Aussie Slam

Lets start off 2016 with the first full-length by Melbourne brutal death metallers Whoretopsy. The band caught my eye sinply for the fact they call themselves a blend of deathcore and BDM, two genres which I'm trying to get back into after being out of the intestinal loop for a couple years. So how does the merging of such misanthropic styles sound? Pretty fucking good actually. First off, it is really nice to hear good musicians actually playing together, no drum machines, loops or over produced effects. The riffs and breakdowns are plentiful and absolutely vicious - the kind of stuff I wish there were still huge floor-sized speaker stereos to blast through. The weird deathcore guitar noodling (of which I never understood the popularity) is still there to an extent but it's completely overshadowed by the sheer crush of down-tuned power chord monstrosity. You still got to deal with a token movie sample intro on most of the songs but hey it wouldn't be brutal death without 'em, no? Great shit to nurse a hangover and rip the holiday decorations down to. Happy New Year.

Potty Mouth

Fingered

Not much out there about this Buffalo metalcore-ish deathcore four-piece - I'm not sure what spurred my discovery of this LP on iTunes but regardless, I went and downloaded it just the same. This record is a compilation of their two 2004 EPs The Hatred Spreads and Three Minutes Of Hate. Apparently self-released and completely obscure (were there actual CDs pressed?) it sounds well-rehearsed, well-produced and totally surprising that the band didn't seem to go anywhere. While there are moments that are token and tired, some parts are simply fucking awesome (the last 30 seconds of "Bloodlet" and "In The End" for example). And for being 10 years old, the fact that they sound even remotely pertinent today is a "win" in my book. Looks like most of the group stayed together long enough to reinvent themselves as a silly-named doom/death metal outfit called Darkapathy in 2012 who's bandcamp page got almost a minute of my fleeting attention. Enjoy.

3mh

This Is Revenge

Solid debut album from Bergen County, NJ. Don't get these guys confused with the Kalamazoo indie rock trio or roots rock L.A. outfit with the same name, this is straight up screaming fucking deathcore that will make you want to punch yourself or someone else in the face. While there's nothing terribly original here, the record has enough gritty vehemence that will make you forget there are bands like Carnifex and Whitechapel playing the exact same shit. There's even some 7-string Korn-esque licks here and there for the old school losers like myself. The opening of "Panty Sniffer Does Porn" is highlight of the album for me - the blast of riffage is simply awesome. The guys seem to have recently released a long-in-the-works followup EP - check out their shit here.

Break Shit

Y-Town's Stompcore Pimp Daddies

From waaay up north in Ypsilanti, MI (home of the EMU Eagles - thanks NCAA Football 09!) comes the working man's deathcore outfit Kitchen Knife Conspiracy. I discovered them many a year ago while desperately perusing the painfully now-obsolete mp3fiesta.com in search of any metalcore band I hadn't yet heard (little did I know my discovery of PtDB was only weeks away but that's another story). In comes KKC and their fourth (and final?) album, the witty A Friend In Need... Is A Friend To Kill. While some of the movie samples go on way too long, the album is a fun walk down death metal memory lane and stays pretty listenable today. I mean it's almost a decade old and completely derivative of Vision Of Disorder/Carnifex but who back then wasn't? The token humorous song titles belay the groovy breakdowns and tight riffs of generally good tunes. My only complaint is the low vocals seem to be mixed a tad high - the obvious overdub can be distracting. Other than that, a solid thirty minutes by a band stuck in a shitty college town worshipping My Chemical Romance and the Foo Fighters. They still seem to be around and are re-releasing remastered versions of their stuff soon so show some Michigan respect and keep up with 'em here.

Envy The Dead

How To Survive A Vicious Cock Fight

Pretty decent mathcore/screamo debut from Bay City, MI denizens See You Next Tuesday (C-U-N... aw, you get it). Solid über tempo-change deathcore all pulled off at a breakneck pace, the songs are mercifully short (the entire album running time is a scant 20 minutes) so the schizophrenic cacophony never gets a chance to really fray your nerves. The band recorded a second album, the surprisingly typical death metal-ish Intervals in 2008, a disappointing musical departure from their debut. They promptly disbanded within a year.

Insert Witty Song Title Here

This Ain't Fenway...

I know there are a lot of purists out there who will go to their grave defending the theory that Suicide Silence invented deathcore. While the band was definitely around during the genre's formative years, I still gotta give credit to Carnifex for refining the sound into what it is known for today (and bringing it to the masses), for better or for worse. In a nutshell, Carnifex just sound better - there's nothing Suicide Silence has ever released that has warranted more than a passing acknowledgement save the above. In 2008 the group released this limited 7" solely notable for its solid cover of Deftones' "9 Words". There's also a cut from their debut LP and a live track but I don't think I've ever bothered to listen to either.

No Pity

Cuntpuncher

Mean-spirited deathcore/brutal death metal from Cologne, Germany. Awaiting The Fist is exactly what I want in heavy music: relentless riff-heavy slam with growly gutteral vocals. This little fucker of an e.p. starts off strong and does not quit for its 20-minute running time. The breakdown in "Postmortem Facefuck" is simply amazing. The band is still at it and their sound has evolved into a more "typical" brutal death metal groove, solid but nothing special. Check 'em out at their prime in 2008.

Beg For It

Holy fuck!!! A new post!!!

Yay for me - got a new fucking post up. About time - no? Well, I won't bore you with any long slavish idol-worship of American Violence - aside from a great name they play the tightest beatdown deathcore I've heard since Gat-Rot sadly vanished from the planet (or have they? I just updated their post... bwah hah hahhhhhh). No but seriously, the three minutes of anger in AV's 2012 Demonstration is fucking awesome. Christ it's taken twenty years but someone finally honed the downtuned 7-string B sound like Korn circa '92. Brutal. Angry. No fucking guitar solos. Facebook. Bandcamp.

Ignore False Idols

Currently watching: Through The Looking Glass

Currently listening to: Jimi Hendrix Live At The Fillmore East

Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up...

I discovered this band years ago on the sketchy mp3fiesta.com; who knows what keywords I punched in that led me to a band called "Happy Face"?! Regardless, this (debut?) album showcases some solid deathcore in the vein of Despised Icon, though I may just be saying that since they're French. Typical piggish gurgles along with some grinding, surprisingly slower riffage then I expected, all packaged up with some weird artwork that would have a more appropriate home as an anime DVD cover. Whatever, Le Tigre's a great album, and I couldn't tell you what half the song titles mean. While info on the band is somewhat thin, they are evidently still at it with a totally new lineup and are shopping around their 2009 demo - check that shit out here.

Mortcore

 
Currently watching: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Currently listening to: Dissension Dissension

Birth of Deathcore

 

With the recent release of Carnifex's newest, Hell Chose Me, I thought it a good time to revisit the album that launched my love of deathcore, 2005's Dead In My Arms. Some consider Suicide Silence to be the fathers of the genre (via 2003's The Cleansing), maybe that would be true if they weren't so boring. Carnifex took the sound to another level with this album; it not only in sold well, it also achieved the monumental task of getting deathcore across to the masses. Immensely huge tracks such as "Slit Wrist Savior" had never been done to such a level before, they truly substantiate the band's innovative relevance in heavy music history. They've gone down a more standard death metal route with their latest material and I can't blame them for wanting to change styles, yet I really think they were at their peak with this one.

Fine, Fuck You Then