Blood - Mental Conflicts

If you've been involved in the metal underground since the days that metal fanzines were printed on paper then there's a good chance that you've heard of German noisecore band Blood especially since the band released their first record on the US label Wild Rags records back in 1989 and at the time the label seemed to be in every metal fanzine.

Vic Records recently released their fourth album "Mental Conflicts"which the band released back in 1994 finds the band utilizing both grindcore and slowing down and edging towards death metal within their rotting musical stew so it's not all fast and furious. As the best Blood tracks are short and quick bursts that's the review over.

Check out the title track in this video clip.



Release date: 23 June 2017

3/5

Police State - Mind Collapse

Pennsylvanian band Police State's mission statement is to shit on American politics. Instead of using billions of dollars and an odd hairpiece Police State are using a combination of crust, grind, powerviolence and d-beat to get their mission accomplished.

The listener is gently lulled in with the opening "intro" before getting beaten with the less than a minute d-beat blasts of "Consumed" and "Oath". "Pure Filth" is double the length of these two tracks and has a crustier texture. "Cease To Exist is triple the length and grinds the ear with a metallic lean.

While the anger is ever-present throughout the twenty minutes of "Mind Collapse", there's not a lot to draw a listener back.

2.5/5




Listen to Mind Collapse on bandcamp here.


Police State on facebook

Drones for Queens - Practically Weapons

This E.P. from Philidelphia band, Drones for Queens, is a tasty slab for the D-beat fan to drool over. There's a very metallic feel to the EP's title track that won't really annoy D-beat fans and may even convert the more open-minded metalhead. For a large sum of the song, the guitar sounds like it could have a thrash or grind album which gets the thumbs up on this blog. "A Blinding Future" has a similar metallic leaning running through it and you know what? It works. Drones for Queens have offered up something much more interesting than standard Discharge worship. A thrash metal pulse with a tinge of death(of the metal sub-genre kind) runs through "Duress".

Play the title track "Practically Weapons"



"Practically Weapons" is being released as a limited to 300 copies 7" white vinyl. There's a link or two below for pre-orders.

4/5

Drones for Queens on facebook

Pre-order the vinyl here.

Jesus Crøst - 1986

Jesus Crøst are a two piece grindcore who have added other underground elements to their music. The duo have added death metal and power violence to create a ferocious brutally fast noise that slows down from ramming speed just a little now and then before angrily pummeling once again at full throttle. There are 22 songs in 15 minutes and all the songs are named after Soccer players. There are a few samples taken from soccer games of days long gone. Well worth checking out.





3.5/5

jesus crost on facebook

Miserable Failure "Hope"

The grindcore rule book states that songs by bands that claim genre should be short angry bursts that rely on super fast blazing riffs and blast beats.  The myths surrounding this rulebook include that it was written for people with short attention spans so it can be read in less time than Napalm Death's "You Suffer" and that it was originally printed with a lump of black coal then photocopied and handed out at grind gigs on A5 paper.

Lost all semblance of my original train of thought; where was I again?  Oh, yeah.  I was writing a review of French grindcore band, Miserable Failure's "Hope".  It's fast and angry grind.  Four songs in less than four minutes.  Balls jackhammered to the wall by a bullet train sum up this band's approach although they do slow down for a bit in "Goodbye and Good Riddance" to give a sample some breathing space.

If you have four minutes to spare then click the link below for some great grindcore.

Miserable Failure on bandcamp

C.O.A.G. "Sociopath"

  It'd be easy to put Bulgarian one-man project Coalition of Abnormal Grinders into the too hard basket as it's not absolutely clear where the project fits. What exactly is it?   Grindcore?  Punk? Hardcore?   An actual coalition?  So many questions for such a short release.

The first comparison these well-worn ears made was to Japan's Mad Capsule Markets due to the celebration of noise in sheer chaoticness and the vocal style although C.O.AG. have much less in the way of melody and hark back to the rawer hardcore that was coming out in the eighties.   The riff to track II is has a surf feel as a Dead Kennedys style guitar is given the grinding treatment.  Track V is the aforementioned DK's crossed meeting a black metal band on a motorway and grinding it out as fast as humanly possible. 

  All ten original tracks have been given Roman numerals and all are strictly business falling under the two minute mark.  The cover of Hatebreed's "Defeatist" is the only track given a name and also the longest.  This release is well worth checking out.

3.5/5

Listen to this release.


C.O.A.G on Facebook

Blood Duster at Valve Wellington 23 June 07

The last metal band I saw at Valve were Belligerence who I walked out on due to the fact they just weren’t to my taste so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the local bands at this show. Slave Cadaver started this show with their style of hard out death metal. This band’s frontman moves around a lot as does their bass player especially compared to the rest of the band and the vocals varied in style from death metal scooby doo to more punkish vocals. Backyard Burial are popular if clothing is anything to go by but frankly I found the most interesting thing about them to be the lead growler’s Prostitute Mutilation T-shirt and the guy standing next to me requesting Stryper or Manowar covers and also commented that “Lunatic Ruling Asylum” was a ridiculous song name. Musically they were hard out but really nothing special. I enjoyed Slave Cadaver more than these guys. Sadius Fiend were up next. I’ve wanted to see this band for years because I’ve heard good things about them. They introduced as not being the ordinary metal band because they take mushrooms and fall in love with themselves. This three piece did not disappoint but exceeded my expectations. The number of people close to the stage increased. The flying V guitarist’s stage moves and constipated looks reminded me of Craig Radford in the 80s and 90s. However that’s partially due to his haircut but comparison to the other SF band can’t be helped. I also had flashbacks to seeing Shihad in The Albert and The Royal Taverns in Palmerston North. All three of the members of Sadius fiend were extremely active on stage. The band seemed amused by the guy who ran behind the drum kit, then grabbed a spare mic and then lied on the stage between the guitarist’s legs. The WTF look was great. Sadius Fiend’s between song banter was priceless as was the cover of Regurgitator’s ‘I wanna be a nudist’. By far the best NZ band on the line up and they weren’t originally planned. I can’t wait to see them again. Australia’s Blood Duster were last on the bill which makes sense since they were headliners. Once again the number of people close to the stage increased once again. Blood Duster are supposed to be one of the most offensive bands around however I’ve seen New Zealand punk bands such as Ethiopian Lard Farmers do the offensive between song bantering much better. Blood Duster however are more lyrically offensive. Songs I remember them playing are Three Oh Seven Oh, Myspace Your face(both songs had a really catchy punk/rock chorus), porn stores stiffi, drinkfightfuck(with it’s audience participation chorus) Dahmer the Emblamer, Rock n’Roll Jihad, I love the pills and Duster Duster . The band made the comment that Wellington was madder than Auckland and that the chicks were hotter. One of the mics in use fell down a couple of times just before the mic was needed by the band. I regret not buying a Blood Duster CD at the show but I’ll eventually add their new triple album release to my music collection although I don’t how much play I’ll give the grindcore CD. However I can foresee wearing out and annoying friends with the death rock CD. All in all a good night._________________


Above is a video to Blood Duster's song pornstorestiffi from their album Cunt.