Swedish Formality (Livet Som Insats / Raw Hate, 2010)

Normally when I think of Sweden, I depict fierce cold weather and stunningly beautiful blond women... not Grindcore. Don't get me wrong Sweden has its class acts, but its not necessarily crawling with good Grind bands. Despite these preconceived thoughts of subliminal nationalism, something lucrative has emerged from the profound depths of the northern hemisphere. The Livet Som Insats / Raw Hate split is an upcoming release from both groups of Swedish maniacs that is going to diabolically corrupt your eardrums and possibly inflict tinnitus. Livet Som Insats personally sent this split in for us to review and when the job went up for grabs, I just had to take matters into my own hands.


Raw Hate begin with a flurry of cymbals and a simple punk riff that repeats over a mid-paced alternating drum beat. The Vocals are hoarse yells that really add to the raw punk feel that Sweden is well known for and suit the music really well. The guitar work is a bit repetitive, as is most Hardcore Punk but this seems a bit below average, apart from the occasional random solo. The band provides three tracks that seem to sound quite the same and there is no distinct difference between each. This is normally not an issue for me, but I got bored after a little under the two minute mark. The band overall does an okay job, but its definitely nothing that stands out or that will be remembered. My advice to Raw Hate would be to make it noisier, and a bit more RAW. They seem to have the right idea but need to mix things up a little bit, maybe add in another vocalist. Anyways, that's my take on these guys, moving on to the next.


Livet Som Insats start with a brief drum-thumping intro that quickly turns into a belligerent frenzy of pummeling chaos. The vocals switch constantly from a hardcore yell to an agonizing shriek that is definitely my favorite and used quite frequently. Guitar work is far more Metal then Punk and you can hear a lot of Sayyadina influence in their music. I feel that the guitar should be turned up a bit though, seeing as how the vocals are the main focal point, some of the riffs are pretty catchy and should be turned up enough to really impact the listener. Drums are very nicely recorded and played on this split, my only complaints being that the snare drum sounds too soft and weak like the drums on the Birdflesh album, Alive Autopsy/Trip to the Grave. Overall this is very good, my favorite track would have to be Skuld, due to the sheer amount of ferocity directly from the beginning that smoothly transitions into a head-bobbing groove. I foresee this band going places and I really hope they keep at it and release a full length soon, along with an arsenal of other releases. This split is definitely worth checking out and will make an awesome collector's item when this band gets big in the Grind scene. They definitely have a good mix in their music and keep things interesting, I could totally see this band playing Obscene Extreme Festival alongside with other great bands. Like I said, musically this band is pretty legit, just a few production tweaks need to be made for maximum performance. Livet Som Insats, live on!

- Cody

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Mixtape: Swedish Grindcore

Mix tapes aren't exactly my territory, but I thought in conforming with blogging etiquette and to generate a bit of buzz I would make my very first, despite having my doubts about copyright infringement.
So a little while back over at G&P there was a interesting debate as to which Swedish band held the post-Nasum crown, although I was personally rooted for Afgrund it made me realise that Sweden has some of the greatest Grindcore bands, and probably the most amount of good locally sourced grind per capita, which is a unit I have invented to measure how awesome countries are in relation to amount of good Grindcore artists over the total population, which in real life will become part of a grand project I am planning, although the said project is still in the thought process of my cerebral cogs.
So I have left a little time in case Mr.Childers himself wanted to release this sort of comp, given that it was his site that had the debate, but the time has past so I have taken my opportunity.
I decided to feature one track per artist, and not necessarily their best track, but a track that would best epitomise their styles and quirks, in total there are 16 tracks of some of Sweden's greatest grinders old and new.

Afgrund  -  Ar Efter Ar
Retaliation  -  Basic Autopsy Procedure
Genocide Superstars  -  Fuck The Enemy
Asterisk  -   Furniture
Gadget  -  H5N1
General Surgery  - Ichor
The Arson Project  - Locust Swarm
Birdflesh  -  Night Of The Ultimate Mosh
Regurgitate  -  Regurgitated and Humiliated
Sayyadina  -  Rise of the Rejected
Jigsore Terror  -  Rotten Heads
Infanticide  - Shock And Awe
Exhale  -  Swallow
Nasum  -  The Black Swarm
Relevant Few  - Three Piece Fascist
Splitter  - Tystnaden

 Download Link

Enjoy the following compilation, hopefully it will introduce you to some good bands, and if you are an artist/record label whose material has been uploaded, firstly I would like to say that I a merely promoting your artist, chances are someone will buy something of your music after hearing a song they like on this coupled with a bit of research, so in a way making this free is making you money, however if you still wish for me to remove you from the list please email me or leave a comment below, I may however need proof you are who you say you are so be prepared. 

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You Disappoint Me Again and Again! (Crucial Blast Beat Terror, The Living Dead E.P a tribute to the zombiefilms of George Romero, 2010)

I applaud Crucial Blast Beat Terror for their marketing abilities; putting the words Romero and Blast-beat together, whilst making it freely available  is an instant marketing success which will guarantee you a listen from the majority of the Grindcore demography, but this is without a doubt their only strength. The music is below the sub-standard level we like to collectively call rubbish or more politely “Don’t listen to”, I can’t find anything to like in the music, these guy/s manage to make the infamous and ever brilliant blast beat sound like shit, and that really is a sad thing. I feel like I have become a victim of false advertising, aside from having the notion that a band will only release stuff that is good at some level even if it is below average,using the words Romero and Blast Beat we expect a release that really plays on those themes and executes them in a manner worthy of using them. Sadly this is not the case their songs or parts as they like to call them are the most atrocious approach to grindcore I have ever heard; using a combination of terrible cyber and gore factors they manage to put out 8 and a half minutes of total junk music.
The vocals are by far the worst thing you will ever hear, a cyberguttural approach which sounds less appealing than the bowel movements of a large animal on laxatives, they really get me worked up and raises the question whether any of the band members have actually heard what they have produced, because if they had why did they bother to release it, I personally would be ashamed to have ever taken part in such a thing and as a saving grace rid the world forever of this heinous crime against humanity.I am very pro freedom of distribution of musical materials via the Internet, but now I am now strongly considering whether we actually should have quality control in place to stop releasing some of the worst media ever. As a general rule of thumb now that the Internet is available without hindrance in most of the western world, you could easily have a de facto  idea of quality control through listening what is out their, it seems to me that Crucial Blast Beat Terror have merely lifted a wikipedia definition of what Goregrind and Cybergrind are and used that as a template to create their own music, having never heard any in the first place.
These Swedes have seriously left a terrible stain on what is a great national grindcore export market, these guys are like the anti-nasum, I mean seriously I think these guys have almost killed off the blast beat let alone their nations grind pride, this certainly is a sad day for Grindcore.

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Technophobia (Phobia/Gadget Split, 2010)

Gadget take hold of the first 7 tracks, and although the first track Torture starts off a tad slow for my liking after about 43 seconds we become reacquainted with the Gadget we last saw back 4 years ago. Now perhaps it is just me or is Slayer the new "thing" for Grindcore bands, on the second track right at the end, and at the beginning of the 5th  I spotted a cheeky Kerry King like interjection, which was nice given my love of Slayer, but was somewhat of a surprise, and have noticed it quite a bit this year amongst the newer releases. Gadget insist to start most songs of slowly, then after an indiscriminate amount of time, they release their grind and then to tone it down, up to the point of a moments silence, although this gives a more mellowed and approachable feel to it, this repetitive stop start approach doesn't please me, and would of greatly preferred if it was a non stop battery of some very progressive and enjoyable Grindcore. The guitar work as prior releases is excellent, and the same can be said with the drumming, giving a desirable technical vibe to it with the technical moments  highlighted more so with the ever present primitive screams and shouts. The Gadget half is some stupendous Grind, with plenty of examples of creativity and professionalism that reflect their dexterous nature, but their constant stalling sadly fails to fully immerse the listener 100% into it, and leaves it closer to 90% mark.

Opening upon with foul mouthed title Dick Head Life, we are greeted with a scream, a rampant drum beat and a punch in the face, and such ferocity carries on until the end of their 10 minute 20 second siege upon the listener. Although I have never claimed to be able to decipher the groans of the punkish vocals of Shane Mclachlan, every so often I would catch a snippet of a string of crude words such as "Human Error", and it seems rewarding to have finally understood something from his Neanderthal grunts and hollers. Drumming and vocals are the defining elements, of this split, and they work together intrinsically to bestow a crustcore charge, whilst the guitaring gives a depth to the release and aside from some occasional somewhat above satisfactory metal injections, has no prominence, nor is it needed.

Phobia's tracks are a rag tag collection of pissed off, hate-fuelled crusty aggression, a perfect accompaniment to thesprightly and clean shaven approach of Gadget's nimble coordinated defilement. A release highly worthy of recognition.

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The Three Absurdateers (Birdflesh, The Farmers' Wrath, 2008)

Do you remember those ridiculous teen years when your fascination of the morbid and absurd was often displayed in a "sickening" and totally un-pc expression of humour? Despite popular belief that we all grow out of this stage, the truth of the matter is us men don't and every so often chuckle to ourselves over something as cruel as seeing mentally challenged people attempting Shakespeare. Well good news folks, there exists a band that can simultaneously cater for our inappropriate humour whilst treating our ear drums to a nice Ground and Pound: enter the bizarre world of Birdflesh.
Birdflesh hail from Sweden, most likely from a colony of nut cases and aside from being comfortable in women's clothing and presenting themselves as the biggest wardrobe malfunctions you can ever conceive, they also play a eccentric strain of Grindcore which is drenched in all manner of idiocy and humour, befitting any man who enjoys humour, post modernism and/or most importantly Grindcore.

The Farmers' Wrath is their 2008 and to date their latest release, and by a long stretch is the most bizarre of their long list of releases. Opening up with the words "welcome to the lunatic asylum" the tone has been set for the rest of the album to come, from Funny Ice Dwarfs to True Glove and The Purgatory Passion this album has them all by the dozen whatever it is they actually may be.
Visualise the originality,humour and occasional absurdity of Monty Python, well now let us make it 100% absurd all the time, throw in a large chunk of something ghoulish in lyrical and musical nature, next add infrequent totally unexplainable sexual reference  then lastly give a healthy dose of some killer catchy Grind, and before us we have some of the wackiest and funniest Grind.
Parody and joke bands have all been done before and as a concept may no longer be an original idea, however in the method and quality of presentation Birdflesh are miles ahead of competitors, and even if we ignore the humour they are also miles ahead of most bands in playing some addictive well written Grindcore.  The secret to Birdflesh's  success can easily attributed to the fact too many artists focus on making the lyrics as humorous/absurd as is in their ability, this often leads to a gross neglect to the musical ability, with Birdflesh  the music is just damn catchy and good, you are already drawn before you hear the most ludicrous possible combination of words known to man, 
True Metallica fans(you know the first 4 albums, before they went shit) and Metallica haters will surprisingly join in unison to sing along to the song Some Kind of Mongo a parody of the song and also an irrevocable disgrace to cinematic history, not to my knowledge has  a song ever had the power to unite such a disparate groups of people, Impressive.

Somewhat a rare occurrence for me is that I generally don't sing along to 99% of whatI listen to, generally to spare embarrassment or that most of what I listen to is devoid of comprehension without a lyric sheet and even then it is difficult, however I find myself singing along to The Farmers Wrath in parts I know the lyrics too, and to be honest with songs as catchy as Leprosy on Jeopardy, Some Kind of Mongo, and Wheelchair Impaler there is no reason not to sing along, other than to prevent yourself an awkward conversation that you have no intention to mock such disabled people.
The brilliant thing about Birdflesh  is that it takes a break from Grindcore's heavily reinforced anti-this and that or most savage things possible ethos, and instead make some demented fun Grindcore.

Official Birdflesh Website
Birdflesh @ MySpace

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Grindcore 2.0 (Nasum, Human 2.0, 2000)

Nasum best describes a phenomenon of what happened to Grindcore in the 2000's; the genre was thrown in head first into the depths and heights of the musical world we had no idea existed before hand, it is safe to say that the world of Grindcore; was thought to be flat before these Swedish iconoclasts brought back with them a raw noise from the perceived edge, and forged it to be the music of Nasum.
Mieszko Talarczyk is by far the most important man in the history of Grindcore (Polish Pride!!) and may be mistaken by many as a deity sent by the heavens to put Grindcore back on track to the path of Glory and not the path of a monotonous humdrum, sadly his life was taken in the 2004 tsunami disaster and it was this event that really put his work in the limelight and people en masse recognised his achievements. Among some of his medals lies the album Human 2.0, a testament to his innovative and professional musical nature.

Nasum polarised the grinding massess, in what defines Grindcore. The infamous saying "not loud enough, not heavy enough and not fast enough" had been the Grindcore formula since its inception, over time certain elements had been challenged and altered, but the general paradigm had not, until Nasum came along. Nasum challenged the most importance orthodoxy established in Grindcore; the notion of heaviness or brutality if you prefer. Grindcore prides itself on being able to unleash a tirade of the most heavy music on the planet, over genres sound like a Disney sound track compared to the unconventional and unmatched brutality of Grindcore.Nasum  put this into scrutiny, they opted to replace heaviness with rhythm and more "conventional" structure, almost giving it a more melodic take on the genre. However they did not replace all the heaviness with these elements, only a significant portion and this is what I love about Nasum, they just fluidly shift (pun inteneded) to and fro sections more akin to an amalgamation of metal genres into an explosion of blast beats, fast riffs and a rasping vocals. Human 2.0 is where Nasum decided to say shut the fuck up and listen to this! . They showed that they could still maintain an insane audio assault that was heavy enough to create a black hole, whilst still maintaining these "new" takes on structure and rhythm. 

Generally this album has a lighter approach to music than its predecessors and generally for the whole genre, but maintain that poetic high level of politicisation and criticism in form of lyrics and song title, which early grindcore outfits prided themselves on and perhaps was generally lost in the build up to the the 3rd millennium. There is no time to make a cup of tea or even to pick something off the floor, the songs are short and tight, just how we like em.
All the instruments play a prominent role in Talarczyk's revision of Grindcore, although it is his guitaring that take it off the edge and into the sublime, forming the backbone of the Nasum effect, with the bass and drums building up from it. Expect the vocal pairs of screamy and shouty to make appearances, but perhaps by accident and not design they are more comprehensible than most bands that use this approach. The drumming acts as a doppelgänger to the guitar work and gives it that ferocity and edge to the riffing that will descalp your face. Like the Norse god of thunder and rain, Thor had his hammer, well Nasum have their bassist who harmoniously clashes with the guitars and drums to give a raw depth, to this melodically grinding masterpiece. This album is a puzzle to me; it is soft yet harsh, and constantly changes from an all out musical riot to something systematic and soothing, yet the changes seem natural and not incongrues, clearly the sign of a master of the musical trade.
 Lets put it bluntly, Human 2.0  is a must have album for a grindcore fan, is  la pièce de résistance album of the band that rewrote the Grindcore Constitution by force.

Tribute to Mieszko Talarczyk

Myspace

Last Fm

Metal Archives

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The Great Nasum Revisted in Dune

You like Nasum? You happy to settle with a Nasum like sound? If so then check out Sayyadina, and if you like what you hear you will be happy to know that Relapse Records have released a compilation of some hard to get Sayyadina material. If the word Ex-Nasum were not enough to spark your interest in Sayyadina, then let me say a few more General Surgery and Victims(To be fair I have never heard of the Victims, but I am told they are good), well with this sort of line up your brain must be tweaking to check them out. For those still clueless at the title then I shall explain, the album to be reviewed is called The Great Northern Revisited, but due to the parrallels with Nasum, I have opted for the The Great Nasum Revisited, and the in Dune  is a reference to Sayyadina itself. The well known book Dune, has a term called Sayyadina that means "friend of God". Voila, onward with the Review!

I am ashamed to say that it is only in 2009 I first ever heard Sayyadina, and even then I didn't bother to check them out, they laid among my library of music unheard and unappreciated until many months ago, but even though I liked what I heard, it was pushed aside to be replaced by Abuse, GrindVirus and Time Waits for No Slave. However all good things come to those who wait, about a week ago I got my hands on this release, and I let it roll and I was certainly impressed.
Don't be fooled by the black metal style album art, this release is 100% grindcore. I personally like the album art, I don't think it is representative of the musical content inside, but it is pretty sweet as a an album art. I suppose being Scandinavian there possibly may be a high level of Black Metal Influence, although this is not apparent in the Music.
The Hardcore Punk influence is really visible in this release, so although it is 100% grindcore, it shifts more towards the Punkier side of things than it does to the metal. The metal side of things is not neglected though, and they constantly produce this solid sound greatly similair to Nasum, but not quite acheive the full blown Nasum effect. It is sort of the frame and some elements of Nasum tied in with more "heavier" elements taken from Hardcore Punk: namely Crust Punk in my opinion. Just like Nasum there are elements that are somewhat more melodic than your typical grindcore release, In my opinion this was Nasum's strongest point and is nice to see they have learnt from the success of Nasum to incorporate this into their music.
It is not frequent as I would like, however the likelihood is that if it was then this would be another Nasum clone like Afgrund, so perhaps this is good that they retain their unique musical identity, without sacrificing quality of musical ability.
Given that I enjoyed the entire album from beginning to end, I actually look forward to seeing more stuff from these guys, hopefully not at the expense of their other bands (I do like General Surgery). I do think it is a shame that their first few releases where neglected not only by me, but the whole Grindcore community on the whole. On my trawls through the vast web known as the internet, I have noticed that this band are becoming more popular by the day. It really does seem that Sweden is becoming a hub for all manner of metal: Regurgitate, Afgrund, Birdflesh, Coldworker and Nasum, and this is just Grindcore, let alone all the death, melodeath and black metal bands.
So all in all you can summarise this album with one question: would you like a more hardcore orientated, heavier take on Nasum? If yes then this is the album for you, If no then go back and listen to Nasum for an hour and go back to the question, repeat until your answer is yes.
Rating: 84/100

Record Label

Myspace

Last FM

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Abyss: Black Days (Afgrund: Svarta Dagar)

Band Info

If it was not for the wonders of the internet I would of been certain that Afgrund was merely a new name for Nasum, or that some person was using Nasum's music and pretending it is his own. The similarities between the two are just too numerous. To quote the wise words of a youtuber who created the A-Z of Grindcore in reference to Afgrund he stated that "Plagiarism is Flattery after all", and to be honest I don't think I could of described the Afgrund-Nasum clone situation better myself.
Sadly my knowledge of most bands is minimal even the "popular" bands, this has lead me to trawl the internet to find info on the band as I write the review which is probably the worst methodology of being a journalist, however I shall persevere.
Afgrund is an international band,with members coming from Italy, Finland and Sweden but the band is based in Stockholm(God Bless Wikipedia). The band consist of a trio with the drummer being the only member to have played in other bands(correct me if I am wrong).
Afgrund is Swedish for Abyss, and although a typical name for metal bands, it is the sort of name neglected by many grindcore bands, who often prefer to go for something more savage or grotesque. I am sure by now you have worked out that Svarta Dagar means Black Days, another nice sort of name not used by grindcore.
The Review

Svarta Dagar is an immense album, the musicianship is just absolutely amazing, whatever they play they do so with such high level of professionalism, pretty impressive for a "new" band. The drumming consists of the staple grindcore blast beat, however the guitars do not fear in playing the more melodic and harmonious side of music. This sort of melogrind guitars is something I really like, and Afgrund seem to do an amazing job of it, It sort of reminds me of Nasum's Wrath, or a number of tracks on Nasum's Human 2.0 album. The bass compliments the guitaring well and does not try to drown out the melody, but rather gives the melody some more tension giving it that extra dimension of brilliance. The Vocals are your classical grind shouty screamy and then shifting to your low growls.

The production value of this album is definitely of high value,  I have heard the demo prior to the recording studio and all I can say is that although you can tell there is high level of talent in Afgrund, they must definitely needed good production value to give the "Nasum Effect" more depth and quality.  There is a track on this album, I beleive it is Afgrundssjal, although I am unable to check it out at this time, but It reminds me so much of Arkhon Infaustus and just shows that Afgrund can break from their Nasum mould, on occasion.
This review is quite short compared to my over reviews, but the art of being a good educator is to be accurate and concise. The album is a brilliant album and is up there in my personal favourites, I can forsee in the distant future Afgrund being a titan among the grind legends, all they need to do is constantly release material of equal or better quality than their current albums and voila there we have it.
Myspace:http://www.myspace.com/avgrund
LastFM: http://www.last.fm/music/Afgrund
Encyclopedia Metallum: http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=97050

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