Saturday, March 8, 2014

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





Friday, March 7, 2014

Brood of Hatred "Skinless Agony"





 Some things just fit together.  Fish and Chips.  Pizza and Cheese.  Death metal and brutality go together like wine and cheese.  However Death metal and a moody atmosphere are as much of an ill-fitting couple as chalk and cheese.  Post-metal and mean and moody is much easier to buy in.

Tunisian band walk the line between death metal, post-metal and post-rock.  The most obvious comparison that the band are likely to get is to recent Ulcerate.  The death metal is often present with growls and blastbeats but the band are digging up ground that isn't familiar territory for a lot of metal heads.  If the vocals were done away with Brood of Hatred would be considered a post-metal band.  At times, Sonic Youth come to mind more than any metal bands as the instruments are more important than vocals and when a human sound comes into play it's more to enhance the mood although it is characteristically death metal.  The samples used in the quietly "The Singularity is Near"  and "Obsession and are well chosen as they compliment the music with academic musings on death and religion.  "Predestined Suicide" has more layers than an onion.  Strip away one part, and there's more on the inside.  It's near impossible to listen to a single instrument on its own without your attention being grabbed by the band's turn of directions.

The initial track "Deconstruction" starts off quietly and haunting before becoming a brutal assault that later walks the not well-trodden path between brutality and atmospheric.  This band knows how to gets a listeners attention right away and a listener needs to be hit straight away.

On the band Facebook page and bandcamp Brood of Hatred describe their music as some haunting atmospheres guiding you through progressive journeys and some unconventional writing inspired by a strange state of mind.  The band are on the money as that description nails the sounds contained on this album.  It's also assuring that what was once a one-man band has been fleshed out into a full band.

4.5/5



Brood of Hatred on Facebook



Brood of Hatred on bandcamp




Sunday, March 2, 2014

Amputated "Dissect, Molest, Ingest"



Just tip your head back slightly and say,  "Aaaaarghh". Today's treatment is going to be brutal as you, the patient have really bad teeth that are beyond fixing.  We'll just put you to sleep.  Here's some brutal death metal to listen to while we operate.

Bristol band, Amputated's album, "Dissect, Molest, Ingest" warns the listener what's in store for them with radio samples from murder reports.  If you hadn't guessed from the album cover and song this band revels in brutality.  When the song titles include "Gorging On Putrid Discharge", "Skullfuck Lobotomy" and "When Whores Meet Saws" there's no way these guys have a huge collection of Disney movies.  All Disney movies that I watched as a kid always had generic endings even if the guts of the story differed.   It may be points in Amputated favor that they don't have the same Disney quality in this regard either instead they sound like tons of other bands flying the brutal death metal flag.

The vocals sound like a zombie puking out recently ingested innards and the guitars and drums are well played with the beats varying from crunchy and slow to million mile an hour blastbeats.  The samples are fitting with the music and the production sound is clear but the major problem is it's generic brutal death metal.  By the way, if you want to keep your teeth as a souvenir, they're on the table next to your feet.

The album can be listened to and bought at the bandcamp link below.

2.5/5


Album on bandcamp


Amputated on Facebook






Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...