Kamikazi - At the Age of Destruction

Kamikazi might have a Japanese sounding band moniker but these punk maniacs hail from Greece. On their bandcamp and in their email Kamikazi describe themselves as a punk/metal/hardcore band and their chosen style is definitely a hybrid of the three with some straight up rock 'n' roll added for good measure.

If you have any desire to sit down in a comfortable chair and just lay back while listening to this EP, you should reconsider and strap yourself in. There's no time to take in the scenery as Kamikazi hit full throttle along the punk 'n'roll highway with "Deathride". You shouldn't find your mind wandering then the metal tinge on "Crooked Path" but if you feel a little under the weather, there's no stopping or winding down the windows for fresh air, so stop your whining. "Cold Black Cells" features metallic guitar solos with a topping of punky shouting with gang choruses.



If Minor Threat had been a punk 'n roll band then they may well have penned tune close to the mark of "Fuck The World" although the metallic chug towards the end of the song would have been avoided but it propels Kamikazi along very nicely indeed.



The band have released 200 tapes of the EP.

3.5/5

Listen to the whole EP on Kamikazi's bandcamp

A thrashing ressurection

A while back I posted Christian thrash hardcore crossover band, The Crucified's Pillars of Humanity album. but the link has since expired. A reverend emailed me asking where he could find a copy and I sent him on his way. But the link has now come back from the dead.


Pillars of Humanity

As a single zombie is never interesting, I've thrown in their self-titled album too. However I had to take one song off as it simply wouldn't play. Get it and hear the band take swipes at MDC, Slayer and Anthrax in the Insult Circus. At least one song on the self-titled sounds like it was borrowed musically from Minor Threat and The Cro-Mags.



The Crucified - The Crucified

Jesus Fucking Christ - Life's Hateful Seed

The cover to this album and the band's blasphemous name suggests black metal but on playing the album and hearing the intro of the first song "I'm Surrounded By Those Want Me Dead" lets the listener know there is a serious nod to 80's crossover and will have many wondering if this band has a "Five Year Plan". They then head into fast furious crust punk with dual vocals, revisting the territory also covered recently by BORN/DEAD. One of the JESUS FUCKING CHRIST vocalists uses a snarly spitting style and the other employs the gruff hardcore style. This band have thrash metal leanings and aren't afraid to display them by unleashing into some great metal style riffing and drumming towards the end of the opening song. The title track "Life's Hateful Seed" is dark and moody metal instrumentally but dominated by hate vocals not unlike KREATOR's Mille Petrozza at his most venomous.

Doom and sludge metal fans should enjoy the first two minutes of the instrumental "Forty Third" and then get confused towards the end with an epileptic hardcore thrash seizure. "A Living Hell" is a hardcore punk/metal blast. This song is obviously intended to be the band's theme song as their name is shouted numerous times while the bile is laid on. "Lonely Asshole" wanders down cliched hardcore territory with crunchy guitar sound, shouted lyrics and repetitive drumming making it the weakest track but the monotony is broken with a little stylish guitar work.
The final song "Eyes That Bleed" is like a cross between SHEER TERROR and THE ANGRY SAMOANS largely due to the dual vocals but the music is definitely SHEER TERROR like hardcore.

For those that care about other bands members are/were in and have obviously never heard a JUNKYARD album, there is a SCREW 32 and NEUROSIS member here. If I have any complaint about this album it's that at times I have trouble making out the lyrics during the faster crust oriented songs but that's more genre related than due to the quality of the band. Because JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, this is a good band.


The original version of this review appeared at Peacedogman

http://www.myspace.com/jesusfuckingchristpuke

The LP can be ordered here

Beowulf - 2 cents (1995)

This follows a Jamie Hewlett theme because Beowulf's 2 cents album title song appears on the Tank Girl soundtrack and the 2 cents music video contains Hewlett's Tank Girl artwork which you can see in this youtube clip.

Beowulf were a punk/metal crossover band who lasted from the 80s to the mid-90s from California's Venice Beach and are often grouped in with band such as Suicidal Tendencies, No Mercy, Excel and Uncle Slam.

Beowulf recordings first appeared on a Welcome to Venice compilation LP which was put out on Suicidal Tendencies,Mike Muir's Suicidal record label which was posted on the cosmic hearse blog. The band's sound was a cross between Motorhead and Suicidal Tendencies due to frontman, Dale Henderson's voice sounding close to Lemmy's.

In 1995 Dale Henderson was the only original member of Beowulf and somewhere between 1988 and 1995 he must have taken singing lessons because there are no gruff Lemmy styled vocals on this album despite this album being somewhere between punk and metal but not being crossover in the 80s sense of being a mix of punk and thrash metal. In fact at times his vocals are reminiscent of Savatage's John Olivia. There is a small touch of reggae mixed with hard rock which brings I and I period Bad Brains to mind as do the punkier tracks like Badge Abuse.




Track listing
1. Throw Your Rock
2. Bullet Hole
3. 140 Days
4. 2 Cents
5. Jumped In
6. Life Ain't, Life's Only
7. Lack of Knowledge
8. Superstar
9. No One Knows No One
10. Only Human
11. Badge Abuse
12. Dope Bag

Get it!

The Crucified - Pillars of Humanity

A couple of days ago the new Metallica album was rumoured to have leaked. Many people including myself downloaded the album only to find out it was a Christian metal band called Eternal Decision. It's possible the whole thing was Metallica's continuing quest for revenge on those who share music as if releasing St.Anger and poorly ripping off the Misfits(in the form of the song, Vulturous) isn't enough revenge on both file sharers and the general public.

Anyhow the whole debacle reminded me of a Christian crossover band named The Crucified who released an album called The Pillars of Humanity back in 1991 if the lyrics weren't taken notice of could pass for Short Sharp Shock or Municipal Waste or even D.R.I.

The band claim that they were influenced by a Bay Area band called Corrupted Morals and a straight edge band called Head First. On Pillars of Humanity Slayer influences can definitely be heard in places.

The lyrics are often the repent or die type nonsense and have the usual self-righteousness of fundamentalists. However the best song Mindbender seemed like an attack on mindless drones who do nothing but sit around and watch TV all day which is easier to relate to.

The song Fellowship of Thieves which appears on The Pillars of Humanity album can be heard on The Crucified myspace page


The Crucified's Pillars of Humanity album can be downloaded here.