Brutal Truth
Hello, fellow denizens of metal’s underbelly, welcome to the first instalment of Metal Heart, a monthly blog where I’ll be taking a look at some notable new releases in the world of grind, death, sludge, doom, war, and anything else metal that crosses my path that deserves some attention. Because this is the first one, what follows is a random selection of some of the most notable releases of the last couple months.
Labels, drop me a line if you haven’t already: I can be found hovering over my email program at all hours, anxiously awaiting some piece of lo-fi sewer-grade grindcore to email my friends about, even though I’m pretty sure I also have a, like, real life: gpratt at islandnet dot com.
A bit about me? Well, really quick, because these 30-second grind songs are whipping past and I gotta start paying attention. I’ve been writing about metal for many years, obsessing about it for many, many more. My name can be found in lots of metal (and non-metal!) magazines. I tend to get really excited about grindcore albums that sound like grindcore albums I already own. My CDs are meticulously alphabetized and I spend a shitload of time wondering about how to organize my digital music collection. I am 33 years old. My online portfolio is over at http://gregprattfreelancer.blogspot.com/ if yer interested.
OK, let’s get to it. There are lots of junkies where I live, always racing around in circles, gnawing on their fingers and generally making everyone within a two-block radius extremely nervous. If they had iPods, they’d be listening to shit like this on a non-stop loop: BRUTAL TRUTH is recording a series of live-in-the-studio releases were they play faster versions of their songs. In one take. The new disc, Evolution in One Take: For Grindfreaks Only! Volume 2 (Relapse Records) is a complete go-through of their latest album, but rawer and faster. Goddamn. Perfect. There’s a reason why these guys have been one of my favourite bands for over half my life. And it’s not just the awesome drum faces that Rich Hoak makes, which can be observed at YouTube (“richard hoak drum video,” you must watch this). Although they help.
Speaking of junkies (not Hoak, the junkies around my house, pay attention!), BUZZOVEN have a new collection of old, atrocious-sounding unreleased tracks out now. The disc, Violence from the Vault (Relapse Records) has that melted-cassette/shitty-MP3-that-gave-your-PC-a-virus sound to it, but that only adds to the charm. As does the fact that it’s hard to get the band for interviews right now because they’re either MIA, in jail or in rehab. The tunes themselves aren’t up to Sore levels of sludge/noise rock/doom violence, but they still reek of a sincerity that few bands that aren’t called Eyehategod or Goatsblood manage to convey. ‘tis funny: as I get older I seem to want worse production and worse human beings crafting the music I listen to. Going by that, this shit should be CD of the year. It’s not, but it’s still a damn good listen, even with that insanely long noise track right in the middle of the disc.
Remember His Hero Is Gone? BALACLAVA do, and while their Shame 7” (Forcefield Records) doesn’t approach HHIG levels of glory, it’s musically similar, and it’s pretty damn good. The production is suitably lo-fi and the shit hits hard, regardless of whether it’s whipping along double-time or sludging itself down to a slow crawl. Opening cut “To Those Who Glorify War” (we’re guessing the next line isn’t “we salute you”) is an excellent slab of post-HHIG worship for people who like hardcore/crust/grind 7”s in theory, but don’t have a record player. Which is everyone I know. Recommended.
ABSCESS have always been a cool band, perhaps the one band to whom the adjective “sewer” really, truly belongs. (For that, we salute you, guys!) Their new one, Dawn of Inhumanity, is more of the same shit you wouldn’t want to get on your hands but you love to observe from afar. This is a damn satisfying disc of burbling punk, sloppy grind and fucking spooky riffage. These guys create an atmosphere in their tunes few extreme bands can; not bad for a bunch of on-again-off-again old dudes. The best part is you can tell they’re laughing all the while, never taking themselves too seriously. This is a nice addition to this band’s cool catalogue.
Now, a triptych of killer releases on the label of the month, Moshpit Tragedy (www.moshpittragedy.com). First off, ABLACH and their Aon (One) album, which looks like it’s gonna sound like Amorphis or some weak folk-metal shit like that, but it’s dense, noisy, raw grind. Maybe the cover art is just flaky because they’re from Scotland, but that’s cool by us. And maybe it’s the crazy production, but it sounds like one guitar is just hitting one note constantly throughout the whole thing. Awesome. This is drilling a hole into my brain, through my tortured ears. Plus, how bad-ass of a song title is “Confessit & Declait Furth”? Very fucking bad-ass. And a Napalm Death cover AND a Terrorizer cover? We had ourselves at “weak folk-metal shit.”
Our second Moshpit Tragedy pick of the month is PHOBIA’s Means of Existence. This CD has been reissued before, and it’s being reissued again, this time as a digital download. Man, everyone loves digital downloads now, even crust punks! But what happens when the music takes over your hard drive, like it has mine? Then it’s time to make some tough decisions. Anyway, old Phobia is kind of a lot like new Phobia, except more one-dimensional, which in crustspeak means fucking awesome, and in Metal Heartspeak means fucking awesome but a bit less great than later Phobia. Still, it’s hard to not get a sweatpants stiffy over this stuff, all sloganeering and riffs stuck between Disrupt and Disfear, if you know what I mean. I think you do. And I think of all the bands I’ve ever seen play, Phobia had more demands for the audience to “fucking mosh” than any other group of longhairs on stage. Not bad.
Finally, we have SKARP’s new disc, Bury Your Dead, which is actually a reissue of their debut, on Inimical Records, a cohort label of Moshpit Tragedy who have their releases available on Moshpit’s site. It’s awesome because it’s sloppy, grindy, anarchy, and even has bratty female vocals mixed up with the totally intense “she could fully beat me up” female vocals. I love this band and have no idea how such good grindcore ended up on Alternative Tentacles Records, where these guys release albums now. “Human Tragedy” even has a shitty ska part, which leads into a crust-punk part, then back to the shitty ska part! Awesome!
So why does Moshpit Tragedy rule? Apart from letting old guys like me who don’t understand what a torrent is finally get free music, they actually DON’T MIND that we download albums for free from their site. But, seriously, the label’s premise is pay what you can, so head over there, download some stuff and make some donations. The band will actually get some of the money, as hard as that is to believe. This could well be the future of indie metal labels… but surely most metal indie labels of the future won’t be of such high quality.
Vince Neil Is Wrong about a lot of things but Vince Neil is Right About Motley Crüe: I recently saw MÖTLEY CRÜE play, and they were as horribly awesome as always. Of the many life-altering revelations I had while watching them, this is my favourite: what makes the Crüe so great is that the band is made up of four guys who are totally unaware that they’re in the Crüe. Well, no, three guys: Vince Neil, although he can do nothing else right, gets that right: he knows he’s a goofy singer in a goofy rock band. Nikki Sixx seems to think he’s in an industrial punk band with something real serious and negative and shocking to say, but it’s kinda like when the singer from Overkill talks about punk or something… it’s not exactly Propagandhi, you know? Mick Mars, God bless him, is in a state of bliss thinking he’s in a blues band, and Tommy Lee, for some reason, has thought the Crüe’s been a hip-hop band for a good 12 years now. It’s beautifully awkward to watch this unfold on stage, and Vince Neil, for perhaps the only time in a long time, emerges the winner every night, and he looks the audience right in the eyes and his eyes say, I know, motherfuckers, I know. I’d say they’re still kicking ass.
Metal memory of the month: This one was spurred on from when I was recently doing an interview with John Gallagher, bassist/vocalist of the almighty RAVEN. I told John about how when I was really young, I was freaked out by the band’s statement of there being “absolutely no overdubs” on their Live at the Inferno album. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew it meant business. Maybe that’s why crap like unreleased BUZZOVEN demos or live-in-one-take BRUTAL TRUTH or brutally recorded 7”s mean a lot to me now, as an adult. Absolutely no overdubs: now there are some words to get behind.
Here’s the plan: In the spirit of rebelling against the anarchist anti-rules of internet metal journalism, I’m gonna keep this shit strict, dropping this blog once a month and keeping it relatively concise. I’m thinking the 15th of each month might be a good time to bring the noise, but bear with me through the launching phase here. Next month, in the spirit of grindcore, there’s gonna be a lot more reviews and they’re gonna come fast and furious. They’ll be hastily thought-out, won’t have long-lasting qualities and will all sound the same. They’ll be done in one take, and there will be absolutely no overdubs.
