German staple all consist of those with strong (Blackfire) axe work. But as a 90 degree diversion from the band's usual course, it's fun enough to just crank the damn thing and ride the overbearing, violent impulses, even when the back of the mind mourns for the lack of a "Sodomy and Lust" or "Agent Orange".

Verdict: Win [7/10] (you drew the curtain over me)

http://sodomized.info/

Mottek - Fatal Violence (1990)

Mottek are one of several European bands crossing the bridge from punk/hardcore music to the metal realm in the mid to late 80s (alongside fellow Germans Rumble Militia), and some might argue the validity of such a maneuver, but in both cases it turns out to be rather genuine. Fatal Violence is the only album by this band that I've actually heard, so I'll assume that Hypnose and Riot were the punk works, but it's a practiced thrash album with some amazingly taut riffs, a charging tone highly reminiscent of Metallica ala Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, with some of the methodical, cutting fortitude of Testament, Destruction or Kreator.

In fact, this is one of the closest albums I've ever heard to Master of Puppets in terms of the actual guitars, and in this light Mottek remind me of what Accuser were writing about this time. Concrete, forceful rhythms that almost invariably cause the sensation of neck strain upon contact. The one difference is the vocals, which here are quite varied. Normally, there's a dirty and lackadaisical barking drag happening ("Fatal Violence", "Bombs Over Bombay", "Fact or Fiction"), but once in awhile they take on a more emotional merit not unlike James Hetfield. I don't actually care for the former, which are in the majority here, but the riffs are so often so damn good that I find them pretty easy to overlook, where elsewhere I might have the entire experience spoiled.

Yes, the mix of ballistic riffing force with hostile melodies is simply too much of that prescription the surgeon weaned me on as a young lad, which gradually transformed into a lifelong addiction to mother fucking thrash. Tracks like "Tear Me Apart" and "Requiem Shuffle" still kill me like it was 1986 all over again. Apparently, the shift to this style was not satisfactory for the band, because it was the last album before they called it quits, but at least they left us with this uncanny yet memorable effort in their wake. Musically, it's pretty derivative, but I do feel that there were not enough bands playing with precisely this tone and formulating it into riffs worth a damn, so it stands as an unsung, minor triumph, even if the vocal presence threatens to nullify its fervent functionality.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Children of Technology - It's Time to Face the Doomsday (2010)

Splayed out in leather, bullet belts, mohawks, mutton chops, vests, and more patches than you'd find at an open air headbanger festival, the Children of Technology cut a pretty unusual figure on the Italian scene. We've come to know the place for symphonic and progressive metal, with black and death scenes developing, but a nuclear splatter crossover band? That's news. Well, this unit have been busy in the past few years since their 2007 inception, producing a number of splits and singles, and it was only time until their novelty caught some attention, enabling them to release their full-length debut It's Time to Face the Doomsday on CD through Hell's Headbangers. To say that they belong on such a roster is merely an understatement, because there is really nothing about this record that reeks of anything post 1987...

Children of Technology do not hide their influences, in fact they tout them rather openly. The music is a mix of old school punk/hardcore and thrash, placing them somewhere among the rank and file of Discharge, (early) Corrosion of Conformity, Cro-Mags, D.R.I., The Accüsed, The Exploited, and Cryptic Slaughter. DeathLord Astolfi's vocals sound like a chain smoker with gravel down his throat, and I am reminded of both Snake's work on the early Voivod albums, and Chris Notaro from the cult legend Crumbsuckers' debut, Life of Dreams. This is a fairly difficult style to pull off, not because of any implicit complexity in the writing or performance, but to actually write songs that feel somewhat more than mere derivations of the many acts preceding them in the constituent genres. To this extent, I feel the Italians have at least succeeded where many others do not.

"New Enemies to Hunt" provides a nuclear inauguration, crass punk rhythms and gang shouts aplomb after the rock and roll setup, and you'll notice that the Children don't exactly rush through their material. This is one of the shorter tracks on the album at 2:43, about double the length written by many such acts, so there's something more substantial about it. They don't exactly front load the stronger songs though, and "It's Time to Face the Doomsday" and "No Man's Land" waltz by like toxic punks inhaling spray paint before we finally get to some more ass kicking riffs in the "Symptom of the Universe"-like "Racing Through the Valley of Death", the frenzied "No Fuel...No Hope!", the hardcore Armageddon of "Escape from the Danger Zone" and moodily introduced "Screams from the Earth", which summoned up delightful memories of the old Voivod albums I used to headbang through while my balls were still dropping.

As a definitive statement of European splatter punk thrash, It's Time to Face the Doomsday is more than adequate, though the initial few tracks are rather weak on the riffing, and there is nothing so atmospheric here beyond a nuclear strike siren or the propulsion of the band itself. Half of me feels like there is not a lot of room in crossover to innovate, but the other half reminds me that most bands don't even try. Children of Technology aren't writing outside of their major influences, and if anything, they play it rather safe. This is the kind of band I'd like to hear filthier, messier, and far more radioactive as they sing anthems to the end times and beyond, wasteland mutants hurling empty liquor bottles at graffiti strewn walls as they cook their enemies in oil drums for consumption. Considering the relatively young age of the project, I get the feeling there is plenty of room yet to carve out their place in the apocalypse.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/childrenoftechnology