Lycanthrophy/F.U.B.A.R. split 7"

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, mostly because I now have job and little time to start reviewing, but I haven't bought that much new material, eventhough I now finally have the money for it hehe.

Anyways... What I didn't wait for to pick up was the new Lycanthrophy/F.U.B.A.R. split on Bones Brigade records. Two bands that have been around for a while and with the reputation of delivering top notch grindcore each and every time, can't go wrong with a split of those, now can you?!

Up first is Lycanthrophy, Czech female fronted grind/powerviolence that really started to get attention when the enlisted a (very nice looking) lady on vocals. But they deserve every attention they get because besides the lady-fact they also produce virgin-ass-tight music, and again so on this split. Five songs of stop'n go grindcore, not unlike Yacöpsae and Jesus Cröst. Excellent stuff.

F.U.B.A.R. is on the other side. I have to admit that on the last thing the released (the split with Sylvester Staline) they let me down a bit, it had some songs on it that weren't all up to the level they preformed on previous efforts, like the Splitter split or the full length LP. The bands side on this split however is back on the same level and maybe even topping it. F.U.B.A.R. 's grindcore has never sounded better in my opinion. Great production and - above all - great songs! I'm personally a huge fan of the 3 vocals, as they add only to the furiosity of the band and sound. Can't wait to see these guys live again!

Conclusion? A must have!

www.myspace.com/fubargrind
www.myspace.com/lycanthrophy
www.bonesbrigaderecords.com

Stino

Altar Of Plagues - Tides LP

Life's full of surprises. One day you're relaxing on your apartment, the next day Altar Of Plagues is staying over for a couple of nights because some volcano cancelled their trip to Finland on their European tour in support of their new album "Tides". That same album is now part of my collection and I'm happy to tell you that if you're into ambient "modern" blackmetal, it should be in yours as well! "Tides" is no copy of the band's opus magnus so far: "White Tomb". it is slower, (even) more melancholic and leans more to bands like Shining, Lifelover and Forgotten Tomb, whereas its predecessor was more Wolves In The Throne room alike, though the latter influence is still present in the faster bits of the 2 songs and the EP (yeah EP, eventhough it is in fact 36 minutes long) has the same trancelike effect as aforementioned Cascadian band. The production isn't as good as on "White Tomb" though, it's not as polished and sounds a bit dirtier, which isn't a bad thing, but the drumsound could've sounded better. That however is just a minor flaw. Altar Of Plagues deliver yet again with "Tides" and I'm pretty sure more awesome stuff will follow from these Irish prawns.

www.myspace.com/altarofplagues
www.burningworldrecords.com
Stino

Millions Of Them - Failures LP

Many bands claim to be influenced by Botch, Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Locust, Coalesce,... but few achieve the same level as these legends, escpecially not in a little shithole like Belgium. Though we have a new contestant, called Millions Of Them. The Antwerp based ex- Reply, Am I Dead Yet?, Minus45°, ... hard/mathcore band has recently released it's first offspring: "Failures", and it has to be said: it's pretty impressive!
Take Botch, add some "When Forever Comes Crashing"-era Converge and season with a little Trap Them and Millions Of Them is what you'll be cooking! And no, it's not a bland and uninspired wannabe rip-off. It's hard and raw, just like the production, which was in the hands of Kurt Ballou of Converge (I think that alone is a pretty good reference, no?) and - above all - it's high quality stuff. Maybe a bit more variation in the songwriting wouldn't be such a bad thing, as I sometimes have the feeling that I'm listening to the same song twice, but that might just be me. Other than that I can only say: Buy this LP (it was also released as a CDr by the band) and keep an eye on Millions Of Them, they have the potential to get to the same level as their influences!

www.myspace.com/millionsofthem
adagio830.de

Stino

Aborted - Coronary Reconstruction EP

Aborted has evolved through the years. Not only did the line-up change more than Michael Jackson's looks, with frontman Svencho as the only consistant factor in the band, but also the music. More -core, more melody, less brutality, in-your-face-death(grind). Some liked it, some didn't. I for one lost my interest in the band these last couple of years, which is strange for a dude who had "Goremageddon" as the soundtrack of his late teenage years. However when Svencho told me that - after yet another line-up change - the band wanted to go back to the "Goremageddon", "Engeneering The Dead" and "The Archaic Abbatoir" albums the interest returned, especially after hearing the first few teasers from what would turn out to be "Coronary Reconstruction", the new Aborted EP.
And Svencho kept word. The new EP has the brutality, speed and power of aforementioned albums. Not too many solos, breakdowns or melodic jibba jabba, just full frontal deathgrind (yeah, the grind part is indeed back, thank you Eran/Whorecore?!). Hell, even the gory intros are back! It might not be as approachable as Strichnine.213, most of the The Black Dahlia fans probably wont like it, but I couldn't care less. It's the first Aborted release in 3 years that got me excited again and I can only hope that the upcoming album is somewhat similar to "Coronary Reconstruction"! Now if they only got rid of those horrible 1000-colour-shirts...

www.myspace.com/abortedmetal
www.centurymedia.com

Stino

The Muzzler - Common Sense CD

All the way from Chicago comes The Muzzler with their first CD, called "Common Sense". To be honest it was the first time I ever heard of The Muzzler and when I heard the name I thought of furry animals for some reason, but it's not. The Muzzler is some kind of crossover thrash/punk/core/whatever band, nothing furry about that. "Another crossover thrashcore band?" I hear you think. Well, not really. It's not the 667th "old school thrash" band that happens to sound quite a lot like a hardcore/punk band as well. The Muzzler isn't a copy of any band, to be honest. They take the best ingredients of (thrash)metal, hardcore/punk and grindcore, add some melody, mosh parts and circle pit fun and come out with a very cool mix. It's hard to compare them with other bands, because well... it's quite original. The 10 songs on "Common Sense" keep me interested from start to finish, not a dull moment in this CD and with my attention span being as short as Danny Filth that's quite the achievement! Definitely a nice CD and I wouldn't mind hearing more of these lads! Cool tunes!

www.myspace.com/themuzzler
www.myspace.com/cassettedeckmedia
Stino

Welkin - Traces CD

It's been a while that I really was looking forward to a release by a Belgian band, but the teasers that Welkin had put online last year tickled my interest quite a bit. So I picked up "Traces" at the release show and it turns out money well spent. An excellent slap of mid tempo, somewhat progressive deathmetal. Think the slower parts of Gojira, combined with the ever-headbang-ability of Bolt Thrower.
The previous Welkin album "The Origin" wasn't really what I expected from it; the songwritting was more than decent, but the sound lacked balls and gave me an overall "mèh" feeling. But it seems the band somewhat thought the same as I did, because on "Traces" the sound is huge! Bombastic, dynamic, call it whatever you want, it blows you out of your socks.
Something that might be a bit bothering is the fact that are too few tempo changes. It lacks a bit of speed now and then. But other than that this album is top notch and I find it a bit weird no label was found to release it, as I think that there's most definitely an audience for it nowadays!

www.myspace.com/sonicdeathmetal
Stino

Nesseria - S/T CD

Nesseria started in 2004, have played over a hundred shows all over the world and have 3 split releases under their belt and I just got to know them... it's a strange world! Their new album was just released on Trendkill Recordings and on the promotional heap of flyers, cards, stickers and whatnot that came with the CD they claim to be "chaotic grindcore with metal parts. A mixture between Nasum and Converge, with a personal and modern approach.". Well, part of that is right, part of it isn't. I wouldn't really call it grindcore to be honest. OK, it has blastbeats, but that alone doesn't really make a band "grind", does it? The Converge part is very true though, the vocalist seems to have listened a lot to Jacob Bannon and the music is very similar, be it without the melancholic songs Converge has on each album. "Choatic hardcore with blastbeats and metal parts" would make a better description in my opinion. Now just because it's not as "grind" as they claim it to be doesn't mean it's bad, of course. I quite enjoy this self titled album, really. It's well executed, with a decent production, fitting the music quite well. With all the promo made for this album and the album itself being more than decent, Nesseria could win many hearts I think, especially with openminded hard/grind/metal(core) kids!

www.myspace.com/nesseria
www.myspace.com/trendkillrecordings
Stino

The Irradiates – Audio mental manipulation device 12"

I don't know anything about surf music, except the classic stuff like Dick Dale or The Ventures and the bands from my home town Besançon... In fact I think that only two bands played surf rock in our local scene: Hawaii Samurai (RIP) and The Irradiates (with 2 out of 3 members of Hawaii Samurai). The Irradiates is a relatively new band, they've been playing for 3 years now, spreading their music on the beaches of France, Switzerland, Germany and even Norway! They released a first 10” with a bunch of cover songs, then a split 12” with the great French hardcore band Lost Boy, and recently this new album with all new, own material! This new full length was recorded in Chicago by Steve Albini (classy isn't it?) and is totally killer: eleven songs of audio mental manipulation, indeed they all sound surf rock but the band has many influences. From the punk rocky songs (“Well stated”) to more melancholic songs (“dark clouds”, “Sun projector”) etc, each part of this release has its own universe and it's very easy listening and good to dance to as well! Who could guess that such music could come from the gloomy east part of France? DO NOT miss them if they play in your area, you would miss a great moment of crazy scientific surf music! Available on 12" and CD!

www.myspace.com/theirradiates
Pibe

Fuck The Facts - Unnamed EP

Fuck The Facts is one of those bands that you like or you don't. Some think they're too progressive and experimental to be labeled grindcore, others think they add something to the genre... I'm part of the last group. The mix of grindcore, deathmetal, hardcore, mathcore and what not is not new, but the band keeps in interesting. So again in their new release, the "Unnamed" EP. What actually are leftovers from the full length album "Disgorge Mexico" are to me some of the best songs I've heard from the band. There might be a little less of the wacky stuff in them and a bit more of The Fast than on the full length, even though the songs are still pretty long (but all is relative of course. But don't worry the eri "Time Is A Dictator" brings a nice pauze between all the noise, so you don't get flooded with blastbeats. The production is flawless and the artwork is very cool too. What else is cool is that band decided to release the EP themselves, so if you want to support Fuck The Facts for real, buy the "Unnamed" EP, all the hard work they've put into this (and the DIY touring) must be funded, and this is the only way to do it without moneygrabbing labels running off with half of the profit!

www.myspace.com/fuckthefacts
Stino

SATAN - Demo CD

Satan, what a funny name… the question is, what can we expect from a band with such a name? Some bad ass Black metal? Not at all! Satan is a new French, let's say, “Grindcore” Band. This new entity from Grenoble plays a Mix of grindcore and black metal, something in the middle Darkthrone and Unholy Grave, it's very well digestable and interesting : The sound is dirty as fuck and the songs are pretty raw, with some evil vocals and it all sounds really good! The artwork is very interesting as well! Some nice drawing from Chokko 1er, a young artist from France! Too bad that this demo is so short, about 7 or 8 minutes of music only… but after that you know what to do: press play again and enter the world of nasty blackened grindcore! If you like filthy grind stuff, you really should get this release, you won't be disappointed, the whole demo is available to download on their myspace too, just check their blog!

www.myspace.com/metalsatan666
Pibe

Fuck The Facts interview

The 10th of March Fuck The Facts will hit Antwerp and Stino had a little chat with Topon (guitar)!

Hey Topon! A new European tour for Fuck The Facts, you must've enjoyed yourselves here last year?!

Of course we had a great time! Even if we didn’t enjoy ourselves last year, enough time has pasted that we all at least remember having a great time. I actually didn’t think it would be this soon that we would come back, but the stars aligned and we’re gonna be getting on a plane in less than a week.

The band is doing this tour D.I.Y. (like it should imo), what's the reason for that? Most overseas bands use booking agencies etc, isn't that easier?!

Fuck The Facts is a DIY band. We don’t like waiting around for people and have no problem getting our hands dirty to making sure things are happening like we think they should. That’s not to say that we don’t get help from other people, but the general rule is that if you want something done right (or even at all in many cases) you have to do it yourself. This time around we got the help of Koppa from Agi-punk to book most of the European tour. The guys from Doomstar booking (who did our last European tour) also helped out. There’s no real reason and I can’t say that it’s easier or harder, because both times the booking process was pretty much the same. It’s just the way it is. We knew we wanted to tour Europe and we had to find a way to do it. Luckily enough people in Europe were interested in making this happen as well. In Canada and a lot of the US every show is booked straight through us, but in Europe it just made more sense to get some help.

Could you give me the 3 biggest differences between touring in the US/Canada and Europe? Any tips for European bands that want to go overseas?!

The biggest difference is probably that the hospitality in Europe is much better than North America. Feeding and giving a place to sleep to a touring band isn’t expected as much in the States or even Canada for that matter. Beer and hard liquor is cheaper in and better (in my opinion) in Europe as well. You guys also have all that fizzy water everywhere, Mel loves it, she’s always looking for it over here since we did our first European tour. The only tip I can give to a smaller European band that wants to tour the US, is prepare for the worst. Make sure you have all your paper work together and don’t expect anything. But that’s pretty much my rules for touring anywhere.

Just before the tour you released a new, unnamed, EP, also on your own. Tired of waiting for labels etc to release stuff?

Maybe that’s one way of putting it. But it’s more like we wanted to try doing it all ourselves. We put a lot of time and effort into our music to make sure we’re creating something we’ve very proud of, so we need to work with people that feel the same way about what we’re doing as we do, and it’s not easy to find. We had a tight deadline to get this EP done in time for the European tour, so the best solution seemed to be to do it ourselves. It’s actually been quite rewarding in many ways. The response has been really great and even when I look and listen to this record there’s a bit of additonal pride knowing that we did this ourselves from scratch.

The EP came after the split with Leng Tch'e and the Disgorge Mexico LP, all in one, are you guys a fast writting band?

We definitely are. We have 3 people in the band that are always writing music, so we have tons of songs and ideas sitting around on all our computers, as well as new shit that comes out just from jamming as a band. 3 of the 4 new songs from the EP are actually left-overs from our next album that didn’t make the cut. We always have tons of music on the go, because when ever we’re not tour we’re writing. It’s just the way we do it.

What are the future plans for Fuck The Facts?

After the European tour we’re going to finally release our ‘Disgorge Mexico’ DVD. It’s been in the works for a long time and we finally have it completed, just didn’t have the time to release it before tour. Then we’ll be touring the US in May and playing Maryland Deathfest. We should be doing a Canadian tour with more US dates in the late summer/fall. During all this we’re gonna be finishing our next album which I would like to see released by the end of the year.

Ok thanks and see you on the 10th!

Stino

Dazd - S/T CD

I ordered a bunch of stuff @ Fuck Yoga a few weeks ago (of which some stuff will be reviewed later on as well!) and Ivan was kind enough to add the Dazd CD with my package. To be honest, I never heard of the band before and that's not thát strange, as Dazd is from Serbia and not a lot of music (besides some folk maybe) get's exported to (Western) Europe, but I'm quite happy I got a chance to get to know them, because what they bring is pretty cool. A mixture of metal and crust/punk, not too far from Amebix. The album is quite diverse, some songs are slow and melodic, others are uptempo and straightforward but there's always a mystical doomvibe present. The production is quite good and has a nice old school feeling to it as well. Yup, a fine discovery... and to know that the band's been around for almost 15 years! I have some catching up to do! Check'm out!

www.myspace.com/dazdthecult
www.myspace.com/fuckyogarecords

Stino

Hatred Surge - Deconstruct LP

It's been released as a tape, on CD and on vinyl in the US before, but now it's out on vinyl in europe as well: Hatred Surge's "Deconstruct" album. The band has become somewhat of a popular band in the grindcore and power violence scene the last years and almost all records are out of print at this moment, but that doesn't mean the band's selling out as well. Nope: Hatred Surge is still grinding the shit out of everyone, touring an awful lot (which reminds me that they still have to make up for the cancelled show in Belgium!) and releasing awesome records time after time. I wasn't able to get a hold of the Iron Lung collaboration so far, but the "Isolated Human" EP blew my sock off and "Deconstruct" is doing the same, if not even more. It's heavy as fuck, fast as fuck (probably the fastest release so far) and the production is nicely balancing between dirty enough and clean enough; not overproduced but no Nordic Vegan Garage Blackmetal sound either. The only "negative" point I can find is that it's over before you know it and you get left with that "I want more!" feeling, but that is, in Hatred Surge's case only a good thing!

www.myspace.com/hatredsurgetexas
www.myspace.com/rsrec
Stino

Spewtilator - Thrash'n Splash Demotape

It's been a while since we've uploaded some new stuff, mainly because with the holidays we were either out of town or the post office was closed or the postal services were (s)low as fuck because of all the snow.
BUT one release made it all the way from Atlanta to Belgium: Spewtilator's "Thrash'n Splash" demotape!
As you probably suspected - Spewtilator plays thrashmetal, but not JUST thrashmetal, it's more thrash/grind or thrash with high shrieks/low grunts and blastbeats if you want. The concept somewhat reminds me of Exhumed to be honest, but Spewtilator is more about the thrash than the grind. Nothing all too serious either, as song titles like "Altar Of Snackrifice" and "Bong Of Death" may imply, but that doesn't mean the songs or the sound is shit, the exact opposite to be honest! The sound is pretty raw but everything is mixed nicely and all instruments are clearly recognizable, especially for a demo!
So all in all a very cool release, that may appeal to both metalheads or grind...ahm...people!
Ltd to 100 handnumbered copies!

www.myspace.com/spewtilator
Stino