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Three piece who play a more drone style of ‘Come On Die Young’ Mogwai with more epic stoner post rock- it that makes fucking any sense at all. I imagine they play in the dark with hoods on or something and then after their 8 minute intro stage lights blast on and all the long haired dudes in the audience wit Kyuss and Boris shirts quickly open their eyes before anyone sees them ‘feeling it’ like some Sigur Ros fruit.
www.whitecollarrecords.com
Tim Scott
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This debut full length has been a long time coming for these Californian indie rockers. Originaly recorded back in 2005 it has only recently seen its release (with a few added tracks) for what reason I’m not sure- maybe it fell behind the cabinet and they couldn’t find it for a good couple of years. Anyway it’s out now and it sounds pretty cool. That is if you are down with diverse modern melodic rock with some echoey sounds thrown in. The drumming sounds good. At times they sound like latter day Sunny Day Real Estate ‘Tiger’s’ then ‘Hand to the Sound’ with it’s mandolin sounds like something that could have come off the latest Band of Horses record. Oh and you also have ‘Ricky’ which is a power pop blast complete with squealing guitar and crazy drumming.
Tim Scott
www.eeniemeenie.com
Tim Scott
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At first I thought these guys were just low slung guitarists with sneers and hard ons for latter day Girls Versus Boys. While there’s plenty of brooding and I suppose sneering the songs develop and build with the record. Some of them such as ‘Cars on Fire’ have a hint of paranoia -kind of like being trapped in Pete Doherty’s body between the hours of 10am and 3pm. The records best track ‘Maginot’ brings the epic ness with more skin twitching and sweats.
Tim Scott
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Dälek are a two-man hip hop crew made up of MC Dälek and producer DJ Oktopus. I believe this is a collection of tracks and remixes from their splits with Techno Animal, Kid606 and Velma, plus the Streets All Amped EP and a few previously unreleased goodies.
At the root of many of the songs is a big drum sound, a smooth bass line, and some well-placed keyboard or saxophone samples that are reminiscent of DJ Krush’s better work. There’s a minimal amount of scratching and, when it appears, it is appropriate and supremely executed. MC Dälek casually spits out lines in a tone and flow that I initially found indistinctive but his vocals and delivery soon grew on me and I began to appreciate the way his style changes suitably to compliment each song. As a couple of tracks are remixes and many are instrumental, he really only appears on half the album anyway. On a skeletal level, Dälek play some very well-crafted laidback trip-hop. But Dälek aren’t your regular hip-hop duo and it’s what fleshes out the tracks that makes this an outstanding release from an excellent group.
Firstly, it must be noted that many of their full-lengths have been released on Mike Patton's Ipecac label. The compilation itself is the first hip-hop release on Hydra Head. In the past, they've toured and collaborated with artists as varied as De La Soul, The Melvins, Isis and Faust. The fact of the matter is that Dälek create some almost tear-jerkingly beautiful soundscapes of atmospheric noise and drone that have earned them comparisons to My Bloody Valentine and sets them apart from the vast majority of hip-hop groups. The closest comparison I could make would be to the DJ Spooky remix that appears on the Sentimental Education LP by Free Kitten; a group which consisted of wozza noise-lords from Sonic Youth, The Boredoms and Pussy Galore et al.
For a compilation album made up of diverse tracks spanning several years, the CD flows incredibly well - perhaps because all of the tracks are uniformly impressive. The album begins with ‘Megaton’ - a remarkable remix of a pretty average song by Techno Animal, who are another experimental electronic duo made up of members of Jesu and God. It starts out as a loungey trip-hop track until a big hollow drum track kicks in mid-way through. The feedback and noise wells up to a crescendo before suddenly dropping away, exposing the original trumpet loop. The second and third tracks are densely layered with droney keys and insane free jazz respectively. ‘Vague Recollection’ is entirely vocal-less and almost drum-less with a backwards melodic line made up of throbbing harmonic feedback and static.
‘3:46’ is purposely the most inaccessible track on the album. There’s a busy background of noise that sounds like robots struggling to communicate in a sandstorm while somewhere amongst it all MC Dälek announces “here’s your fucking three-minute pop-song” and spurts lines erratically like an apocalyptic beatnik. On the other side of the accessibility coin is the exceptional remix of ‘In This City’ by New York indie trio Enon which originally appeared as a b-side to the single. The Dälek remix swings more than the original, it is fleshed out with some vocal reverb and overdubs, and the duo ultimately succeed in making a beautiful pop song even more bittersweet.
The Streets All Amped EP, which makes up the final few tracks, is less noise driven and much more of a standard hip-hop release. The EP’s title track has a catchy chorus, ‘Maintain’ is heavy on the scratching, while ‘Ascention’ samples speeches by Black Panther Stokley Carmichael and abolitionist, lecturer and former-slave Frederick Douglass.
The whole release throbs along on its own momentum and is pretty much outstanding until track nine (‘Music For ASM’) when, in my opinion, it drops down a notch to ‘great’. It’s taken almost 15 years for Hydra Head to release a hip-hop album but it was well worth the wait.
www.hydrahead.com
- zac hero |
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I’ve been fairly critical of the past few Dark Tranquillity albums, and whilst I’m not about to go back on my words, it does appear that I may have underestimated the powerful force that they are. As a fan of their earlier, pre-Century Media work, I came to the opinion that Dark Tranquillity had sacrificed their scathing, dual guitar attack for a more refined, and polished approach, resulting in a watering down of their more artistic and poetic nature. Thousands upon thousands of fans disagreed, and today they are without a doubt one of the biggest, and longest serving death metal acts that still hold some relevance in today’s market.
From where I sit, however, Fiction is both a return to form and a look to the future. As a forebears of the Gothernburg sound, Dark Tranquillity have fused the old-school Maiden-esque melodies, with the crunch of some of today’s nu-metal crowd, whilst retaining the mark of classic, European death metal.
Tunes such as ‘Terminus’ and ‘The Lesser Faith’ introduce a new pop element to the band, with some cool synth melodies a’la Paradise Lost or Amorphis, along with subtle industrial clangs, blips and whooshes.
The speed-drenched ‘Blind at Heart’ though reminds the listener of their background with some classic blast beats interspersed with the aforementioned synth melodies, and grind-influenced riffing.
To my mind, this is their finest and most diverse work since going metal major, and inspires even the most metal-bored.
By Warren
www.centurymedia.com |
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Best known for his unique vocal delivery in Clann Zu, Declan de Barra resurfaces here with his first solo effort Song of a Thousand Birds.
Irish-born, but Australian-based, de Barra first made his mark known in the mid-nineties with Non-Intentional Lifeform (NIL) who were one of the first Australian acts to be signed to Roadrunner (along with Effigy). Despite NIL’s initial success in the local metal market, in hindsight the band were little more than a b-grade Faith No More, and at the end of day, no guitar-based act rates them as an influence (nor Effigy for that matter).
Following the demise of NIL, de Barra went underground for quite a few years, only to re-emerge on Canadian leftist punk label G7 Welcoming Committee with Clann Zu. Categorising Clann Zu is a task in itself. Still with a slight FNM/Bungle influence, the band clearly preferred the darker peripherals of artists such as 16 Horsepower and Rachel’s. And while the delivery was through traditional rock instrumentation, the compositions were structured in a very non-contemporary fashion.
Song of a Thousand Birds in many ways picks up where Clann Zu left off. Their final album Black Coats & Bandages was dark and epic without forsaking the honesty they had become renowned for. The pain in de Barra’s vocals on Black Coats… is repeated here with a newer sense of maturity.
With de Barra’s vocals thick and heavy with the Irish accent, the melodies often explore variations of traditional Irish perhaps largely unconsciously. The album as a whole is surprisingly minimal with many tracks employing only the vocal, acoustic guitar, a cello and occasional percussion.
The title track specifically employs a traditionally Irish percussive element toward the end with a little vocal percussion added that would entice Bjork fans. Meanwhile ‘Blackbird Song’ sees de Barra wailing in a serenade allowing the listener to feel the pain in each and every syllable. Similarly the isolated vocal/piano combination sees ‘Someday Soon’ delivered in heart-wrenching fashion.
The politics of Clann Zu aren’t lost, as ‘Welcome’ sends a message to those trapped behind the razor wire of Australian immigration/detention centres. In a kind gesture, and perhaps with the experience of adopting Australia as his home, de Barra sympathetically tells refugees they are welcome as they are without the need to change their language or culture. Interestingly ‘Welcome’ is probably the most upbeat and pop-oriented tune, leaving me wondering if de Barra was in fact looking for an accessible way to promote his message.
The politics also surface in ‘Curfew’ which, if I’m hearing the lyrics correctly, refer to the ongoing conflict in de Barra’s homeland, and the loss of someone close to his heart.
There are times that de Barra wanders into Jeff Buckley mode leaving one thinking he’d just shut the fuck up (‘Three Days From Now’) and let the music do the talking, but such moments are outweighed by the sheer beauty of the remainder of the album.
Fans of Clann Zu are already open-minded and so are likely to be receptive to the work de Barra has placed on display here. Nevertheless, one should still be prepared for the unexpected, as de Barra has a rare talent that can make his listeners stop dead in their tracks and be sucked in by his honesty.
By Warren
www.declandebarra.com
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Two New Jersey bands that complement each other well in playing straight up in your face aggressive hardcore that contains social and political messages. DWU are the slightly faster of the two. Their ‘From Flesh to Flesh’ sounds a little like Kill Your Idols. Seasick play with gruff vocals and is probably my preferred side. But overall good sold thrash and it’s good to see two bands that understand that ‘fun’ doesn’t always have to equal ‘goof’ and instead also have something to say.
www.pokerfacerecords.com
Tim Scott |
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I don’t remember taking that much notice of Daughters’ ridiculously brief debut from a few years back, but I do recall it being significantly different to what they’ve produced here.
From memory, their debut was pretty much screamo with an experimental attitude. On Hell Songs, that formula seems to be reversed. Dual guitars interplay seemingly unstructured, thought they do somehow change parts in unison. The timings have a mathematical element to them insofar as there are few, if any, 4/4 timings throughout. The vocals are more like a demented and lethargic Elvis Presley.
There are some Meshuggah-type moments, minus the testosterone, and the experimentalism aspects in tracks like ‘Boner X-Ray’ and ‘Fiery’ would appeal to Patton fans the world over.
By Warren
www.hydrahead.com |
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By far one of the best records that Three One G have released in a while finds this Transatlantic hardcore super band (you should all know where they came from by now) lay down some straight up noisy hardcore that like all good punk is loud and intense. They also use a fair amount of feedback and distortion but unlike some other bands on Three One G who sometimes come across as obnoxious poseurs, Das Oath’s experimentation doesn’t stray too far from what they do best- hardcore punk. They still have the crazy and unpredicatable chord progressions but amidst the noise drenched workouts there is even a little bit of melody.
Mark’s trademark vocals that are completely over the top and insane are high in the mix once again They get some help from Will (Orchid, Ampere) and some dudes from the Locust and Some Girls, but it’s Das Oath show for most of the way and this record re establishes them as one of hardcore’s best bands as they do something different but every bit as intense as their previous works.
www.threeoneg.com
Tim Scott
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Heh… um… so it’s a um… now I must word this carefully… um… guy… well let’s say person… from Canberra who was sick of ‘all them shit metal bands that call themselves hardcore’ so he… um wanted to… no… well… yeah well he actually has… um obviously .... um… attempted to remedy the situation by getting a drum machine, a guitar, a distortion pedal from the $2 shop and releasing this here one-man demo CD.
Shit would you look at that I’m sweating.
So… um… the CD starts off with a Winston Churchill sample, then a song about dieing for our country and defending it from the enemy who are all fucking scum (damn enemies! Fucking scum arses), then a song about loyalty, another about ummm something about people getting a hair cut and job and fucking off, then one about how people shouldn’t judge him…. ummm heh uh yeah ummm…. then one about Emo Cunt’s (yeah fukkers they sure won’t die with pride) and a cover of Minor Threat’s ‘Straight Edge’ with the lyrics changed and the title altered to ‘Hate Edge’.
Now usually I’d bag the shit out of something this fucking…. um… well… not so…. great… but I’ve got mental images of some kid being raised by a nutcase and filled with stories of the enemy and being taught how to decapitate people with a bayonette and break down a gun in ten seconds and while I’m really sure dude hasn’t let this affect him in any way and that he’s totally well adjusted and a working member of society who could………… be…… walking among us right now… right behind us… ummm what was I saying…. just in spite of all that I’d rather not wake up in some home-made underground bunker beneath a suburban Canberra backyard, wrists bound and this guy fucking naked just fucking brutally close-up naked looming over me staring fixated at my forehead, drooling and shaking convulsively, jumper leads attached to his nuts and either his cock or maybe it’s his arse seeping some weird green fluid that doesn’t so much drip as swim and he turns and walks away and there’s all these fucking upside down posters of hitler on the wall and clown smiles painted over their crutches and hundreds of cans of Spam and I hear the sound of a knife not so much being sharpened as made to be more dull and blunt…..
WELL FUCK ME IF I’M GOING OUT LIKE THAT
Great fucking CD. This will really show all those fucking metal bands who think they’re hardcore. Fuck after this even fucking Cro-Mags will fucking want to play less metal. Fuck it’s good and emo… well fuck that shit cos those fucking emo cunts are just one of the many enemies and it might be us against the world and the government might have implanted tiny worker monkeys in our brains to control us all but I’ve got the monkey out now and it’s time to fight like we’ve never fucking fought before and if we die
WE WILL
DIE
WITH
FUCKING
PRIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.myspace.com/diewithpridehc
Ari
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Dead Child is basically what happens when you get a bunch of indie kids who’ve recorded, performed or been in the general vicinity of bands such as Slint, Tortoise, Stereolab, and Shipping News, and ask them to play you some metal.
Their debut EP is five tracks of Garage Days influenced metal: lo-fi, simple and passionate. At it’s most simple, one just need think of late nineties metal with an indie slant. Basic time signatures are occasionally interrupted by Killing Joke-ish rhythms. The bass rumbles as good as any Jason Newstead, while the vocals (admittedly not the bands strong point) are like a reserved Biafra. Thankfully, the indie ethic wins out over any temptation to add runaway guitar solos or vocal wails, which keeps the tunes of Dead Child grounded.
By Warren
www.myspace.com/deadchildmusic |
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Before Limp Wrist, before Gayrilla Biscuits or any of the many other openly gay people and bands in the current hardcore punk scene there were the legendary Dicks. Led by the self proclaimed "commie fag" Gary Floyd the band played storming and confrontational punk rock during the Reagan era. In Texas! Tell the kids in Byron Bay now that’s fucking punk rock. This record includes two live sets, one from 2005 and one from 1980, and two studio outtakes from the Dicks Hate the Police sessions the disc starts off with a version of “Kill from the Heart” from the 2005 show which along with Dicks Hate the Police (that Mudhoney covered) is the bands best well known song. Listening to songs such as ‘Bookstore’ about gay cruising in a small town bookshop on a Saturday night you realize just how ballsy and provocative Floyd and the band were back in 1980 even in a supposedly open minded punk scene. Quality liner notes with a bunch of photos and flyers and great recording makes this a must get.
www.hotboxreview.com
Tim Scott
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It’s cool to watch and be part of a bands development from ‘pretty cool and fun” to ‘all out unbelievably awesome” Chiba’s Deep Slauter are one such a band. From watching them play their guts out at Koiwa’s Em-7 club to hearing their first LP ‘Rock of Em All’ I’ve had the good fortune to witness a band go from good to great. This their bands second album takes on a whole new level. Production is top notch and the songs themselves kill it.
Vocalist Osamu is a freaking freak. Most vocals (actually pretty much all of them are in Japanese) but with the twin guitar attack of Yasu and Manabu both Japanese and non- Japanese speakers will be able to get where they are coming from. Like Breakfast they have a heavy groove going on and seem to be content on doing their own thing.
www.deepslauter.com
Tim Scott
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I’ve never understood the appeal of John Gallagher’s Dying Fetus. Yes, they’re brutal like machine-gun fire, and they can be technical when the moment calls, but overall they’re just another testosterone-filled death/grind act that the world (and particularly Relapse) has too much of anyways.
War of Attrition is no different, to these ears, as any of their other releases, or indeed, the releases of any of their peers. Granted, the work of Duane Timlin on drums is nothing short of mechanimalistic, and a live demonstration would be sight unto itself. As for the rest of the band, Gallagher included, there’s little creativity or expertise that can’t be found elsewhere.
By Warren
www.dyingfetus.com |
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These guys have a big big Touch and Go sound about them. It’s all low tuned guitars, heavy fucking drums and shouted gruff vocals. Damn it could have been released as a split with Arcwelder or Chokebore back in the day. Most of the songs are dirgey, mid paced behemoth’s that have solid if unspectaucular production. Things tweak out a little more on their slowed take on Steel Pole Bathtub’s ‘Train to Miami’, which makes for a nice break.
www.reptilianrecords.com
Tim Scott |
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Lina B Doll is synonymous with the gothic industrial movement. Label-hopping between Cold Meat, Staalplaat and Release Entertainment, Doll’s Deutsch Nepal project has defined it’s sound from the get-go: disturbing psychedelia within industrial tribal rhythms and repetitive noise.
On his latest album Erotikon, Doll attempts to seduce the listener with gothic overtones blackened darkwave, and then sledgehammers the listener with pulverizing electronics and rhythmic explosions.
As is typical of the genre, the album has a disturbed sexualised theme throughout, with titles such as ‘Blowjob Parasite’ and ‘Rapist Park Junktion’, and the imagery matches these themes. The former of these tunes uses a monotonic vocal melody with an underlying “belly of the beast” moan from industrialised keys.
Hellish tribal rhythms are set on repeat in the title track, while a hip-hop beat plays in ‘Permobile Erotomatik’.
By Warren
www.coldmeat.se |
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Dodo Bird- or more specifically- this guy named Meric Long is an acoustic slash experimental performer who mixes folk, finger picked country blues guitar and hushed vocals. Add to this- noise, electronic sounds, and loops and what you get is a pretty interesting if 2006 –take on the singer. songwriter. Typical lyric. ‘we were walking down the block when we thought the bomb went off and our hearts nearly stopped at the sound” (Horny Hippies). With a voice that sometimes resembles Jeff Tweedy his use of melody and ambitious song structures are worthy of repeated listens.
http://www.mericlong.com
Tim Scott |
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I can’t even think up enough bullshit metaphors to get across how manic, dangerous and just completely fucked up this tape is. With member(s) of Up to Our Necks, The Ghost and the Storm Outside and… shit um just maybe… Chicken Hawk Down as well this is real fast crusty hardcore from Tassie taking the attitudes of Mass Trauma, Straightjacket and Smash N Grab and most worthwhile Canadian hardcore (they even rip an LFD riff) as far as fucking possible and mixing it with the sound of a lot of cold Scandi countries to provide an absolute mess of a tape that is possibly the best thing you’ll here until they do something new (although the SnG 7” might beat it).
This is just what I wanted after hearing the latest Victims LP and wishing it wasn’t quite so… kinda sterile in its anger. Every element of Distroy sounds raw and desperate the vocals are completely over the top and psychotic, the bass is a distorted headfuck, the guitar alternates between crunchy palm mutes and fucked out solos and the drummer may well be getting kicked in the head as he plays. Even the fucking recording sounds like it was done in a shitty alleyway!
Go get some ropes and help drag fucking Tassie closer so we can see these guys play sooner!
Distroy email
Ari |
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Shit but don’t you fucking hate it when you get records and don’t get into them properly for months? This is a fucking killer split! I’d even put it up there with the classics like FLL/Deadstare, From Ashes Rise/Victims etc.
I think I kinda passed over it cos I expected Direct Control to rule things more but they don’t come as strong as their earlier stuff… still good but a lot of it sinks as filler and so I think you really have to flip to Strung Up from San Fran for the real ‘fuck yeah’ moments. Both bands play fast raw hardcore ala Look Back & Laugh, Wasted Time etc but Strung Up come a little different with really dark evil vocals and lyrics that are repeated a lot with a kinda street punk feel. Think of something along the lines of Smash N Grab if they had more of a hardcore influence rather than crust. With their sound you kinda expect ‘em to turn out to be dodgy fucks or some schlock horror band but their lyrics are a good mix of the interesting and the intelligent and the delivery is perfect. It might have taken a while for me to catch on but I reckon I’ve played this record about 50 times in the last few days to make up for the lapse.
www.deadmetaphor.com/directcontrol/
http://www.strung-up.com/
Ari
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If I was a little less secure of myself and felt I needed a boost in my street-cred points, I’d do the common rock journo thing of telling y’all how I’ve loved Dead Moon since their inception, and that I charted their career collecting all the bits o’ vinyl I could get my grubby, little hands on. I’d even rattle on about the member changes, the bands they’ve influenced and some cooler-than-thou rock n’ roll experience. Of course, it would all be bullshit lifted from a mix of the press release, the band’s website and Wikipedia.
Rather than play that game, I’ll be honest and say that while I’d heard of Dead Moon, I’d never been in the right place at the right time to actually hear Dead Moon – live or otherwise. Hence, my request for this here promo. Better late than never… and other clichés.
Despite my ignorance, Dead Moon’s reputation precedes them. What I did know was that Dead Moon was a husband/wife based rock n’ roll band, with a strong DIY ethic and a love for raw guitar power. I’d also heard that they killed live. What I was unaware of was just how good they were.
According to the press release, the band was borne when Fred Cole taught his wife Toody to play bass. They dragged drummer Andrew Loomis into the fold and promptly began gigging in any and every dive brave enough to host them. Soon, they were issuing hand-made mono vinyl to a rabid but sparse audience.
Twenty years of relentless touring and fuck-you rock n’ roll has now been diluted into a 2-disc SubPop release – perfect for beginners like me and completists alike.
Of the nearly 50 tracks here, the listener can expect a bit of Zeppelin, some MC5, a shit-load of AC/DC, some cheesy 60’s punk, and just some general punk-ass rock n’ roll without the frills.
I’m still digesting a lot of what’s on offer so I won’t go on recommending any particular tracks – besides which Dead Moon aren’t about single tunes. Dead Moon is an experience to be cherished in its totality and not in an iPod generation, 3-minute grab-and-run moment.
By Warren
www.subpop.com
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Dark metallic hardcore from these young Tokyoites who shy away from the crusty, black clad d-beat look by well, looking like software engineers. The opening ‘Death Like Silence’ starts with a long intro before breaking into harsh barked vocals. Good energy but despite it being a demo the recording of the drums kind of lets it down. The best of the four songs, ‘Atuteki’, has a better drum sound and the guitars drive by at blistering pace to back more of the barking.
www2.tbb.t-com.ne.jp/deathlike666
Tim Scott |
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I’ve done a few trades with a couple of different people in SE Asia recently and came off feeling a little embarrassed…. well no I should say fucking really embarrassed. Thought I was so great living in a first world country with our CDs and vinyl pffft. I’m an idiot. SE Asia kicks arse over everything that happens here. There seems to be a bigger scene and/or way more things get done ranging from regular inter-country tours and comps right down to the massive amount of effort put into each release.
Daighila, a five piece from Malaysia, are a good example. Their demo comes with the lyrics printed on a clear sheet of plastic and packaged in some sort of pharmaceutical bag with art screen printed on one side.
Musically they are fucking amazing. Epic kinda emo-violence with vocals that really reminds me of St. Albans Kids/Love Like Electrocution cos he has that similar high-pitched drawn out scream going on and a guitarist that alternates between heavy chord crunches and crazy melodic solos. He fucking wails! Limited to a 100 tapes so might be a bit hard to find but keep an eye out for them. One of the best screamo bands from Malaysia since Utarid!
http://www.myspace.com/daighila
Ari |
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Fuck any conversation about which band wins this split would last about….um… something in the vicinity of two very short seconds. Baker’s seconds that is.
It’s Jungle Fever by a fucking leeeeeength!
The Dead Walk tracks are good but fuuuuuuck ME just the fact that Jungle Fever have gone from being almost goofy to one of the most savage bands in the friggin’ country totally casts a shadow. The riffs are so much better than their 7”; more interesting, faster and executed to perfection. The vocals…. shit each word is spat out with so much vitriol you’d swear he’s been gurgling acid. There’s a good cover of Straight Ahead’s We Stand and the last track has a massive wailing solo to cap it all off! So fucking good!
If you manage to flip the record The Dead Walk tracks are fierce but because two of the three are also on the album it’s not quite as big a deal as the JF side. In fact I kinda think they sound better in the context of the album than they do just kinda chucked onto vinyl… I dunno… sometimes the problem with splits is adjusting to the other side and with this record when I start on the Jungle Fever side it takes a while to get into the Dead Walk tracks although eventually… yeah actually eventually it fucking clicks and although they’re that little bit slower fuck they’re also heavier and the lyrics have more substance…. still Dead Walk’s praise will have to wait till we’re talking about the album cos on here it’s all about Jungle Fever.
As for the cover art… really funny for a few minutes but now I just feel ripped off not to mention confused about whether The Dead Walk are trying to do the same joke-shitty art with their side or just left it until the last minute.
Jungle Fever
The Dead Walk
Ari |
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‘Punk/progressive/other’ I think from now on my reviews are going to consist solely of what a bands uses to describe themselves on their My Space page. But here’s a few more. Jap dude/sings-babbles/some Locust guys bash on/cool arty art work-buy hey it’s on GSL, so duh!
Tim Scott
http://www.myspace.com/dmonstrations
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Discharming Man is Keita Ebina. He plays mellow glitched out acoustic music that I imagine the hippy waif girls in Shimotikitazawa lose their shit over. He’s the ‘eclectic’ act who plays on more hardcore bills, just him, a chair, an acoustic guitar and a laptop Mac. The more hardcore kids wait for him to play before they run off to get more beer at the convenience store. The Shimotkitzawa hippy waif girls just nod their heads in time like only they can.
www.5brecords.com
Tim Scott
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Aussie yob core is back! In the tradition of Grim Reality and AVO both these bands play harsh, in your face hardcore with a decidedly and refreshingly ‘Aussie’ delivery. Donkey Kong play a mix of hardcore and grind – they have two vocalist, one sounding like Mike Muir if he came from Bankstown or Lalor the other does the cookie (or biscuit) monster. Musically it’s pretty stock standard but the lyrics are amusing especially ‘Know Your Role’ I was born into a long line of arseholes, my father and his father before I got a legacy to uphold’ The best thing about it? I don’t think it supposed to be ironic in anyway.
King Brown are four tradies from Melbourne’s North West, an area they pay homage to on ‘North West Fuck Up’ Basically they want you to know they don’t give a fuck. But the subject matter they sing about is quite articulate in a front bar conversation kind of way – trade union politics, the Yanks are idiots and S.K. Warne.
www.twobucksrecords.com
Tim Scott
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Debut record(vinyl Salinas/cee-dee 1234 Go records) from these shambolic Portland punkesteers and when I say shambolic I mean raucous all over the place punk.. The songs themselves are cool and the subject matter is interesting– a lot about resistance- but the delivery and recording is very loose. I’ve noticed a growing fondness by some bands in recent years opting for a very rough/acoustic/style of punk. Blame it on Against Me if you have to, maybe it’s a reaction to all the slick bland by numbers super produced emo shite around but there seems to be a growing to pla. I mean some of the vocals of one of the guys on here sounds he is blasted. While the East Bay bands in the past sung with a distinct rawness this and the husky stripped back production can add a passion to the songs sometimes it sounds just like the guys on Hot Water Music after a three day bender.
Tim Scott
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It’s been a good while since I’ve reviewed anything sent from Jello and camp AT but this sounds surprisingly good and is probably the most ‘hardcore punk’ record that they have released in a while This is ‘political’ punk rock but it’s a lot more engaging and interesting then say the lame “war is bad” tripe you hear a lot of My Space bands banging on about. Maybe it’s because singer J.R. is a union organizer and so therefore knows what the fuck he is singing about on the opening ‘The High Cost of Happy Faces’ which takes stabs at the current USA labor market and the diminishing power of the organized labor movement. Other songs touch on. the use of sweatshops by punk bands ‘Battles Lost’ and fashionsta punks ‘Nothing to Say’. Singer JR has a voice that at times resembles Ian Mckaye, but too many times the listener gets distracted by Jello’s “California Uber Alles’” like shrill when he steps in to do ‘guest vocals’. I know he means well and the “featuring Jello Biafra” sticker on the cover may help the band sell a few more records but they are good enough musicians and songwriters to let the songs stand on their own without ‘Jello’ jumping in.
www.alternativetentacles.com
Tim Scott
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No matter your thoughts on Discharge, there is no denying their influence on the modern hardcore sound. An untold number of bands from Tragedy to Inespy, Bastard, Poison Idea and Piss Christ, even a whole geographical region – hello Scandinavia! - have been influenced by their brutal metal tinged riffage, bleak lyrical outlook and the frantic drumming of Terry/Tezz. You could say they are to d-beat what Slayer is to metal. Untouchable.
On this EP Tezz, guitarist Tony "Bones" Roberts, and bassist Roy "Rainy" Wainright team up with Tony “Rat” Martin vocalist from the Varukers and Arbitraitor for 3 songs of classic Discharge leg breaking. The opening ‘Beginning of the End’ has a sound not unlike their ‘State Violence State Control’ days. The second song ‘The Blood of the Innocent’ is just as killer. It’s hard to believe that these guys have been wearing leather pants and drinking cheap beer since 1983. This is the highlight of the record and destroys about 90% of what is getting releases as ‘hardcore’ nowadays.
www.thunkrecords.com
Tim Scott
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With a sound that has critics immediately flipping through old Hendrix, Sabbath, Doors and Zeppelin vinyl for refernce points, Washington's Dead Meadow could be considered this generations' aural psychedelia. And whilst the stoner rock fad has been and gone, Dead Meadow refuse to anchor themselves in nostalgia, and in doing so have ensured their longevity.
Dreamy and psychedelic, Feathers carries the listener on a hazy trip, with lazy rhythms, droning bass, swirling fuzz and wah, and somnambulistic vocals. Riffs subtley alter direction or shape like a game of clouds, while the barely audible vocals draw the listener in, capturing the attention and imagination, but leaving you somewhat sedated.
The production is almost vinyl-like in its' warmth, while the packaging has the detailed feel of an LP. Indeed, the ideal listening environment for Dead Meadow would be in front of the turntable, lava lamp in the corner, shag carpet under butt, and (if you so choose) a mind-altering substance of some variety. Although, Feathers could easily replicate the effect of such illegal substances.
By Warren
Band website: deadmeadow.com |
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The kids are alright. In this case – a couple of brothers and their friend keep the spirit of Midwestern melodic punk rock played in damp basements alive. It aint pretty. But then scrappy has it’s own unique charms. And the best thing about it? It is straight up melodic punk, not screamy, not dramatic theatrics. Just a curled upper lip and some attitude. The opening song “Kerplunk’ is a homage to Green Day’s early record and the East Bay sound is well represented on ‘Jumpstarting My Heart’- think Crimpshrine, Fifteen, and yes Kerplunk era Green Day. It’s gets a little a long towards the end but on the whole promising release from a promising new young band.
www.midwestrock.org
Tim Scott
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Before I even heard this I’d been completely turned off by the absolutely fucking ludicrous “promotional pack” that was included. Two pages of rubbish complete with half page promo photo, band management contact details, and a whole bunch of verbal diarrhea strung together with buzz words and bullshit (I could be thinking of the wrong demo but I’m pretty sure their original one didn’t sell out “immediately”).
This from an alleged punk/hardcore band? A local one at that!
But pretending they’d just sent the demo… its three tracks that if pressed for a comparison I’d say something like a really rough version of anything in the vein of Atreyu, Thursday, Thrice etc. Personally I feel like a fucking arsehole comparing anyone to those bands because I think they’re useless and I hate them but the combination of incomprehensible lyrics written in a garble of ambiguous poetry hinting at tragedy & depression, the constant switching between singing (shudder) and screaming as well as drum heavy mosh parts seems to match pretty closely.
They’ve slowed down and become a bit more poppy compared to an earlier demo but really aside from the recording quality they don’t seemed to have changed much in three years.
To try to pull something positive out of all of this it’s not overproduced like the abovementioned and they do work in a couple of sections of quiet introspective interludes which definitely give the songs more atmosphere and go some way to making the lyrics seem sincere… um… oh and they included some samples from Point Break. I like that movie for some reason. What’s interesting is that if you compare The Fast & the Furious with Point Break they have almost the exact same plot line. There really isn’t much difference except that they substituted cars for surfboards and Vin Diesal for Patrick Swayze! Yeah whatever.
www.myspace.com/driftingoverbrroklyn
Ari
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Five track demo of heavy mainstream styled ‘screamo’ (ie whatever Trustkill/Victory are marketing as screamo this week rather than say Portraits of Past or Off Minor) with the usual heavy drum feel and attempts at mosh parts. The lyrics are a mess of bad word plays and ambiguity and... well I’d say for any band like this the singer has to really hold it all together but the vocals aren’t anything overly special and fuck I don’t know… the guitarist wrote the lyrics not the singer… so the singer is screaming how fucked up he is about shit someone else went through??? For me that seems kinda lame. I really don’t need to hear someone’s manufactured response to something when there are literally thousands of bands with vocalists ripping their throats to shreds because they actually have something to express.
www.myspace.com/driftingoverbrroklyn
Ari
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Proving that there are still waters to be charted, the now-Brooklyn based instro-math-metal trio that is Dysrhythmia, have traversed expectations and delivered a mindbending fourth longplayer.
Following on from their genre-breaking Pretest album of 2003, the band have successfully honed their craft to be more concise and to the point. Whereas some tunes on Pretest were distracted by technical wizardry, Barriers & Passages, whilst no less technical, allows for repetition and follows regular themes.
‘Bypass the Solenoid’ for example, opens with some buzzing feedback, before a rolling drumbeat ushers in a frenetic bassline. The tune then diverts into a jazz-oriented rock paradigm, before settling on an intuitive stop/start flow. The themes are revisted, albeit abstractly, before the cacophony implodes and given a final jazz-rock send-off.
‘Seal?Breaker?Void?’ is the albums’ epic, running past the 7 minute mark, whilst tracks such as ‘Bus:Terminal’ and ‘Kamma Niyama’ are kept frantic and frank.
Ably assisted in the studio by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Bill Laswell, Swans, John Zorn), Barriers & Passages is yet another step forward for these free-thinking metallers hopped up on jazz time signatures.
By Warren
www.relapse.com
www.dysrhythmiaband.com |
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Don Caballero is dead! Long lives Don Caballero!
At least that’s what instrumental/math-rock fans were proclaiming in 2000, when the influential Chicago-based trio disbanded following a tumultuous tour, which ended abruptly in a spectacular road accident.
The accident left no significant scars, however the band had already decided to call it quits, and citing irreconcilable differences as the reason. Indeed, by 2000 the band membership had already changed dramatically, reputing drummer Damon Che to be not only one of the most innovative indie-rock drummers going, but also one of the hardest to work with.
Following some experiments with Bellini in 2002, Che returned with an all-new line-up featuring members he stole from local jazz-rock collective Creta Bourzia, and whilst the results are undeniably Don Caballero, the new members put a whole new spin on the original Don Cab listening experience.
Che still rightfully earns his title of ‘The Octupus’ with his remarkable drumming techniques, fusing obscure and complex timings with a traditional big rock sound.
The new stringsmen ensure a facelift, giving the longplayer denser consistency then previous outings. Engineer Al Sutton (Five Horse Johnson, Today Is The Day, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, etc…), was invited to produce the album, offering a different approach and outcome to Albini, who was credited with the majority of earlier Don Cab works.
‘Savage Composition’ adopts an almost industrialized dirge with its’ dense bass line and snappy snare, before it leaps into maelstrom of interwoven fretplay and technical drumming patterns.
‘I Agree…..No!…..I Disagree’ is perhaps not as confusing as the title suggests, carrying a remarkably catchy bassline and melodically shrill guitar and even a basic 4/4 beat as the tune hits the midway mark.
Some will no doubt shun the new line-up, claiming the original as the best, and I certainly question the necessity of using the Don Cab name in altogether new outfit. But irrespective of name choice, World Class Listening Problem is an album that would only be problematic for the purists. But for those willing to accompany the band on their latest adventure, the rewards are many.
By Warren
www.relapse.com
www.myspace.com/doncaballeropgh |
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This is an interesting mix of early nineties indie rock, punk and glam. Some of it sounds like Bleach era Nirvana, some like early Meat Puppets and some of it like a hair salon massacre. It aint all 90’s nostalgia though, ‘Hit the Bottle’ has drunken slurred vocals that I’m not sure if they really are drunken. Would be cool if they were. Johnny on the Spot channels Courtney Love when she had a little bit more of a handle on the junk and could still wail and people wouldn’t laugh. This is abrasive and loud. A little art damaged. But good.
www.deadbetties.com
Tim Scott
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Three songs of furious Motards like garage rock that kick you so brutally that your tear ducts will clog up and you will develop this condition called epiphora where your eyes can’t stop weeping and everybody will call you a pussy because they think you are crying when a Cat Power song comes on the radio.
www.plasticidolrecords.com
Tim Scott
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If, as the saying goes, imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Slayer should be feeling rather chuffed at the minute, as Indianapolis quartet Demiricous have delivered a carbon-copy of all things Bay Area Thrash. Not since Living Sacrifice’s Slayer-derived debut has a band sounded so much like their influences, blurring the line between admiration and adulation.
From the straight-up 4/4 riffs, to the kamikaze solos, Demiricous could be arrested for impersonation if it weren’t for the occasional SOD-, Anthrax- or Carcass- isms found in tracks such as ‘Perfection and the Infection’.
Granted, the vocals are a bit more early nineties death than mid-eighties thrash, but the song structures and are lifted directly from Slayer’s cutting room floor – which is more than could be said for some of the riffs, which are undoubtedly Reign In Blood plagiarisms.
It seems to me that one Slayer is enough for this world, though in their prolonged absence, perhaps Demiricous could step up to the plate for a few tribute shows for the old metal farts.
By Warren
Label website: www.metalblade.com |
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Death Cycle features Gary and Mike from New Jersey hardcaw legends Kill Your Idols. They offer two songs of crushing heavy doomy punk that doesn’t hold back with a “hey people what the fuck is up?” vibe. Good stuff. The Solidarity Pact who have also released an excellent full length on Rok Lok play a buzzier, faster hardcore that has been compared to Kid Dynamite (which I can hear). Of the two sides I prefer Solidarity Pact’s if only because this style wets my panties a little more.
www.roklokrecords.com
Tim Scott
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Two screaming I-talian bands who compliment each other well. I remember reviewing Die! before and here you get more of their high-powered skate/eighties inspired thrash. A song about gate crashing which I believe is to be a bit of a dying art form these days. People too friendly I suppose. Coloss are powerful if straightforward hardcore from Rome. Thoughtful but fun stuff that sometimes bounces towards crossover thrash. The vinyl is thick as fuck and features some cool artwork.
www.hellnation.it
www.setonfire.net
Tim Scott
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Sweaty 70’s inspired punk rock from these two girls and a dude from Umea, Sweden who channel the energy of the Gits and classic punk guitar riffs, with some more modern hardcore elements. “I’m getting laid yeah it’s my lucky night” sings Emma (she of the giant mohwawk) on the opening ‘Out of My Mind’. It’s rad when girls sing about getting some. Even better when the song is scorcher with the guitar dude Rickard blowing it up and his little sister Nina spazzing out on drums and backup vocals. Yet another reason I want to go check out Sweden real soon.
www.wastedsounds.com
Tim Scott
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Great rough but melodic punk rock from Portland. Dave, Harrison, Josh and Samia bash ‘em out with a smile and a wail. Fun times but with a point. The opening ‘Rock the Bullet’ seems to be about the futility of the two party political system, but the next song ‘Jacknife’ is a slower ditty about singing and living for the now. That’s Drunken Boat. That’s good.
www.unshadowed.com/salinas
Tim Scott |
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Holy smokes. Where the hell did these guys come from? They just wander in from a desert or something? This shit is awesome loud, squally hardcore that is both arty, political, jazzy- damn it just rocks. If you like Born Against at all, you will be down with this mash up of sound and fury. Songs are sung in both English and Tagalog, as some members seem to be of Filipino descent. Political, spiteful, in your face and above all innovative loud music. Fuck. I can’t describe it. That’s got to be a great thing. ‘Defunct Pedagogues’ is a 13-minute beast of a song that goes from crashing percussion to guitar jams, to dual vocal wailings. It’s a song that can only be stopped with an elephant tranquilizer. ‘White Guys Gone Wild’ is a recording of two guys talking about how the US has gone to shit. They sound kind of creepy in that “I used to belong to the KKK but they just aren’t contemporary enough for me” kind of way. GET> GET> GET!!!
www.ethospine.com
Tim Scott |
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A more typical Cold Meat release one could not imagine. Surface level synths glide beneath neo-folk acoustics and piano in an attempt to lure the listener with sensual romanticism.
The dull and dreary spoken word of Petros interplays uninterestingly with the dreamy lilting of Eufrosyne, whilst the ineffectual music lingers in the background, doing little else than filling dead air.
Couple this non-eventful musical structure with a subject matter that sees lyrics that border on pornographic literature and imagery of flaccid penises and dripping honey on tongues and you have yourself one uncomfortable and tedious listening experience.
By Warren
Label website: www.coldmeat.se
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You know those times when you find yourself at home drinking beer and chain smoking alone. Yeah usually Monday mornings around 11:00 right? Well you know how you can’t listen to one album in its entirety? You got cd cases scattered all over your bedroom floor. Ryan Adams, Missy Elliot, Integrity, a Trustkill sampler. Shit you don’t even want to listen to music anymore. You just want to get laid. Well if you can’t find the balls to call up that chick you have a major crush on. Hang on, she’s working anyway. Whatever, just throw on the debut album from Doomriders. Next thing you know you will be rocking around the room bugging out to their old school metal rock mixed with modern day hardcore. Slipping and tripping on cd cases. Who knows maybe you will find the balls to call that chick who works at the bakery.
www.deathwishinc.com
Tim Scott |
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www.patternbased.com
Cool merging of hip-hop and abstract electronic music that has an organic
rather than glitchy sound that wouldn't be out of place like a label such as
Tomlab or Plug Research. It's actually on a small label from Akron, Ohio a
world away from the cool scenes of London and New York, but fro From the
subdued horns in 'The Cowboy Natural' to the eerie atmopherics on 'Are You
Right Here?' the three guys of Dear Birds take you on a funked but chilled
trip that is neither wanky or self indulgent.
Tim Scott |
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After a few delay’s everybody’s favourite clangy/abrasive pop group from San Francisco fronted by the hugely rad Satomi, has finally arrived. This Japan only EP released here on Toad records is reputedly a primer for a full length slated for later in the year. While a departure from previous ‘Hoof releases, especially the long new-wave dance track "Spiral Golden Town," which features a Middle Eastern–sounding string section, the sound is still gonna make you scratch your head and nod it at the same time. After listening to this I’m Thai kick boxing myself that I didn’t get along to their last live show. Then again regret is for the weak and shallow. Deerhoof are for the lovers. Oh and I find out that the album title is a reference to the true colour of the Cosmos - a light green/turquoise hue. That should end the debate.
www.toadrecords.com
Tim Scott |
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When you think of underground and emerging art you usually first think of the hot spots right? New York, San Francisco, London and Tokyo, where every second person is an up and coming designer, artist or whatever. Start thinking about Richmond, Virginia too buster. These guys at the Drama put one hell slick of an art mag together. Issue 5 is their A to Z issue, whereby they have asked some of their favorite visual artists to contribute a piece, which is an interpretation of a letter of the alphabet. I never realized the alphabet could be so fucking cool. I guess I’ve just been taking it for granted for too long. Artists come from the US, England, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Hong Kong and Brazil (hopefully future issues will feature some Aussie work). It also comes with a cool comics/writing supplement. Really cool contemporary art and not a stencil in site! Aceness.
www.thedrama.org
Tim Scott |
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If you are an obscure indie musician from Chicago it doesn’t really help your cause when you go ahead and name yourself after a style of arty film making that was drafted by Lars Von Trier and various other way too serious Danes. Thankfully Nick is able to mix up the right amount of melody with off beatness. Synth beats on ‘Kingdom/Garden’ sit opposite songs such as ‘Summon My Baptist Ways’ where he sings like he has come back from the dentist with a shit load of local anesthetic shot into his gums. House/School and Calm and Tame are more straightforward Bill Callahan type songs complete with gentle handclaps. Good release. Track it down on your next day off.
www.missionlabel.com
Tim Scott
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When screamed really loud the words “destroy” and “attack” sound really cool if you are; a) one of those dudes who get together with friends on the weekend and reenact medieval battles or b) in a hardcore punk band. While not 100% certain - I’m tipping that Destrux fall into the latter category. Here you get 6 super speedy, super pissed off blasts of Ridalin rock. “You have no power over me” screams vocalist Ben Strux on the cryptically titled “You Have No Power Over Me”. Don’t fuck with their skateboards either otherwise you can expect – to quote the title song – “a Vans print on your face” – appropriate when you consider those black Vans slip ons kinda look like kung-fu shoes.
bloodmoneydistro@yahoo.com
Tim Scott |
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So we come across another 5 track CD from a relatively obscure screamy hardcore band from the bowels of NYC. Modern day screamy/emo/hc has pretty much run its course in my books. I’ve been waiting a while now for the shot gun armed veterinarians to come out and pull the screens around the writhing beast that has had a good life but will never really be able to trot/gallop/frolic in the Level Plane pastures like it once did. But these guys have me thinking beyond the glue factory. Good musicianship and challenging lyrics and a killer last song ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ that keeps you hanging for more. Looking forward to a full length.
www.darkcityrecords.org
- Tim Scott |
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Say you are a 16-year-old Finnish hardcore kid who works part time at a convenience store, Siwa www.siwa.fi for example. And say your fat arse manager Mr. Haapa has asked you to go out the back and clean up the dumpster area. What music you gonna throw into the headphones as a soundtrack to this menial work? That’s right Luukas you gonna pick Drowning Nation aint you? Why? Because this is the best fucking Finnish hardcore thrash to listen to as you daydream how you are going to ream Mr. Haapa with the mop you are holding. There is none better. Trust me on this one.
www.sweetcore.org
Tim Scott |
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DARK TRANQUILLITY
Character
(Century Media)
Back in the mid-90’s I stumbled upon Dark Tranquillity’s debut by pure accident and immediately fell in love with it. Their Euro-styled melodic death intrigued me with their ornate lyrics and traditional song structures. Little did I realize they were to become the next big thing in metal once Century Media got their capitalist hands upon them.
How times have changed. I really couldn’t give two blast-beats about this genre any longer, and even if I did, I’m not sure I’d be impressed with the overall path Dark Tranquillity have chosen: frenetic but ultimately uninspired Eurothrash.
Each track sounds like the one before in tempo and structure, with little vocal variety or anything to differentiate tracks. An occasional tinker on the keys adds a useless splash of colour, and the macho-ism is just vomit-inducing. No doubt these guys are popular in their chosen field, I just happen to find said field to be dried up of any inventiveness or inclination to be different.
There’s a little saving grace in ‘Out of Nothing’ with it’s galloping riffs and industrialized interlude, but overall Character is overly clinical and sterile to invoke any sort of warmth or ‘character’ all its own.
By Warren
Artist website: www.darktranquillity.com
Label website: www.centurymedia.com |
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With the departure of their original vocalist the band started auditioning for someone else and offered the chance for all interested parties to download some instrumental tracks off of their website and send in CDRs with their vocals over the top. Apparently this Greg Puciato guy sent in a CDR where he did versions of the tracks copying the old singers style as well as his own approach and the band was impressed. He’s got massive arms so everyone calls him a meathead and if you go here you can read an interview where he whinges about how unfair that is on him, poor baby.
Meathead or not his vocals are good and thankfully (if you must draw comparisons) lean more towards Mike Patton rather than Dimitri’s style, i.e. they’re interesting rather than just boring monotone screaming.
The music is also produced well again and the guitarists seemed to have learned since Calculating Infinity that more isn’t necessarily better. There’s a lot of quiet and slow parts that help to actually show how fast and chaotic the band is although the music has changed a bit so that Meathead’s vocals are allowed to come to the forefront more unlike the stuff before Irony where the music was just as crazy as possible and the vocals just had to vainly try to find a place to fit in somewhere. That’s a shame really because they’ve undoubtedly simplified their music a little to allow for better songs, it’s a pity they couldn’t have stayed really crazy and still managed to fit vocals in.
Um what else… the artwork’s crap oh and the old singer did layout and design, how about that! Here’s his website!
What are the lyrics about… uh nothing, well gibberish like the old singer’s although these seem like less random gibberish which is funny cos in that interview that’s linked above Meathead claimed that he was going to write some political stuff.
Peter qwwzz |
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So the singer Dimitri left to get married and concentrate more on his graphic design job (and now apparently is in an Earth Crisis style band called Tokyo) leaving the rest of the band to look for a new singer. They changed bass players as well but obviously that wasn’t as big a deal. In the meantime they had four completed songs that they wanted to release so everyone wouldn’t forget that they existed seeing as it had been three years since their album was released. They contact Mike Patton owner of Ipecac about possibly releasing the songs on his label as just instrumental tracks and he in turn offered to do vocals for them.
Of course up until this point the band had still been kind of underground and the rise in popularity and interest that accompanied Patton brought some calls of sell-outs or whatever but you know it’s all just tall poppy syndrome. Which is cool, cutting people down to size helps the world go round. How lame are Mike Patton’s demented lounge singer vocals that he does for Tomahawk, what a friggen lameo. But the vocals on these tracks are fucking unreal and it really seems that they finally match the complexity of the music. Some people will try to tell you that what he does isn’t complicated and that anyone can do it. Ask them to give it a try there and then. Everyone knows the travesty that was Korn trying to impersonate Mike Patton and I’ve heard my nu-metal neighbour trying to start a band and not even being able to match Korn’s pathetic efforts. Most people that try to do Patton’s vocals end up sounding like choking geese and it’s fucking hilarious.
So yeah these songs are fucking great and Patton just has so much presence that he almost overshadows the Dillinger guitarists as he alternates between big booming chants, porky pig on speed gibberish, crooning and outright screaming. The tracks also sound better produced and more powerful then Calculating Infinity and there’s a cover of Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy which is worth hearing to see how well guitars can cover electonica or drill and bass or whatever you want to call it.
Peter qwwzz |
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Two years since they got together and after a change of 2nd guitarist The Dillinger Escape Plan finally produced their first full-length album and started the tradition of making their earlier work seem tame by comparison. The craziness increased with the addition of some jazz fusion and Mr. Bungle type influence and it seemed a hell of a lot heavier with big discordant chords crashing all over the place and a whole lot of stuff that made people just wonder what the fuck they were even doing with their guitars.
Unfortunately though not much else had changed from the EP. This almost certainly comes from the benefit of hindsight of what was to come in the future but it seems a little lacking in power and every second idiot will tell you how it gets monotonous.
No one knows or cares what the vocalist is screaming about and without vocals as a point of reference it can be hard to distinguish between songs. You can put on any song by itself and just be blown away by how awesome it is but when listening to the whole album they just kind of merge together. It’s not helped either that someone is into electonica and managed to get some pretty boring Radiohead style sound collages on here.
Peter qwwzz
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John Dillinger isn’t in my encyclopedia Britannica. What the fucks up with that? I’ve always worked under the assumption that the band is named after the American gangster/bank robber (he might be both or either). The artwork and title of this cd suggests as much too with ‘50’s gangster imagery. Anyway I was going to try to find out for sure but between Dillenius, Johann and Dillman, August (who are both Germans hundreds of years dead) there’s no Dillinger, he’s not there. Sure fuck American cultural imperialism and all that but a biblical scholar and a botanist are no less important and a lot less interesting than a bank robber. Yay for criminal celebrity!
From what little I recall John Dillinger was possibly from the New York area, partial to gray suits and he got gunned down behind a bank or a cinema or some other building. So working on that sketchy amount of information the band’s name is ironic in that Dillinger’s escape plan was less than stellar. Alternatively it could just be a random gathering of words like the lyrics seem to be on all three tracks of this EP.
Formed in 1997 this is the second release from the New Jersey five piece recorded in December of 97 and released in 1998. The music is a real fast mix of hardcore and metal with a lot of free jazz influence i.e. no structure, odd time signatures etc (although without any actual jazz sound as yet). Call it hardcore or metal or noisecore or mathy or whatever you will but it’s pretty intensely crazy fast and real complicated music that would be interesting as just instrumental stuff and indeed at times the addition of the hoarsely screamed vocals seem almost perfunctory.
Peter qwwzz
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Dick Nasty are a band out of Brisbane who have been doing the rounds since 1999.
Mix 80's Hardcore and Punk with the driving force of Motorhead thrown in and you get Dick Nasty. The drums keep the songs moving at a frenetic pace, riffs that stick in your head for days and excellent vocal delivery. Great song titles like 'I'm More Australian Than A Book Of Bush Poetry By Russell Crowe' 'Flesh Wounds Of The Rich And Famous' and 'Van Damme Them All To Hell'. Everything about this CD is a step up in quality. The song writing and performance have improved out of site, and the production is excellent without hampering the music. Do yourself a favour and pick up this little baby, you won't be dissapointed.
Tounge in cheek, anthemic, passionate hardcore. The way it should be.
www.dicknasty.live.com.au
geordienasty@hotmail.com
PO Box 1646
Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006
www.killthemusic.live.com.au
- Rhys |
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Half page cut and paste personal and music zine. There are stories about stuff like the Greenbay Punk scene, the problems of living off of plasma donations and making friends on the bus. There’s also an interview with Adam Pfhaler of Jawbreaker, J-Church and owner of Blackball records about the Jawbreaker reissues and a review of the reissued ‘Dear You’ Jawbreaker album.
Rick
2440 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55405
Peter qwwzz
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The first time I heard this I wanted to just run up and down the hallway of my house yelling ‘It’s fucking onnnnnnnnn muthafuckeeeeeeeers!!!!!’ but everyone was asleep and it’s best to let people that work in kitchens stay asleep so you don’t have to be subjected to their inferiority complexes.
But fuck it was tempting, still is tempting when I hear the cd, to just turn it up and bounce off the walls until the people at the end of the street think the fucking Russians are coming.
It’s the drums. Heavy, fast and so energetic that at times it almost sounds as if the other instruments are struggling to keep up. The guitars chug along and do their metallic hardcore thing while Luke Crew formerly of Love.Live.Regret and Arms Reach is shouting himself hoarse and doing that weird spoken word thing in a heavy Australian accent. Shits speeding along like an out of control freight train about to derail into kindergarten town until, fucking boom, it all comes together and everyone’s screaming about ‘the dead walk’ and there’s dogs barking outside, old people looking for their bomb shelters, kitchen hands moaning about having to work early in the morning and your fists are hurting from being unconsciously slammed together over and over again.
The best thing is there’s still four more songs to go.
Peter qwwzz
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To get the really bad stuff right out of the way: the backing vocals on the first song are so awful that you’ll want to violently shove the nearest sharp object into not only your own ears but also the ears of anyone that’s nearby.
Fuck fuck fuck they’re bad.
So now who are they? A four piece sloppily thrashy hardcore band from Queesnland.
What’s the good stuff? Ummmm, the artworks kinda cool, the guy from the first song doesn’t do any other bad vocals, there’s some cool lyrics like ‘because riot without i is rot’ and ‘T(unn)elevision said the good guys won’. If your a bit slow (like I am) t(unn)elvision = tunnelevision = tunnel vision. Other than that the lyrics mainly cover anti-consumerism and have a lot of jokes and play on words but unfortunately the music itself isn’t quite as fun. In fact it’s kinda painful. Similar to Bjeke Peterson Youth but slower, much more raw (yeah so pretty raw) and without the cool group backups. The songs sound like demo versions and the only really good song, ‘Theme from Draftdodger’ (which does have cool group vocals!) is good but the shift from verse to chorus is kinda disconcertingly clumsy.
Peter qwwzz
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Amazing Italian skate punk attack. Think if DRI, JFA or Tear It Up came from Rome and skated an emptied out Trevi fountain. 10 fun and ultra fast songs about loving your 7 ply and paying out on Hellfest and people who wear Converge shirts. Featuring current and ex members of Italian bands Comrades, and Strength Approach (check these guys too!) these guys ain’t into fancy shit but when the opening refrain on song one is “D I E, I hope you die! D I E, I hope you die!” you shouldn’t be really expecting Radiohead.
www.equalityrecords.com
Tim Scott |
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Days of Iris
Self titled
Lifetime
I can’t quite identify with spine tingling or hair-raising or any of the cliches Victory used to use for their band bios* but Days of Iris definitely do have an indefinable quality. You know those few CDs you own that sound as if the band consulted your sub-conscious about how a perfect album should sound????? Then its as if they accepted the advice, added their own little quirks, recorded and released it and when you eventually bought it the music was so good all you want to do is sit, stare into space and let the seconds, minutes and hours pass right on by. For me, at least, this is one of those albums.
Witness the recipe for success: The drummer and guitarist were formerly of Heartfelt Self and are now in My Disco! playing drums and bass, respectively, and the singer/guitarist was in Identity Theft and I think now is in a band called A death in the family. The other members may be just as prolific but unfortunately I don’t know for sure.
At it’s core Days of Iris were** a 4 piece of two guitars, bass and drums but the cd also features violin, (which sometimes appeared live) female vocals (which also sometimes appeared live), and piano.
There are some occasional screams in the background but by and large the vocals are sung in a slightly lo-fi way kind of similar to Face to face, Gunmoll or Hot Water Music except much slower, quieter and sadder (better!) to match the style of the music. The female vocals and violin cap it all off because her vocals seem to lag and run a little behind/in front of the singers making the lyrics sound like some sort of awfully tragic conversation and, well, as for the violin you know what violin can do for tragedy.
*Like: ‘this band’s sound will make you feel like you’ve been hit in the teeth smashed against the wall, leaving your ears bleeding like faucets’. Problem was they said stuff like this for EVERY band. It was almost like they were parodying themselves. Who was going to believe it when it was repeated so often? I bet they do still have these cheesy bios, I hope so for comedy’s sake…
**Unfortunately they broke up in 2003
Peter qwwzz
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Emo flavoured pop that isn’t as cringe worthy as the words ‘emo’ and ‘pop’ have come to suggest. Think early Weezer. Their song Enigmatic sounds like it could have come straight off Pinkerton. The songs are short, sharp and punchy - at times bringing to mind the pop smarts of the Smoking Popes. Apparently they cover Jawbreaker’s ‘Do You Still Hate Me?’ I’d like to hear that. All in all a good quality pop record even if it does have lyrics such as “I thought you would remember the days we first met, it was a cold and dark December”.
www.themagicspot.com
- Tim Scott |
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This is meat and potatoes rock and roll. Music from a time before punk rock turned vegan or low carb or to ab crunching or whatever the fuck it has become. No the Dutchmen like their food greasy and meaty, their beer full strength, their cars American and their rock loud. There is no odd time signature on this record. Repeat. No odd time signatures. Just hard rock and riffs. Classic rock but in a 1978 good sort of way, you know songs about losing your job and getting shafted by girls. If you are down with Rose Tattoo, AC DC and the magical properties of vast amounts of beer, you be down with the Dutchmen.
www.thedutchmen.com
- Tim Scott |
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This is a fantastic split on Ben Drop Dead’s label. Drop Dead lay down six tracks of old school US and Japanese inspired thrash. Recorded by Kurt Ballou it is pissed off and inspiring punk rock that will have you swinging clubs at anybody in a suit. “Take a Stand for Today Be the Change, Re-Invent Stand Against What Could Be” they scream on ‘What Could Be.’ Look Back And Laugh from Berkley offer three raging hardcore songs with brutal vocals with members from Destroy, Dead And Gone, Talk Is Poison and Yaphet Kotto and more, they are one kick in the pants, no sorry they are three or four really hard kicks in the pants. Get it and GO!!!
www.armageddonshop.com
- Tim Scott |
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Could you be in a band with your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend? Yeah, I know sometimes it’s tough being in the same bar as them let alone sharing practice space, tour van and songwriting duties but in the case of Kevin McDonough and Andrea Jablonski they said, “Fuck it, let bygones be bygones lets ROCK!”. The two along with drummer Bob Spellring are the Drapes, a straightforward three piece rock band from Chicago, Illinois. Just about every review you read of these guys mentions McDonough rasp and how similar it is to a Mr. Cobain’s, hell after some of the reviews you’d think McDonough was Cobain himself minus the Converse One Stars and gunpowder burn. Yes, some parts of Swollen do have some of that 1991 Bleach rawness but the band delves further into the garage on this ten-song, 34-minute set. The overall feel has a grittier, blues-oriented, garage rock delivery, and that my friends is beautiful thing.
www.orangerecordings.com
- Tim Scott |
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Down tuned sludgy rock – that pays homage to the kings of the genre; Sabbath, Melvin’s and Fu Manchu. This if music of low slung guitars and musicians who play with a cascade of long hair hanging over their instruments. Inane rock trivia fact. Dove guitarist and vocalist Henry Wilson is a hairdresser. Ultimately Dove is about the riffs man, the riffs. The song ‘You and I’ even sounds like a lil like Kyuss. All up this is a quality release. Next time you are driving across the desert at night, make sure to pack this in the truck.
www.wallofdove.com
Tim Scott |
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Devil To Pay Hail from Indianapolis in the United States and they play stoner rock in the vein of Kyuss, occasionally adding some very progressive riffs that sound a little like The Mark Of Cain. You can also hear a lot of influence coming in from Metallica, Slayer and Pantera, but unfortunately in the vocals, with that half yelled, gruff, throaty, yet still a little whiney sort of voice. But I suppose a lot of people are into Metallica, and most of them would probably get off on this release. I’m listening to it right now and just heard a guitar solo which confirms my suspicions.
The album maintains the same feel and energy mostly throughout all the 11 tracks, that dark, gloomy stoner sound that you’d probably expect to hear from looking at the artwork. No one song really sounds any different to the one before or after it, but that is likely OK with a release like this, as changing the mood on one track would upset the flow, which seems to be the most important element here.
This isn’t really my thing, but I’d imagine Andrew Haug would play this release over and over and over, so my advice to Devil To Pay would be to do a net search for Triple J and send a copy over to him.
- Chris Hearn |
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Yeah, you read right. There’s no ‘g’ or ‘h’ in Slauter. Yeah, you guessed right. These guys are Japanese.
The five piece indeed rock em all with some inspiring late early nineties thrash. Vocalist Osamu is a freak. Live and on record. Listen to the man scream. Listen to the man wail. Look at the man jump up and down like a freaking loon. You like your hardcore punk? You like to dance at shows and singalong? Then you will like Deep Slauter. They should serve this at the Coles deli. “Yes a medium tub of Cole Slauter thanks love.” Sorry, that was uncalled for.
http://hatecityrecords.at.infoseek.co.jp
Tim Scott |
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It’s good to see any new Australian band playing grind, and to get this in the mail was a very pleasant surprise indeed. TDEBN are from Melbourne and could become quite notorious in the worldwide grindcore scene. With playahz such as Tony Blood Duster on vocals (no wonder he’s churning out the side projects with BD’s new shock ROCK antics) and Dave from Fuck…I’m Dead on guitar, you can’t go wrong with this slab of gore driven goodness.
“Revisionist” opens up the CD and is a minimal spiral of noise peaking with anxious distortion and a Beatles sample straight into the second track, “Naked” which lets the listener now straight up what they’re in for. Fast, “dc’a dc’a dc’a” (made with tongue and teeth) deathmetal blasts into the first verse of extremely downtuned and pitchshifted guitars and vocals. The groove makes it presence felt from this moment forward, and doesn’t let up for the album making me almost wanna dance like I’m listening to hip hop.
“Subtext” starts with extremely heavy, slow riffs and disgusting growls, crawling into menacing blasts and crusty goregrind lag. “Horror” sees Tony going for the scream/growl formula to full effect helping create a disparate sounding horror sound scape. The guitars journey into that slow chug chug at the same time as the blasts which I love, ala Brutal Truth at times.
“Method” is as crushing as they come, seeing them doing the slow, double kicking deathmetal with some more classic 80’s sounding riffage. The breakdown in this song is huge and you could even kick box to this, then punishes you with snappy snared blasts. “Gravel” comes across sounding very Cock And Ball Torture-esque which is a band who I’ve heard being an inspiration of TDEBM. The vocals and basslines by this stage are smeared with runny diarrhoea; totally distorted, pitch shifted bliss.
“Industry” opens with a seven second demonic growl and will scare your dog. “Blind” has more of the by now infamous TDEBN formula of groovy deathmetal, and “Protect” comes out of the gates blasting with some mad high hat accents which complement the technical sounding riffs (by now they’re all kinda sounding the same though).
“Mortem” closes the album with more deathmetal goregrind, and by now you pretty much will have your fix for groovy, downtuned metal. There is a secret track with them playing hard rock with some kind of relentless, weird noise loops which made me feel pretty small. This is day everything became nothing.
TDEBN are currently working on new material for their second yet to be titled album to be released on in mid 2004.
No Escape are churning out the good shit lately, so support them.
theday@noescaperecords.com
http://tdebn.noescaperecords.com
NO ESCAPE RECORDS
PO Box 2054
Lygon St Nth.
Brunswick East VIC 3057
www.noescaperecords.com
info@noescaperecords.com
- micko |
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Discography from the originators of metal and hardcore cross over in the Australian scene, they decided to release this after a successful comeback in 2002. It features fifteen tracks of the style that is so prominent in the world wide hardcore scene today, yeah props to them for starting it. It features, a nine track studio recording from 1997, rare tracks from compilations out on first blood and snapshot records, as well as four tracks recorded live at the home on Sydney punk, Iron Duke hotel, from 1997. and a cover of Sick and tired originally by Infest. . Members went on to bands s | | |
