This is the sixth album from US grindcore band Pig Destroyer.
At the heart of Pig Destroyer lies a visceral, hateful rage that’s hard to deny. Although I’m sure that will never change, how this rage is expressed can, and on the band’s latest album, has. Continue reading “Pig Destroyer – Head Cage (Review)”
Sissy Spacek are a grindcore band from the US and this is, apparently, their 30th album(!).
Holy crap this is intense. 39 tracks in a scant 15 minutes? Blood Hell. Continue reading “Sissy Spacek – Ways of Confusion (Review)”
It’s once more time to gather in Leeds for this year’s Damnation Festival. With another amazing lineup, this is a festival that’s a definite milestone in the yearly metal calendar.
Continue reading “Damnation Festival – Leeds University, 04/11/17 (Live Review)”
It’s that special time of year once more. With yet another amazing lineup of quality bands both big and small, the UK’s Damnation Festival returns this weekend for another sold out weekend of extremity. So yes, on Saturday 4th November at Leeds University, something colossal will be happening.
It’s an absolutely great lineup, and you can see the full list of bands, including stage times, below – Continue reading “Damnation Festival 2017 – Preview – 5 Bands Not to Miss”
Grizzly are a grindcore band from Canada and this is their debut album.
Clocking in at just under 17 minutes, this is slightly deceptive as almost a third of the time is devoted to a surprisingly faithful cover of Pantera’s Mouth for War. Continue reading “Grizzly – Reaper (Review)”
Junk Fuck Militia are a Polish grindcore band. This is their latest album.
Junk Fuck Militia play grindcore with lashings of hardcore, powerviolence and sludge. This means that the songs play with different speeds, moods and textures according to the desires of the band.
Even though the average song length is about a minute or so, due to the aforementioned stylistic influences you never quite know Continue reading “Junk Fuck Militia – Greatest Hits (Review)”
This is the latest release from legendary US Grinders Agoraphobic Nosebleed, although it should be noted that this release is somewhat of an abnormality, much like 2009’s Agorapocalypse. Whereas Agorapocalypse was looking at extremity from a Thrash perspective though, Arc takes in the view from a dirty great Sludge one.
This is a new and different side of the band – heavy and full of Doom. It’s a filthy, Southern-tinged slab of ugly Sludge Metal that still carries the taste of the band’s core aggression and nastiness.
The singer’s harsh screams tear out from the roiling, churning music. Her voice is sharp and serrated, cutting through the thick Sludge of the guitars with ease.
Not a Daughter is an Eyehategod-inspired seven minutes of foulness that is abrasive enough to sand down anything; all thunderous riffs and cataclysmic drums.
Deathbed follows this with a Doomier take on the style, deliberately crawling and evil in tone. Deep, guttural growls join in for this one too, adding a more menacing note to the aggressive screams. About halfway through the track picks up with a huge Southern-styled riff that gives the track quite a jaunty edge and ups the energy levels quite a bit.
Closing the EP is Gnaw, which is also the longest track here. It’s a monolithic 12 minutes of heavy riffs, angry screams and nihilistic feelings. There’s a pounding rhythmic quality to it that really drives the song home.
A positive progression for the band, in what is apparently the first in a series of four EPs, all differently themed around the preferred music tastes of the individual band members. I now eagerly look forward to the next one.
Nervous Impulse are from Canada and this is their second album. They play Deathgrind.
This is a band who worship extremity and brutality above all else. Surely their motto must be “everything sicker than everything else”?
Their take on Grindcore is an interesting one because of this, as they don’t limit themselves just to their parent genre. Instead, they branch out into related areas and claim the most brutal elements as their own; Death Metal and Deathcore, being the main ones.
The songs are frequently complicated affairs that marry the short, chaotic brutality of Grind with the still-brutal, more song-structured nature of Death Metal. The end result is somewhat of a cross between Cryptopsy, Brutal Truth, Cattle Decapitation and Circle of Dead Children.
Speaking of Cryptopsy, the production on Time to Panic is not a million miles away from that of my favourite Cryptopsy album None So Vile, so you know that the sound is tight and precise.
Oh, and there’s an Agoraphobic Nosebleed cover. How ace is that?
Nervous Impulse write their songs to be heavy and extreme but still make sure they are written well rather than just a selection of strung-together riffs. It’s really quite tasty.
Vocally, we get pignoise, deathgrunts, screams; anything and everything to make the harshest noises imaginable.
If you like Extreme Metal with enough chaos and brutality to stun and enough songwriting skill to hold interest then check this out. I just can’t stop listening to the fucking thing.
Wonderbox Metal 