Die Choking: Die Choking and II (2014)

Die Choking is a fucking great name for a band. It's short, brutal, and imperative. Not just Someone Should Maybe Die of Asphyxiation At Some Point, but Die Choking. That means you, and it means now.



A more fitting moniker there never was.

Die Choking and II are the band's first two EPs, both released last year and both clocking in around six minutes. They are manically fast, with song lengths only occasionally 90 seconds long. There are enough riffs in either EP to easily fill a twenty-minute record, but the jackhammer delivery is a much more exciting way to experience it.

The tunes combine grind, hardcore, crust, and death metal and even though they fly by at dizzying speed you can still groove to them--sometimes. When they're not beating the back of your skull with a commercial-grade cheese grater, anyway. And they do slow it down a little, in places, but it's not like they ever get genuinely slow. It's more like fast, faster, and balls-in-a-lawnmower.



The Verdict:
Die Choking: 4 out of 5 stars
II: 4.5 out of 5 stars

This bodes well for their upcoming full-length III, due October 22. You can already hear it now, though.

Marginal: Chaos and Anarchy (2015)

More Violence, Please.

In which joanismylover demands a higher fee

I like surprises. Good surprises. I do not like to be surprised with a last minute filing or an unexpected witness at trial. But I do like to be surprised when I check the docket to find another related case that the plaintiff's attorney has not told me about. I like to be surprised that opposing counsel has the gumption - the balls - to lie to a judge with a straight face and claim then he deserves to be compensated at $838 in part based on that lie. That was surprising and gave me a great opening to shove it down his throat. In a nice way, of course.



Marginal surprised me here like the above-referenced wannabe high-rolling liar of an attorney. In a good way. This release is being physically released in Portugal and the metal folks there are in for a treat. Grind and punk crust meld here in a 23 minute death crust package that "stops the bullshit" and eradicates from the world bands like Powerwolf. (No, I won't let it go). Short and to the point is this record and all of the songs. Listen to the first three songs (about 5 minutes) and if you are not feeling the urge to throw yourself into the nearest person, move on. But if you are slamming and banging your lawyerly head to the "sign of the times" then consider yourself admitted to the bar. The bar of death crust.

All of the tracks are are awesome, bar none. But the highlights are definitely "Stop the Bullshit", "Eradicate the World" and "More Violence". Not much else to be said here, except that if I could command an hourly fee of $838 - and I could bill for every time I thought - "I should be writing more reviews - I'll do Marginal next" - and if I was good at math* - I'd estimate that FMA owes me about $765,436.00. Is anyone really surprised?

4 out of 5 stars.

Hellprod

*I'm not.

Ass to Mouth: Degenerate (2014)

This Band: Not the First Google Result

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

You just know what to expect with a name like "Ass to Mouth". Hint: it's not radio-friendly. It is not the kind of thing that is going to be heard on pop radio or MTV. It's going to be nasty, it's going to be extreme, and it's going to be very short.

It's grindcore of course, though not the overly noisy, chaotic type. There is a pretty obvious structure to the songs here and actual riffs. Ass to Mouth incorporate a lot more thrash metal elements into their particular brand of grind. Thrash riffs and shouted vocals are utilized frequently. What results is grindcore in which the vocals can actually be clearly understood and there is a coherent rhythm to the songs. That is pretty rare in this style.

Yautja: Songs of Descent (2014)

Category Resistance

Review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

The metal CDs at Rasputin in Berkeley are separated into no less than five separate categories: progressive metal; thrash/crossover; death/grind/deathcore/metalcore; doom/stoner; and heavy/power metal. This leads to some confusion on my part, not least because I am not that bright. It also leads to some incongruities. Mastodon is categorized with Dream Theater. Vastum just a few artists away from Unearth. DRI is nowhere to be found in "Thrash/Crossover" (check the Punk section!). It's an ungainly system and pity the poor employee who has to display Yautja's Songs of Descent. I sure wouldn't know how to categorize it.

Squash Bowels: Grindcoholism (2013)

Surrender to Grindcoholism!

Review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

"Holy shit!" The Second . . . the listener is pounded with Squash Bowel's first full length since 2009, that's what she'll say. Especially since the release is from a band that's done splits with "Catasexual Urge Motivation" and "Cock and Ball Torture". If the utter Tastlesness of the names, song titles and cover art by most of these "artists" isn't enough of a put off, the music usually is. Or at least that's what one would expect. Maybe there is a Trap these bands like to play on the listener, hiding excellent, down-tuned, pummeling riffing over hyperblast beats without losing a sense of songcraft. Maybe The Theater of it all dissuades those of us not prone to grind and its porno sub-genres to ignore it and there's actually a whole bunch of new pornogrind records we all have to go out and get. Or maybe most of it is what it is - shit.

Metal Briefs: Death Metal Quickies

A Quick Death, Part 2

Lately I've found that death metal can be particularly satisfying in small doses, often. So I keep an eye out for short, intense death metal outbursts like some of these.

Bone Sickness: Alone in the Grave (2013)
4 out of 5 stars

Bone Sickness plays some of the filthiest and fastest death metal on the planet, with some of the most unclean solos you'll hear in 2013. In contrast to Acephalix, these guys put crust into a wholly American style of death. Think Autopsy running so fast that pieces of their instruments start flying off in every direction. They do slow things down a little on the title track, but not for long. This is a hell of a ride, and even though it's only an 18 minute full-length, it's genuinely every bit as satisfying as any half-hour.



(Couldn't find an embed for this release, but this demo track should give you a rough idea. The album releases April 30.)

Metal Briefs: Clearing the 2012 Docket

Procrastination

I’ve been putting these reviews off forever. Two of these bands contacted me in July. Rather than continue to delay, I’m just going to handle all five of them machine-gun fashion. Coincidentally, all of these bands are from the US, all of them are on Bandcamp, and all of these releases were from 2012.

Boddicker: Mitch Is the Bastard
4.5 out of 5 stars

Grindcore. Eight minutes. Heavy, with plenty of dynamics for such a short release. The cover art says “Boddicker A.K.A. Napalm Frost,” so you know where their allegiance lies. I’m no grind expert, as I’ve repeatedly said, but I love this quickie.

Anaal Nathrakh: Vanitas (2012)

Consistent Chaotic

I recently hinted that the new records from Pig Destroyer and The Secret were my second and third most-anticipated grind albums of the year, but I didn’t say which was number one. Now you know, it’s Vanitas.

Anaal Nathrakh has long been one of the most chaotic, tight, and furious bands on the planet. That would be enough to assure their success in the world of extreme metal, but Vanitas goes a step further. It establishes the band as one of the most consistent entities in the genre. They have kept everything that has made their last few releases so rewarding, from the nonstop pummeling of the blackgrind music to the infectious melody of many of the vocal lines. Still, they haven’t allowed themselves to be completely predictable.

Book Burner v. Agnus Dei

Grindcore Showdown

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To just about everybody, Pig Destroyer’s Book Burner is one of the most anticipated records of the year, and easily the most anticipated grindcore record of the year. To me, it’s number two for grind-ticipation, and The Secret’s Agnus Dei is number three.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I simply don’t have my ear tuned into the subtleties of grindcore. I assume they exist, the only evidence being that I like some grind more than other grind, and can’t always explain why. So it may be more helpful to me, and to you, if I discuss these two records comparatively.

Although grindcore usually seems extremely one-dimensional to me (and that’s not necessarily a bad thing), both of these records have much more variety than I expected. Neither of them ever goes at what could fairly be called a slow tempo, but there are many tempo changes. The rhythms can either punish or groove. The latter is surprising, because I tend to think of groove happening at mid-tempo, though either one of these bands can groove your spine into knots at breakneck speed. Both records are unrelentingly aggressive and abrasive, as you might expect.

Antigama: Stop the Chaos (2012)

Personally, I'm Progama

I really admire guys who can write cogent, meaningful reviews of grindcore albums. I simply don’t have the required skillset to pick out all the subtle differences as they flash by in 0:20. It doesn’t help that I’m grossly under-educated about the genre and have very little practice writing about it.

But when it comes to deathgrind, like Antigama, I’m a little more comfortable. Stop the Chaos is a 15-minute EP from the Poles. It’s my first experience with the decade-plus old band, but from what I gather, their recorded output has had a spotty reception. You’d never guess it from the confidence displayed on this EP.

Metal Briefs: Splitsville

Divide and Conquer

When I described the concept of a split to my wife, she was flabbergasted. For the kind of music most people are aware of, it doesn't make any kind of sense. The artist always has some kind of deep pockets backing them, so they don't need to band together with another artist to fund some minor release.

With the increasing affordability of studio time and the ease of web-based distribution, the practical, affordability reasons for split releases have all but disappeared. Yet they are a deeply-ingrained part of the extreme music landscape. The fan cross-pollination and creative collaborations are still staples, and, it must be admitted, there's still a sort of underground cred that goes along with it.

Alaric/Atriarch: Alaric/Atriach Split LP (2012)

Alaric is, apparently, a deathrock band. I've heard the term before, but don't know anything about this particular branch of punk music. Their sound is very bass-oriented, with guitars not too far from those of Negative Plane or Occultation. There's also a strong Pink Floyd vibe here, and I'm calling to mind a few things from the soundtrack to The Crow, where this would have fit nicely. The Alaric side of the split begins mostly in the same vibe, but the psychedelic aspect is diminished, replaced by metal. The balance of the split goes into some seriously awesome doom/post-black metal, so the whole thing is a gradual transition that really works well. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.



Buy the Alaric/Atriarch split

Gods of Chaos: March into Perdition (2012)

Grindcore . . . I think

Every now and again I'll get an album in some genre I'm not terribly familiar with. Grindcore, for instance, as in the case of March into Perdition by Croatia's Gods of Chaos. When I get these albums, I'm afraid I won't have much to say, or I'll miss some connection that's obvious to fans of the genre and come across as ill-informed as I actually am.

So maybe this will come out sounding stupid. But it seems to me Gods of Chaos have created something unique here, combining grindcore with a strong flavor of modern US black metal.

Unbodied: Unbodied (EP 2012)

They're from The Ohio

Ohio's Unbodied contacted me with a review copy of their self-titled debut EP. It has some gorgeous, colorful, psychedelic artwork that recalls some of John Dyer Baizley's best works, like Phantom Limb and Kvelertak. As anyone who's gone blind buying knows, cool cover art is a strong indicator that the music will be cool as well.

Their Bandcamp page has a grocery list of different genres name-dropped, but as the Baizley influence might suggest, their main influences are sludge and grind. They also have a little bit of metalcore in the sound, but really, doesn't every young band have that these days? And apparently, they don't even realize it, because that's about the only genre they don't use to describe their music. Thankfully, metalcore is not an overpowering influence.

Wölfe: I (Demo 2011)

Clearing the Docket

Wölfe is a band out of Melbourne, Australia. Their demo was released as a cassette, although I'm not quite sure how you're supposed to get a copy since the band takes pains to point out they have no web site, Facebook, or MySpace. But they have been kind enough to allow free downloads (link below), and I think you might want to do that.

The demo is 15 minutes of what the band calls "grinding blackened filth", which is about as honest and complete an assessment as you really need. Each song is blisteringly fast, raw, and pissed-off like a koala on eucalyptus withdrawal.

Society Discontinued v. Form and Structure. Storm and Fracture.

v.

Fading Halo Records, a new DIY label out of Romania contacted me about reviewing their first two releases, which are both available free in an effort to get the word out there. Both of these releases last about 15 minutes, and both are Romanian groups with a strong emphasis on grindcore. Grind and hardcore aren't genres I listen to a lot, so I'm not fully able to give a thorough review, but I can give you my thoughts on them.

The Saw v. Look at These Teeth

v.

Saxophone has been popping up in a lot of metal albums lately. But I was still surprised to find that there is not one, but at least two grindcore bands which completely replace guitar with saxophone. I decided to compare and contrast the three-song EPs the two bands have released.

Providence v. Noise

v.

Normally it wouldn't make much sense to compare Immolation to Wormrot. One is a death metal band out of New York that's been around for over 20 years. The other is a grindcore band out of Singapore with a 4 year tenure. But both have recently released free five-song EPs through the controversial Scion A/V.

The question of corporate sponsorship for music has been discussed many times by many other people. I don't feel I have anything to add to the discussion, so I'll just tell you where I stand. Free music is good for the consumers, and when a band can get paid to release it, then it's good for the band, too. The company gets good will and viral marketing out of the deal. Everybody wins, so long as the company doesn't exert undue influence--and by all accounts, Scion A/V does nothing of the sort.

Blood Freak: Mindscraper (2011)

Review

Blood Freak is a deathgrind band from Oregon, currently signed to Willowtip. Mindscraper is their fourth full-length.

Their style is as close to death metal as you can be and still get the "grind" tag. They're extremely heavy and brutal, with death growl vocals, death metal length songs, and death metal solos. But there are just enough of those grinding riffs, that frenetic grind urgency, and silly samples to call it grind.

Anaal Nathrakh: Passion (2011)

Review

UK blackgrinders Anaal Nathrakh released their highly-anticipated sixth album, Passion, last month on Candlelight. It's a boon to lovers of brutality everywhere.

If you're unfamiliar with the band, here's what you need to know: They are one of a very few bands who combine black metal and grindcore. This makes for an unbelievably fast, brutal, blackened, blastbeat-driven assault that's unparralelled on either side of the Atlantic. The modus operandi for Passion goes something like this: first, lay down a blackened but heavy groove with guitar and bass; second, brutalize it with flawless, high-speed, and interesting drums; finally, add the passion with screeching vocals and melodic high drama with clean vocals. And, do all of these things at the same time.

Gridlink: Orphan (2011)

Review

It will take me longer to write this review than it would take you to listen to Gridlink's Orphan. Yes, this is grindcore, and it's very good.

Gridlink is from New Jersey, and the album is their second full-length. I still hesitate to call a 12 minute album a full-length, but I guess that passes in grindcore circles. Despite the short runtime, it has as much aggression and riffage as a 40 minute thrash album. All the fat is trimmed, and each song is as short as it could possibly be. They do fall into the cliche of recording a less than 10 second "song" (thanks a lot, Napalm Death), and it might as well not even exist, but the rest of the album is thoroughly engaging and bewildering.