Great Expectations (Dawn of Chaos, Promo 2010)

Death Metal on live recordings and lo fi quality is something I tend to be quite apprehensive about, technical moments and finer interjections can sometimes be lost and masked amongst the static low end flurry of buzzing, and thus not giving an accurate depiction as to what the band has to offer. However in Dawn of Chaos' promo they have just enough clarity in the promo to highlight effectively their considerable skills, and quite considerable they are.
That is not to suggest that they offer anything ground breaking or genre shattering, they merely play a myriad of death metal styles in a very professional execution; one could suggest they play it as an umbrella term, furthermore they somehow manage to smash together these various styles in manner that offers considerable integrity and a nice superflous flow from one style to the next. Some moments feel like a frantic axe wielding zombie survival horror, with others seeming more demonic and blasphemic, to an occasional old school Swedish Death Metal prangs. The release although short (what do you expect from a Promo, hell at least its longer than 90% of those grindcore releases you listen to! silly boy) really offers quite a lot, and I can honestly say hand on heart that they really do employ plenty of varying techniques to make for the most part non of the passages sound the same or similar. The only thing left to be desired is a decent audio quality recording quality, which I am sure will come in time. I certainly will be keeping an eye on this band.

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Strained Grinding (Unnatural Selection, En Theos, 2010)

One of the perks and burdens of being a musical review blogger is that sometimes people treat you as a deity: all knowing and a source of divine musical authority, with artists bringing forth gifts of releases before me, wishing for me to approve of their gospel and spread the word to all others that lay homage to the place of worship that is Grind to Death. Now before you say to yourselves fuck this guy Alex, he thinks he is a God of Grind, what a arrogant mindless twat, although chances are I am arrogant and mindless and maybe a twat, I certainly don't feel God like, and sometimes now amount verbal magic (or lack of) that I can conjure can save bands that are quite terrible to say the least.

It's a shame that on occasion peoples passion and enthusiasm for a type of music, never translates well when they actually start playing the music. 

Sadly one such band is British Drum Machine duo Unnatural Selection, there are quite a few things lacking greatly, and although by no means a drastically terrible release, a general lack of feeling and oomph fail to hold the listeners attention for any period of time, degrading the music to an irritable background noise of grunts and blasts, that often results in a quick turn over to something more interesting, in my case usually Assuck or Gridlink (seriously I listen to these guys several times a day)

Now I can't deduct marks for the generally poor recording quality, I have listened to enough Agathocles, and cassette rips to actually enjoy the degenerative slurs and static discharge in their own right. But as an observation recording quality sounds like it was recorded through a guitar hero microphone in the living room, with the volume not too loud in case it wakes up their parents in the floor above.

Some of you other readers may know well the curse of the last song, well I propose that there also exists a curse of the first song, Unnatural Selection are not the only ones guilty of this and by no means a scape goat, but in all honesty no grinder in their right mind wants to sit through a minute and a half of abstract white noise, with layered echoes, we are impatient, we want things done quickly, we want to hear them now, and hear them loud, delaying us does not intensify the experience when it arrives, it just puts us in a sour mood before we have even heard one note of what you plan to put out! Also such expressions of artistic abstraction of noise are shit. End of. So I beg you bands refrain from putting garbage in your music, If you feel you must, preferably not at the beginning or else you really are doing it for the purposes of decreasing my already dwindling life expectancy.

Like I said earlier, its not drastically terrible that I feel I have to pull an Ichi the Killer and forcibly insert stilleto's in my ears, resulting in deafness (and in Kakihara's case hallucination), but generally we look to music to evoke emotion and feeling, not necessarily in a 80's Power Ballad Symphony that will force me to conquest Mount Everest to find my life love locked in a castle where I must smite a dragon to set her free into my arms, only to find the mountain, castle and dragon are all metaphors for my inherent character flaws namely attacking random people's houses with medieval siege equipment and fire. Back to the point, I can guarantee as a universal feeling, free of cultural, gender or any other separation physical or idealogical, when we hear a song we like we all get the voice, and it pretty much says the same core thing "This is pretty good" or if it is something really off the hook like the new Rotten Sound (wait how has he? is he bluffing? The European release date is not yet!) we all get the "THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING" voice in our head, usually in the imaginary voice of a young teenager who has just found the joys of alcohol for the first time. Well we get no such feeling, and sadly just get the sound of tumble weeds rolling in the wind, in anticipation of something that will break forth from its bleakness and issue something worthy of positive commentary. 

Now for all my slagging off and verbal abuse to the band, I now offer some consolation; its not that you have done something fundamentally wrong, hell I actually like your choice of song titles from those that satisfy my Latin taste buds "En Theos" (also the title of the EP) to the really humorous "Born from Porn" and "Violently Opposed to Violence", and I even like your choice of samples for the songs, but the most common flaw across the board is that you don't fully develop what you do, you need to give more body to what you initiate,  if Da Vinci had done the Mona Lisa equally as undeveloped as what you guys try to do, it will probably look more like my attempt at it(not really mine).

All in all you certainly have the foundations right, but drastic development is needed before people will even take the music seriously, but what the fuck do I know, I don't even play an instrument, nor am I in a band, what the fuck am I doing writing here anyway! I should be writing my dissertation! Argggggghhhhhhhhhh! 

 Oh yeah if this has at all taken your fancy feel free to listen to it for free over on their bandcamp.

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FCUK (Sylvester Staline/Joe Pesci)

Historically the worst of foes, but now on good terms the cheese eating surrender monkeys (I kid, I love the French) and the Queens glorious subjects have come together to release an ultra fast baseball bat to the face Powerviolence & Noisygrind double act. Aside from the Hollywood namesakes, these guys have one other thing in common and that is to produce music that is fast, and I mean break neck, I wouldn't be in the least surprised if their hairtrigger supersonic drumming didn't breach the sound barrier..

Sylvester Staline bring to you some of the meanest powerviolence available on the street, listening to the music just wants you scream and to thrash about your room, throwing all manner of Ikea furniture out of the window hitting unsuspecting passer-bys.Lyrics are ultra-punk fast paced screams of rude, abusive and amusing subject matter, not that you can ever keep up, and kudos to Lord Crust described as the 6 string ayatollah for making sure the sleazy punk feel is not lost in the haywire of playing so fast.

As for fellow Kinsmen Joe Pesci, expect nothing but the best AxCx worship you have heard ever. The only subtracted element by  Joe Pesci is the blatant and sometimes comical; sexism, racism, and pro Nazi themes  which we are an unsure if Anal Cunt really advocate or just do so for laughs, however they do keep lyrics and song titles in line with more unprejudiced AxCx with song titles like Crouching Tiger, Biro in the Neck and Thats not a cat. Drumming has been raised from typical incoherent inaudible mess, to a level where one can actually hear and recognise it, but fear not vocals and guitar work are about as Noisecore one can get before merely becoming noise.

I am not even too big on Noisecore and Powerviolence, yet I still love this gem of an album, but

these guys don't care what you and I think, hell S.S myspace even tells you "if you want a good band listen to another one", both bands just play fast, loud and carefree, so if you still not interested, in the spirit of the bands I will politely say "Fuck Off!"

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Secondary Spewings of a Fukpig (Fukpig, Belief is the Death of Intelligence 2010)

Fukpigs debut album Spewings of a Selfish Nation discharged a foul and unique machination of noise, polluting  2009 with its crusty blackened grind and leaving the likes of me anxious for yet another instalment of this morbid and hateful music. To my joy and to the detest of those within 100 metres of me, I sit here blasting out Belief is the Death of Intelligence and am loving every moment of it.

These Brummie Grinders have kept religiously to the form of its predecessor to once again unleash a fistful of abhorrence and rage. In the year past we can see that Fukpig  have not sat by idyll, but have been hard at work refining their dirty ungodly sound.

All lyrics are saturated with profanity and other forms of vile language and this colourful language is coupled with a strong rhetoric which reflects a strong disgust to certain features of our socio-political westernised society, a commendable throwback to the glory days of pre 90's crust-grind.Thrice on the album you get the lyrical and titular punk overkill with the likes of All of you are cunts and I hope you fucking die being perhaps the best example, it pretty is much an example of a lack of creativity and intelligence in Punk, however I am certain Fukpig have done this to give it a more complete Punk feeling, which it does very well and reinforces the whole 100% hatred approach.

Fukpig have adopted more metal customs, not just those specific to black metal ,but those that belong to metal on the whole and not to any specific genre, I did notice a guitar solo on One Nation Under One Eye which heavily reminded me of one of my all time favourite bands Slayer and it is great to see Fukpig bring in more metal to the music without harming the overall ultra crusty as hell feel to it. The vocals are still raw beyond belief and to use a saying from E.N.T the vocals may be seen as "Punker than Punk", just visualise (can you visualise for sound?) the harshest punk vocals you can name, now lets add in the region of 1000 tonnes of Semtex, testosterone and steroids, and this should take us about half way to the crude bedlam of Drunks vocals, seriously his vocals alone are worth getting hold of this album let alone all the other amazing features.
True to Fukpigs infamous slogan "There's only two beats; the blast and the D" you can expect to hear exactly that as Miggs percussion onslaught batters you across all 4 walls of the room you occupy. I can't say that black metal has ever appealed to myself, but Misery and Miggs black metal riffage is a perfect compliment to the crust factor and creates a sound more harsh and brutish than each respective genre. An occasion operatic chime gives a sense of impending doom, only to have a foul mouthed scream to be spat out, with an disharmonious accompaniment  of gritty guitaring and dirty drumming, and this pretty much is how Fukpig execute their music throughout the entirety of the album.
Fukpig  have yet again shown to the world that their bastard breed of Crusty Black Grind is not only an amazing combination, but is greatly more filthy and vulgar than its non so angelic parents. Belief is the Death of Intelligence is ram packed with more hatred, more noise, more punk and more metal than its predecessor and is worthy of being its successor.

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Something Sickening Closer to Home (Fleshrot, Traumatic Reconfiguration 2010)

I first heard Fleshrot when they did a split with Katalepsy and Blunt Force Trauma, on a split album called Triumph of Evilution, I was impressed and I awaited for them to reappear on my radar. Little did I know that in fact Fleshrot come from the same town that I reside in, well I say reside, I mean where I live when I am not at University, so for under half the year. This prompted me to support my local scene and purchase my copy of their first full length album, Traumatic Reconfiguration.

This album is best described as a Brutal Death Metal release, which has heavy inspiration and presence of Old School Death Metal. I quite like this set up, Brutal Death Metal is a genre I like but it can get silly by trying to out Brutalise the opposition. By not neglecting their roots of Old School Death Metal, Fleshrot have created a digestible sound, which maintains that high levels of brutality we like, but does not overdose on it, and they do this by interlacing Old School Death Metal to peak the sound off.
Inspiration comes from the best of sources, namely Death, a bit of Chuck Schuldiner's solo project unimaginatively named just Chuck Schuldiner, and  in my opinion Possessed.
Each of the 9 song is well crafted and averages at about 4 minutes, the songs don't get stale, with a high level of variance, but still have that generic Brutal Death Metal aggression.

I have never seen this band live, but it is on my to do list, however I do know some people who have, and they were impressed. Just by listening to the CD you can guess that this band is going to be good live, the release emphasises the musical ability of the members, the production value however has done a good job of producing a clear cut resonating sound. Unlike bands like Mortician, they have opted for the sort clean sound and not the fuzzy static noise, and I am grateful for this, although Mortician pull it off perfectly as do other bands, it is one of the most overused traits in the Brutal Death Metal genre.  A song I really liked is Essence of Decay,  they let loose the amazing guitar solo, and shows how high calibre the guitarist is, and once the solo is done, they unleash a fury of savagery, thus creating a nice balance of harmony and barbarity.
This release is pretty amazing, and Fleshrot are my favourite UK BDM band, and I am certain we have many good things to hear from them yet, I would love them to release a cover of a proper old school death metal song that what just be the piece de resistance for moi.
Rating: 78/100
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Hell is Empty and the Horror is Here!

The Kenny Brothers must have extreme music in their genetic code, it is just amazing in how many top rate bands, and playing a array of instruments to a high degree can be achieved by the same source of heritage, yet again they make me proud to be British. Whoever said family and business can't go together, clearly did not embrace the horror of FUKPIG!!
To those who are still pondering  as to the title it is a play on words from Nathrakhs Hell is Empty and all the Devils are Here and the track by Fukpig the Horror is Here.

The Review

Spewings from a Selfish Nation, just sounds raw before you even begin listening to it, its got one of those typical sort of Political-Punk or Agathocles styled titles, and if you put that alongside the band name of Fukpig you can already tell that this is going to be a savagely cruel album.
I have never really been into the punk scene, and only within the last year I have learnt its importance on the grindcore and metalcore scene, and when I first saw this album labelled as Crust Punk infused with Black metal, this forced me to research the finer points and history of punk.
Opening up with an operatic chime with that lightly static radio interference, then the guitars slowly dredge their way through, with a standardised but prelevant drumbeat then come in this harsh vocals, the first 40 seconds pretty much set the tone for the rest of the album: this grim desolation has taken musical form.

This album is just cruel and dissonant all the way through, much like Anaal Nathrakh, Fukpig create this truly grimmoire outlook, but they have opted for a different take on this Weltschmerz than their other bands. To my understanding Anaal Nathrakh opt for a more moralistic and rational argument as to painting this barren world, Fukpig go for this more current affairs aproach with song titles like: As the Bomb Falls, Mother Nature's Tears and Millions Dyings, they really capture my understanding of the political punk scene, which seems to be a source of nostalgia for the mass of punk wannabes and counter conformists.
I seem to be talking alot about the Punk element of the band, by doing so I have greatly neglected to mention the intricate Black Metal elements that are melted in. Crust Punk + Black Metal ≠ Absurd Combo that will never take off, this rudimentary attempt of implementing mathematics into Music is a very good diagram to summarise my next few sentences.

Fukpig take the high level of politisation and aggression of punk and add a layer of black metal to add this sense of impending doom, and they do it very well. I would of never of considered that fusing of these genres was possible, however as we have now learnt it has been, and very well at that. I don't think we can expect too many more crusty black metal hybrids, I am pretty sure that Fukpig has pretty much taken all that's good from the fusion, leaving only the dregs.
The guitars and bass have this sort of sluggish down tuned despair in them, that sort of conjures up pictures of soldiers slowly dragging themselves through a mass of mud and shrapnel as all around them death and misery pollutes the surroundings. The drums are pretty standardised, but at times add to that much needed break in Fukpigs agenda which may just start to get a bit samey but the drums rescue it. However it is the vocals that are definitely extremely praise worthy  , they are the sort of things that give kids nightmares and really give that global distress a voice.

Songs worthy of praise, not to be confused with songs of praise are As Millions Suffer, and Caught Out, the first one adds in a kick ass metal guitaring and the latter just really epitomises the whole essence that is Fukpig.
To conclude Fukpig are the more politically active cousins of Anaal Nathrakh, but share that same dominant morbid depressive gene on the outlook of humanity. Fukpig goes on a relentless audio barrage to show all the injustice and problems in this World.

Rating: 90/100

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