5 Grindcore Records You Probably Didn't Buy in 2010

The following are five noteworthy records released this year that I heard almost nothing about. Were it not for my love of discovering new music, I wouldn't have known to get these. I had to really think about 5 good grind records from this year, as it seemed a sad year for new grind releases. Ok, here they are, in no particular order.





Chainsaw to the Face EP

This record was put out by a self-proclaimed grind-hating label. I've known about CTTF for a handful of years now, due to their relatively close proximity to my area, knowing friends of their friends, and having played a few shows with them, so I had my eye out for this once I heard that it would come to be. This EP has 19 tracks of grind with a slight but unmistakable powerviolence edge to it. In the last year or so, the band finally rounded out their lineup with what seems a permanent bass player, and it has had quite the positive effect on their songwriting. The vocals remind me a little of Assuck. The band also had a split 7" with Backslider and a discography CD come out this year, but this material is my favorite so far.




Looking For An Answer- La Caceria EP

This EP demonstrates a band turning over a new leaf. I always had a thing for these crazy vegan grinders from Spain, despite the somewhat-disappointing Extincion album. Everything that was good about the aforementioned LP is on this EP, and they managed to shed the repetitiveness and predictability of the songs a little bit, not to mention, they sped things up even further. This EP houses 3 new tracks and a Repulsion cover, which is shockingly fast. I recall reading somewhere out there online that LFAA recorded these 4 tracks when they heard Relapse was looking for some fresh meat (that pun might have been intentional.) The story went that the original recording was somewhat more raw in production than this final product, but either way, it's good enough for me! These guys really put the speed in on this recording.




SMG/ LT. Dan split 7"

Granted this record just came out a few weeks ago, so there hasn't been much time for it to proliferate, but I felt the need to include it in here anyway. This isn't my favorite of all time of either band, but both are solid nonetheless. SMG can do no wrong in my book. They could record a double LP of Mariah Carey songs and I'd probably buy 2 copies and post in this blog about it. They offer up 5 tracks of the same noisy wall-blasting grind/noise/violence as we've become accustomed to. LT. Dan give up 6 tracks on their side of a blend of mince, gore, and crusty grind. The LT. Dan tracks are refreshingly fast for a self-described "mince" band. This record has great artwork that is also humorous, although the jacket and print quality could have been a little better.




Devastation of Life EP

It pains me that this band is relatively unheard of. I wish there were more grind bands with this sound, like early-career Nasum before they got too metal. The only bad thing I have to say about this record is that it has a sample to introduce almost every song, which drives me crazy, but at least their choices are somewhat tasteful, and avoid "cool" sounding stuff in favor of more relevant social, political, and environmental issues. The bass really snarls through on this recording, and the vocals are a harsh bark, neither of which are a problem for me! The band self-released this, so I'm sure they've still got plenty of copies.




Archagathus/ Putrescence split 7"

I even had a hard time finding a cover image of this one. I contacted the label about this record when I first caught word that it was out, and got no response. The only reason I knew this was out was because I learned about it from the Prince of Mince himself. Putrescence got blackout drunk in the studio before recording their tunes for this. You can expect some gore-tinged death-metal-breath grindcore beast on their side. The Archagathus tracks are from the same session as their material on the Sakatat split, which just happens to be my favorite. If you're unfamiliar with Archagathus, I recommend that you get acquainted with them right now. They are the band that Agathocles wishes they still were. That's right, Archagathus has surpassed their bastard grandfather of a band.

Best Album Of The Year

...is Contagium's Archaic LP. The album contains 9 songs of pure aural bliss from these three Halifax punks. Contagium knows how to seek out a lumbering rhythm, and use it to plod along through a song until piledriving the speed at just the right moment, allowing chaos to ensue. The sparingly-used vocals are bleak and hoarsely wretched from their throats amidst a heavy dose of reverb.

The songs are well-constructed and have a fair amount of melody to them without sounding wimpy. Amongst all the crust madness lies a touch of Heresy influence, which sets Contagium apart from some of their crust counterparts. I really want to compare Contagium to Axegrinder, but that wouldn't be fair, as they offer more than just homage to the UK crust classics. The similarities come in the slow, brooding riffs and the slight hint of melody, but the main difference is that Contagium isn't infected with the polished-turd production of the Axegrinder material.

It wouldn't be fair of me to talk about this record without mentioning the artwork and layout. All the artwork is done by one of the bandmembers, and it definitely helps set the murky tone of the songs held within the sleeve. The record jacket is white with scratchy scrawled artwork of a skeletal beast holding a cross, and a raven perched with some battle axes and severed heads. There's also a poster with the lyrics on its back side that looks like something from an Entombed demo, and the vinyl is a purple splatter. The Total End Records doesn't have a website, but you can find this record in various distros.

Anticipation

Here's a preview of some of the records that I'm drooling over myself just thinking about. Some are out, and I don't have a copy yet, and some have been announced as coming soon.

1. Suffering Mind self titled LP- I already heard the tracks, because Kuchar was nice enough to send me the mp3s while I wait for my copy! Along with this will be the Suffering Mind 3" which I've also heard, but it will be really cool.

2. Mass Grave LP- This band can do no wrong. They played here back in May and it blew my face off. It's coming from Haunted Hotel Records in a few months I guess.

3. Looking For An Answer/ Ratos De Porao split 10"- Looking For An Answer gets better and faster with each release. If their La Caceria EP was any indication of how this 10" will sound, then it will be a good day for all. I haven't really listened to Ratos De Porao very much, so I don't have any expectations for them. I might be pleasantly surprised, or indifferent. I think Six Weeks is releasing this in the US.

4. Magnum Force EP- Their demo was good, although it sounded like Magrudergrind recording on a 4-track with better vocals. The song off the To Live a Lie Sampler that will be on this EP really impressed me however. The band sounds like they got more of a unique sound, and a better recording. Also there were some squealy guitar leads that put the track over the top. This should be coming really soon on To Live a Lie.

5. Parlamentarisk Sodomi/ Laserguys split 7"- I thought we were done getting new material from Parlamentarisk Sodomi, but apparently not! I'll listen to anything that guy records! The split with Blodsprut was so fast, and his songs always sound genuinely angry, not just hard talk about vague targets. The stuff that I've heard from Laserguys wasn't so memorable, but then again, I never listen to Blodsprut either. Grind Block Records has a pre-order of this.

Human Error / Black Hole of Calcutta split 7"

I received copies of this 7" today for my distro, and I was curious to check out Human Error's new stuff. I had heard a few songs quite some time ago, so I wanted to know if I would like them as much as I remembered, or more. What ended up happening, was that I listened to their side twice in a row! They start off with the kind of intro I'd expect from Extreme Noise Terror, and then a quick countoff, and they begin blasting. The song breaks into a quick charging crust riff, then slows down a little further into a deliberate pounding punk part. The rest of their side continues in this manner: occasional but sustained blasting parts, tons of good crust riffs, and even a few headbobbers.

I flipped the record over to check out Black Hole of Calcutta, despite not being impressed with their previous efforts. This time I was somewhat pleasantly surprised. I own many BHOC records, but always for the other side of them. Usually the drums are great, but the guitar tone irritates me, and makes the whole band sound weak. Like I previously mentioned, the drummer for BHOC is top notch, and they're certainly not lacking in proficiency. Perhaps on this record, the bass is mixed a little higher or something, but whatever it is, it's working for me this time. At the show I'm going to tonight, I'll be recommending this record to my friends.

Interview with Nashgul (Spain)

This interview was conducted sometime in Summer '09 for Noise Reduction Zine #3, which hasn't been printed. In celebration of Nashgul's new LP, (that I received this week) I decided to post the interview. Enjoy!
-Will BSP

1. The first thing that I want to ask is about your band name. Are you Lord of the Rings fans? Also, I believe there are other bands with the name Nashgul, does it ever cause any problems for you?

Santi – Hi there!! Well, I always like “lord of the rings” but I never became obsessed with it, I like the books and the movies, they are great, but that’s it…. Nowadays a lot of metal bands are trying to look evil using LOTR themes, that’s nerd!! I don´t have a problem to be a nerd, but you know I´m not trying to look evil and trve!! Anyway, ask our bass player, he’s the one who got the name for the band when they were teenagers…

Iván – I think that nobody else uses Nashgul. Actually, the name doesn’t exist, it’s a conscious alteration of Nazgul, the Dark Riders. However, a countless number of bands use the name Nazgul, mostly Black Metal bands.

2. Aside from Nashgul, I know Hector plays in Black Panda as well. Do any of you play in other bands also? Do you ever have schedule conflicts with your other bands?

Hector - We are very active people when it comes to rehearsing or making gigs and tours with our bands. Each band has a rehearsal day and whenever a gig is planned we discuss it with the other bands to avoid problems. I ended up playing with 4 different bands once, in 3 different rehearsal places, 6 days a week and with no car, it’s everything about interests and organization.

I also play in Black Panda (www.myspace.com/blackpandakillers) and Asedio (www.myspace.com/asediados).

Iván – I play with Hongo (www.myspace.com/fungivoro), a slow metal band that might remind you to Neurosis, and with some other bands... but we never had any kind of problem with that. We do everything that’s possible to organize ourselves so no one gets hurt. The difficult thing is to plan our vacation, we never have!! Hahaha...

Santi – I play bass since a few months ago in the grind/death veterans Machetazo www.myspace.com/bandamachetazo and got some other projects here and there, if some of them arise from the sewer I will let you know….our bass player got a hardcore punk band named Codia www.myspace.com/codiacore , check them out!

3. You guys have done quite a few splits already over the past few years. It seems to me that your sound has changed somewhat since the split with Anti-Hero, what can you say about the progression of your style since the beginning of the band?

Santi – I hate our songs from our split with Antihero, they suck, we were young and naive and we were trying to be “original”, fuck! Satan bless the day we decided to play straight to the point fuckin Grindcore!! Now we are only worshiping our grind, death and hc-crust classics….hail Bastard and Rise Above from Japan!!

Hector – Our sound has changed mainly because it’s been 6 six years since we recorded our split with Antihero, so i think that the evolution in every Ep is quite reasonable.

When we recorded the split with Antihero we were kids with no experience playing live, recording or anything like that. A couple of years ago we saw that things were going well, we were playing in festivals around Europe, an European tour, some Spanish state gigs and tours, editions in nice labels with great bands... so we began to take it “seriously”.

We are now playing in festivals and meeting bands we used to watch on TV when we were kids, like Extreme Noise Terror, Discharge, Dismember, Brutal Truth ,Napalm Death... we sometimes talk about that, it’s weird...

4. Out of all your previous splits, do you have a favorite? You have done splits with some other fantastic bands like Sewn Shut and World Downfall.

Iván – My favorite one is World Downfall's. I think that our most strong and motherfucker sound is in there, and Telerealidade and Tú que lo sabes todo are my favorite songs.

Hector – The split with FromTheAshes. The Pushead-style artwork is fucking great and the band is amazing, they are good friends and we met a few times around Europe and even they are not active today we still have a good relationship.

Santi – Probably my favourite is our split with Sewn shut; I always loved that fuckin band!! Cheers to those lazy bastards!!

5.While we're speaking about releases, you recently finished recording an LP, which I'm really excited about. What label will this LP be on? Also, how was the experience of writing for a full LP rather than just some songs for a 7" split? Was it easier or more difficult to write that much material?

Hector – There are bands that can record quickly... but we are not like them, we do it slow... It took us too long, more than 2 years. We were going over and over every track but we can assure that we are 100% pleased with their arrangements as well as with their recording.

We are lucky that the owner of the studio is an old friend of us, so we took it easy, we were going there a few hours once or twice a week when we were available so we didn’t stress out, we began in December 2008 and finished in May 2009.

Santi – Torture Garden Pictures from USA and Trabuc Records from Spain are going to release a nice gatefold LP version of our new album and Power it up is going to release the CD ….we spent a lot of time preparing the new album, but they were a lot of factors involved. We spent weeks without rehearse, also we were releasing a lot of stuff thru 2006 & 2007, so we didn’t want to saturate the scene with tons of Nashgul releases in one year haha

6.Along with recording a new LP, you're going to appear on a tribute to Repulsion. Why did you decide to record Slaughter of the Innocents? I think your version of the song came out really good from what I heard online on your Myspace page.

Hector – The truth is that our first choice was Black Breath, but they told us that we couldn’t make that one, we still don't know why… so our second choice was Slaughter of the Innocent.

We hope to match up to the compilation and to the bands in it: General Surgery, Cretin, Haemorrhage, Inhume, Cephalic Carnage, Looking for an Answer, Blockheads, Machetazo…

Santi – Thanks for your words….Repulsion is my favourite band within extreme music, so for me it’s such an honour to be part of this tribute! Can’t wait to see it released!!

7. I always know when I get a new Nashgul record that the artwork will be amazing. Is the artwork done by a band member or a friend? What are the influences for the artwork used for your records?

Iván – Our bass player makes all the artwork (except for Worldownfall), he started drawing because of Iron Maiden’s covers. He is really influenced by Derek Riggs, Repka, Pushead, Riddickart, Putrid or Nor. He used to focus his work on children’s illustration, but now he is starting to work for bands, you can check his work out at his website, http://www.myspace.com/sendonluis.

8. The vocals on all your records are always fantastic. What are your biggest influences for the vocal style? Also, what are your biggest influences for all the music, and for your lyrics?

Santi - Thanks for the compliment dude!! My main influences when I started to sing Grindcore were: Lee Dorrian from Napalm Death, Paul Pavlovich from Assück and Iñaki from Denak but also Im very influenced by all the old grind bands I love: Repulsion, Defecation, old Carcass, Fear of god, Regurgitate, Terrorizer, Warsore, Brutal Truth, Dahmer and tons more…..my lyrics are mainly influenced by daily life, the shitty city where I live, mental illness , alcohol, weed, movies, books, and a lot of music of course, too much to mention!!

Hector – Each one of us is influenced by different bands but we are all freaks of NWOBHM, Grindcore, Death Metal, Crust, Thrash, Punk and Rock & Roll. I fucking love bands like Assück, Entombed, Terrorizer, Napalm Death, Sacrilege, Iron Maiden, Brutal Truth, Extreme Noise Terror, Metallica, Discharge, Gbh, Doom, Amebix, Autopsy, Disrupt, Entombed, Whiplash... .

Iván – As hector said, we all love extreme music classics. I grew up grinding with Assuck, Brutal Truth, Napalm Death, Neurosis, Macabre, Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Deicide and Brutal/Death/Grind underground good shit.

9. Spain has some great bands, especially some good grind bands like Looking for an Answer and Disturbance Project, aside from Nashgul. How is the scene there, especially relating to grind? Are there also some good fests every year?

Hector – There are good Grindcore bands, actually... not only the ones you mention but Freaknation, Haemorrhage, Crisischrist, Ras, Aural Butchery, Violent Headache, Unsane Crisis and so on. There are great HC, Punk and Crust bands too that knew how to wake up in the last years.

Regarding festivals there are not a lot of them... but we have the Etengabeko Zarata organized by Fres, from the band Ras; and Trauma Fest.

Iván – The truth is that there are lots of good Spanish grindcore bands... but people who play in these bands is always the same. Here in A Coruña, we are from 10 to 15 guys playing in 8 or 9 different bands...

10. Would you recommend Spain as a place for other bands to tour?

Hector – To be honest… no. The number of people attending to shows at the Spanish State is not as high as it was a few years ago. Here we live in the end of the world and bands used to think that playing here didn't worth it. But 8 years ago we began organizing shows in abandoned premises under the name of La Cúpula del Trueno Death Crew. Today we have A Casa das Atochas Squat (http://www.myspace.com/casadasatochas) to play in and we make sure that the bands get money enough, have a nice dinner, some drinks, and a clean and quiet place to rest... and we also offer them the chance to learn about our night life!!

So today Hardcore-Punk-Grind-Diy bands stop here to play. Oporto is organizing lots of shows lately too so we are having movement in the area again. We are proud to say that bands like Inepsy, Consume, Looking for an Answer, Magrudergrind, PLF, Hellshock, Inquisition, Yacopsae or Gasmask Terror played here!

11. Do you have any tour plans, for the U.S. or otherwise?

Santi – We don’t have any US tour plan at the moment!! We were supposed to tour across the US last year, but finally it was not possible, damn!! Anyway we REALLY want to do it, so we hope to find some nice band to tour with and do a 1-2 week tour sometime soon!! Anyway we are booking now an European tour for September!! Cant wait for that!!!

Thanks and CHEERS for the interview!! I look forward to hearing back from you.

Santi – Thanks to you for your interest in Nashgul, hope to see ya on the road someday and drink some nice shit together!! Cheers!!!!!

Hector – GRIND !


-Will
*photo taken from Nashgul's Myspace page (www.myspace.com/nashgul)

Total Wreck - Demo 09

Total Wreck - Demo 09 CD-R
http://www.myspace.com/totalwreckva
Thrash punk that isn't snotty, a nice change! Lyrics are very ryhme-y. Well recorded, I dig this a lot more than a lot of the throwback hardcore stuff that is out here, so check these dudes out! -willfastcore

N.E.K. vs. Septix tape
http://www.karasukiller.com
NEK side starts out sounding like crust punknroll. Second song bursts into more of the heavy gritty Japanese hardcore I was hoping for! The other side is raucous and noisey.. dig it a lot, hammer-ony and overdriven. Wish I could hear the vocals a little bit better. Ends with an awesome SOB cover! -willfastcore

Ablach - Aon CD

I had seen the name of this band around, and thought they'd be a lousy black metal band, but I'm really glad about how wrong I was. Ablach are not a shitty black metal band, but instead a fucking headcrushing mess of crust/grind/death from Scotland. This CD features 13 songs in 19 minutes, not somethign that I'd usually complain about, but it just whizzes by too fast for me. Included in that 13-song count are a Terrorizer cover (Corporation Pull in) and a Napalm Death cover (Unchallenged Hate- which I heard on their myspace page and was what really compelled me to buy this CD).

In addition to the fact that this shit totally floats my boat, some lyrics are in English, and others in Gaelic, and the topics cover all sorts of Scottish history. At the end of the liner notes is a disclaimer, however, that none of the lyrics are meant in any sort of nationalistic manner, but rather only deal with the area where they're from. This is an interesting perspective, to say the least, and surely gives me a relief from the usual boring rehash crap that most bands use as lyrics.

This is a 6-dude band and the proof is in the pudding because the production is thick enough to not be an insult to the riffs. The guitars are scooped in a weird way, but it works for Ablach. The two singers run the gamut of lows and highs, the latter of which hit a different tone than the usual fodder. Overall, this CD was really refreshing to listen to. This album was a pleasant surprise as I've been feeling let down by what most bands have been bringing to the table as of late. I definitely look forward to more releases from Ablach. (Blastwork Records)