Grindcore – Page 38 – Wonderbox Metal

Multinational Corporations – Jamat-al-Maut (Review)

Multinational Corporations are a Grindcore band from Pakistan. This is their first EP.

Here we have 15 minutes of intense, violent Grindcore, with passion and feeling that’s evident throughout.

This is ugly, underground music that has an Old-School style and offers a completely authentic immersion in the style

The riffs are as taut as rope and as tough as battered, leathery skin. The band are equally at home playing fast as they are slowing it down to a heavier groove.

Elements of Crust and Old-School Hardcore can be felt alongside the brutal Grinding core, and the band manage to make the most of short songs to sound relatively diverse for a band that is essentially going straight for the jugular all of the time.

Somewhat of a cross between old Napalm Death and Groinchurn, to my ears; Multinational Corporations sound rabid and ready to attack.

It doesn’t last long, but what there is of it is a great little listen. Be careful though, there’s a real bite here.

Smothered Bowels – Thorax Driller (Review)

This is the début album from Russian Grindcore band Smothered Bowels.

9 tracks in 21 minutes; Smothered Bowels waste no time with bringing the brutality and the blasting heaviness.

Featuring extreme pignoise vocals in addition to the odd incoherent scream, this is Grind that combines Goregrind and Deathgrind into one heaving mass of bloody chunks.

The Death Metal influence is apparent from some of the riffs and the occasional guitar solo. This is combined with the brutal extremity of Goregrind to create an album that teeters on the Death Metal brink but never quite fully converts.

There’s enough blurring between the similar genres to provide Smothered Bowels with an interesting foundation on which to lay their house of carnage.

The songs make use of Death Metal’s dynamics and Grind’s blasting insanity to create tracks that recall the top quality work of bands like Circle of Dead Children and Plague Widow. Both are firm favourites of mine so that’s a high compliment.

Smothered Bowels have put together a really enjoyable release that avoids the trap of one dimensionality by employing good songwriting and an impassioned bludgeoning.

An impressive first foray into the Grindcore underworld. Hopefully this will not be overlooked, and doubly-hopefully the band’s next release will be even better, as this is pretty damn good already.

Offal/Zombie Cookbook – Dementia Trash/Motel Hell – Split (Review)

Offal and Zombie Cookbook are both from Brazil and both play predominantly Old-School Death Metal.

Offal are first up, with two tracks lasting 5 minutes.

The first song consists of some nice Old-School battery, with plenty of murk and the stench of the crypt about it.

It’s a very well written song with some really good riffs and a thoughtful structure. Good leads enhance the foetid aura and it shows that Offal have learned a thing or two from listening to their old Autopsy and Impetigo records.

Cavernous growls are the vocals of choice, sounding ancient and terrifying with their ominous presence.

The second song, Spinal Extractions Fiend for Blood, is much shorter, with more of a Grind influence, but even this is delivered in an Old-School style.

Zombie Cookbook are next, with two tracks lasting 6 minutes.

First song Motel Hell has an Old-School vibe as well, recalling a rotten mix of old Obituary and Death with a hint of Thrash Metal thrown in for good measure. The vocals lash out as if in pain and the sense of the underground is strong.

The second song, Eredità Maledetta, is shorter, faster and altogether tighter.

Zombie Cookbook sound like an undiscovered band from the late 90’s. That’s a compliment, of course.

A short and brutal split that reeks of the underground and revels in its Old-School nature.

Listen if you dare.

False Pregnancy – Dance Your Meat Off!!! (Review)

False Pregnancy are from Estonia and this is their début album. They play Grindcore.

Take a look at the album cover. What’s going on there then?

This is Goregrind. Sorry, I didn’t quite say that loud enough. This is GOREGRIND!!!

There. Now you know.

The band themselves are even less subtle than that.

Heavy, malignant guitars stab out whilst sickening pignoise vocals vomit disgust over everything. You already know what you’re getting into when you listen to a band like this, but each brand of disease is individual and False Pregnancy certainly warrant their own strain.

Here we have 14 songs in 18 minutes, so you know that the tracks are short, violent and crushingly brutal. The band are actually heavier than a lot of Grind bands due to the thick presence of the guitars. It works well with the style and Dance Your Meat Off!!! has plenty of substance.

I like that the band inject a bit of variety into their assault. Sure, it’s all Goregrind, so there’s only so much variety you can have, but within the genre parameters they play the field widely with different tempos and riff choices.

The vocals are a highlight. It may be dirty pignoise but it sounds great and the vocal patterns used are satisfying and nicely paced.

This is definitely above average Grind and False Pregnancy should be on every Grinder’s wishlist.

Get ready to dance.

Vile Disgust – Love all the Pigs (Review)

Vile Disgust are from Hungary and play Deathgrind. This is their début album.

With song titles guaranteed to impress the immature, this is over-the-top disgust-o Grind.

The band have a good sound and immediately go for the jugular with their own take on grotesque Deathgrind.

The vocalist belches out obscenities with utter relish and in a deep pignoise style. There’s a surprising amount of variety in the noises that he makes though from track to track, as if different songs had the vocals recorded in different toilets, in some form of filthy urinal tour.

Death Metal riffs and chugging brutality meet with the aggression and rampant disregard for life that Grindcore has. It’s mainly a-bit-faster-than-mid-paced affair, although the band do dabble in different tempos, speeds and methods of execution. The end result is songs that are about under 2 minutes long on average and do the best they can to flatten and disturb the listener.

This is primitive, groovy Grindcore that reeks of the sewer and has no more lofty ambitions than to see what floats to the surface after each flush.

Have a listen and see what you think.

Unrest – Grindcore (Review)

Unrest are from the US and play Grindcore, as you can probably tell. In fact, what do you do with an album titled Grindcore? Well, I’ll tell you what you do; you play it really damn loud.

Unrest appear to exist purely to play tribute to Nasum. In theory, this could end very badly indeed as Nasum are just sooooo good. However, in an unexpected twist of fate, Unrest manage to pull off quite the paradox by faithfully reproducing Nasum’s sound without sounding like a cheap knock off. Colour me impressed!

So, if you know what Nasum sounds like you know what Grindcore sounds like, and you can take that sentence in multiple ways really. Unrest’s Grindcore is tight, focused and furiously aggressive modern Grind that chokes the listener with almost 27 minutes of sharp, tasty Grindcore treats.

Like their heroes, Unrest know that Grind isn’t just about the blasting; dynamics, groove, feeling…these things are all important ingredients in the perfect Grind cake. Of course, this album isn’t perfect, but it is better than most.

Featuring some actual songs amidst the carnage and enough cutting riffs to maim the unwary, Grindcore delivers the goods time and time again.

Quality Grindage.

Putrid Offal – Mature Necropsy (Review)

Putrid Offal are from France and this is their début album. They play Deathgrind.

A mere couple of decades or so since they first formed, this début album is long overdue.

The band have a strong modern and professional production that makes their short bursts of carnage sound immense.

I do enjoy a good bit of Deathgrind; I like the winning combination of short, violent music with the added brutal riffing of Death Metal that allows for a bit more depth and variety than some purely Grindcore bands offer. This describes Putrid Offal well as they strike a good balance between the two styles throughout the 29 minutes playing time.

The band play rhythmic Deathgrind with enough blast to keep anyone happy. A good selection of riffs are deployed mercilessly and the fun never ends. It’s not all blood and gore though as they insert a few interesting ideas here and there to keep things fresh, such as the background choral chants on Garroting Way or the atmospheric melodics on Repulsive Corpse.

The deep growls are surgical in their assault; they’re focused, tight and sound supremely confident. Higher, wet screams join the party on occasion as well because who doesn’t enjoy some quality throat-shredding?

Sounding absurdly relevant and energised, this is Goregrind for the 21st century; assured, devastating and murderously capable.

Best get out of their way, as Putrid Offal have come to carve up the opposition.

Dead in the Manger – Cessation (Review)

This is the début album from the mysterious collective that is Dead in the Manger.

Dead in the Manger play a curiously unusual mix of Depressive/Funeral Black Metal and Blackened Grindcore, as ably showcased on their début EP Transience.

On this latest release the band continue with their exploration down the path lass travelled, (never travelled?), that they started on Transience.

The juxtaposition of Depressive melody and harsh Blackened Grind is still not something that’s common and by all rights it shouldn’t work, but Dead in the Manger take a hitherto largely unexplored sub-genre that probably hardly anybody else is usually bothered with, let alone covets, and make it fully their own.

A harsh Black Metal ambience and general negatively-charged melodicism are created by the band only to then smash it into a mutated, bastard Grind template that results in songs combining both atmosphere and aggression.

It’s like someone has taken Shoegaze Black Metal and given it some real backbone.

So has their sound progressed from Transience at all? Yes; I’d say that the Black Metal component is more prevalent on Cessation, although that could also be due to the fact that they’ve learned to incorporate beauty and brutality at an even deeper level on this release. There’s also more mid-paced sections where the band demonstrate that not only can they create an evil atmosphere but they can maintain it.

In order to get something like this right you really need to know what you’re doing, and Dead in the Manger have proven that their first release wasn’t just some fluke. Cessation is even better.

A highly recommended listen. If you haven’t done so already you need to discover Dead in the Manger.

Oh, and the band logo and album cover? Fantastic.

Evisorax – Goodbye to the Feast..Welcome to the Famine (Review)

Evisorax are from the UK and play Grindcore. This is their latest EP.

Violent, intense and uncompromising; Evisorax have entered the building.

What can you say about Grind as demented as this apart from advising people to run as far away as possible? This is only advice to the normal people of course, for if you’re a fan of Grind then you should be hurrying to embrace the carnage that Evisorax deal as quickly as you can.

Evisorax are a whirlwind of destruction. It’s an apt image as their music twists, turns and convulses in ways that defy the listener to keep up.

I’d say if you combine the intensity of Discordance Axis, the unhinged brutality of Brutal Truth and the Sludgy extremity of Labrat then you’ll have a starting point for Evisorax.

Hidden behind the pure maelstrom of visceral lunacy that they play the band have a strong sound and actually have compositional skills. To the uninitiated it may seem that a band like this simply turn up, turn on and play whatever they like, but to the Grindcore connoisseur it’s clear that thought and refinement has gone into these tracks.

They may know how to unleash chaos but it has it’s own warped version of dynamics and pacing, which only increase the power of the impressive noise that they create. This is especially apparent on the penultimate track So Many Fat People, During the Famine, which sees the band expand their sound into wider Extreme Metal territories.

I was already a fan of Evsiorax’s 2011 release Isle of Dogs, but this new one has taken the extremity to a whole new level, and I love it.

Get this.

Stheno/Grassroll – Wolfkind – Split (Review)

Stheno are a Blackened Grind band from Greece.

They start this split off with just under 7 minutes of Crust-fuelled terror the likes of which will have most people running for the hills. It’s underground, brutal and terrifying.

The vocals are savagery incarnate and come off completely unhinged; serrated growls that don’t sound even vaguely human. Crikey. Sharp high vocals occasionally cut through the meat of their sound too but it’s the deep vocals that do it for me.

The songs are very energetic and I like how it’s not all blasting; the band pace themselves well and give a very aggressive display without resorting to Grind-by-numbers.

These short songs hit the spot and the Blackened Crust influence in the riff department is a welcome change from the Grindcore norm.

A very enjoyable few minutes of ultra-violence from Stheno.

Grassroll are also from Greece and play Grindcore with a dash of Sludge. They contribute just over 6 minutes of fast, insectile Grind to the split.

The singer has a voice that’s so high and maniacal as to sound scarily barbed. Her vocals scar, maim and lacerate. Deep growls occasionally punctuate the tracks but for the most part it’s static-like screams, reminiscent of Discordance Axis. Overall it’s the opposite of Stheno really, who mainly use the deeper vocals.

There’s a slight Sludge hint to their sound in some of their riffs; enough to perk the interest but not enough to detract from the pure demented aggression of these songs.

Grassroll like to play fast and hard, and who can blame them?

Short and to the point, this is a worthy split between these two bands. Both contributions are different enough that the songs on this split are obviously by distinct bands yet their shared base genre allows them to complement each other well.

This is one split to check out for sure.