Machetazo Review: OOOoooh... Yeah! This Split Ep is a must-have, for the 2 bands on it. It's really special stuff, above the standards. First, the Machetazo side is awesome, with some of the artwork taken from Mario Bava masterpiece "Black Sunday"... and the first song "La Mascara del Demonio" also dedicated to this film, with an intro sample (in spanish of course) from it as well. The third song "La Venganza de los Muertos sin Ojos" is a reference to Amando de Ossorio's "Blind Dead" movie series. Brilliant movie references makes me in a good mood right away. And then, their so special raw death/grind just amaze me. They're dirty metal à la Autopsy/Impetigo, but they keep alot of their grindcore nightmarish raw vibe. To sum it up, Machetazo has enough thrashing riffs, grinding rawness and horror references to make me die from excitement. I totally over-love them! So... Love them too or die!
Tracks: 1)La Mascara del Demonio 2)(El Incredible) Prepucio Septico 3)La Venganza de los Muertos sin Ojos

Bodies Lay Broken Review: Remember Dead Infection on the Split Ep w/Blood? Well personnaly, this is the kind of stuff I can listen thousands of times and always find it fresh and grinding. I really think I feel the same way with Bodies Lay Broken. It's devastating grind with basic and fucking raw guitar riffs (reminds me of early Agathocles or Exulceration). Now, those grind riffs are my reason to exist. Bodies Lay Broken flows naturally and constantly like a discharge of evacuated frustrations. That's truly feel-good Grind to me! I totally loved the Bolt Thrower ("Realms of Chaos") reference, I love the manic gore growls, and the general grindcore insanity. I'm really psyched about this one, can't wait to hear more of them!

(available for $3 US/$4 World...)
Contact: (DISCOS AL PACINO)
Box 3051
Burnsville MN
55337 USA

Man in Shackles Review: Real tough, cold and straightforward swedish grindcore/hardcore here, where grace-notes are totally banished. It's a wicked slap in the face indeed. Palpable anger, truly abrupt cadence, blood boiling mood; and the more than probable risk of head traumas resulting after each listening. The sound's just neat, the stuff is all very tight even though it's hard to figure out where the tracks begin and stop. It's just very intense. It just... you know, wakes up the dead. Lyrics have messages in them, pretty much the well-known crustcore-stereotypes; so if you watch alot of tv, are a big capitalist pig and can care less about third world exploitation, and didn't know that was really bad, well then... Chances are you'll remain all that, except maybe you'll feel a little guilty then, but probably not, whatever... Man in Shackles kicks butt all the ways.
Tracks: 1)Cloning process 2)Industrial strangulation 3)Global virus confrontation 4)Birth. Work. Death 5)Slave routine 6)Sick of talk
Contact: Ronnie Källback / Mariebergsv. 25A / 681 37 KRISTINEHAMN / SWEDEN
E-mail: MANINSHACKLES@HOTMAIL.COM

Sewn Shut Review: Always more agression from this wild bunch of extremely pissed off swedes. They're mostly huge grindcore with a pinch of hardcore; Although this band's pretty new to me I honestly think they're one of the finest grind bands around, from Sweden, maybe everywhere else. Their stuff is churning, fast and catchy, turbulent and it never goes stale on the same riff for an eternity. It's all very straightforward, maybe more than their other full Ep I heard and reviewed before, but it still shows a few variations and quite short, slightly metal parts/breaks. Nothing exactly like Nasum, but slightly reminiscent... for the better! Still, I think Sewn Shut is more like, downright and genuinely furious, very exciting. And like with most swedish bands the whole stuff is executed with quite some rigour, it's all very tight and quite well-structured. It's still grindcore, with alot of crushing violence going on, low roars and unrestrained screams, rampagy drums and fiery grind riffs, but the sound is really good, it's clear and it has a great flow. Definitely worthy of near-full-marks. My last note will be about the great looking "Tools of the Trade" style layout... Pretty nice.
: 1)Black gold 2)After the storm 3)Dying world 4)The final chapter 5)Consistency
Sewn Shut Website: http://sewnshut.da.ru/
Contact: SEWN SHUT c/o L. MUSSO /GILLHÖGSV IO / 246 57 BARSEBÄCK / SWEDEN
E-mail: XSEWNSHUTX@HOTMAIL.COM
180ERIKSSON@TELIA.COM

Price: $5 ppd (Europe) $6 ppd (World) 30 SEK ppd (Sweden) from:
SOUNDS OF BETRAYAL
RODRIGO ALFARO
BOX 7092
200 42 MALMÖ
SWEDEN
E-mail: PUTRIDFILTH@BIGFOOT.COM

Mind CollageReview: Intense grind from Japan. It's pretty fast, tight, and really raw as well, the sound production gives some sort of noisy rough edge. Really great, incisive grindcore between early Napalm Death and Gore Beyond Necropsy. It's the first time I listen to them, but they're really that way, I hope I can hear more soon. Social lyrics and stuff, you know the deal... Near full-mark, it's brilliant grind.
Tracks: 1)World Domination 2)Into Disaster 3)Tribal Blood 4)Mindless Souls 5)Mind of the tormented 6)Unseen Force

Sewn Shut Review: Awesome, blameless grindcore here by Sewn Shut. The kind of well-oiled grind machine that blasts its way through your brain. Deep low roars emphasized by hysterical screams, ruthless grindcore riffs, speedy drums, short songs and devastating violence... Great big heavy sound and all. Definitely one of the best grind bands around. And oh, the cover photo is one of the scariest things I've seen. Yeeeh... Well that's just high quality stuff like everything out on this label is likely to be. Just kill me.
Tracks: 1)Dissension 2)The Rebirth of Freedom 3)Knives to our Throats 4)Children of Wonderland

Price: $5 ppd (Europe) $6 ppd (World) 30 SEK ppd (Sweden) from:
Label Contact: SOUNDS OF BETRAYAL
RODRIGO ALFARO
BOX 7092
20042 MALMÖ
SWEDEN
Email: PUTRIDFILTH@BIGFOOT.COM

1999

Minch "Pizza party"
Review: Yeah, this is hilarious stupid noise/grind. Not the harsh and saturating type of noise music really. Guitar sound is quite clean, but riffs are twisted, incoherent and raw. The drums are damn messy and not catchy, songs are just real short. But the truly original thing in Minch is the delirious insanity through vocals; sounds totally crazed, like a dumb cartoon sound track: childish screamings, howlings, and drug-induced ravings. If you dig anti-musical fun, you'll love this demented band!
Tracks: 1)I can't hear the pizza guy 2)Who the fuck ate all the pizza? 3)Get the god-damn door 4)Extra meat but no balls 5)I got the shits 6)Crusty-fucksticks 7)Eat your pizza before I beat'cha 8)I didn't ask for special sauce 9)Sam had to work, what a jerk 10)Wipe your fuckin face 11)Where's the bitches? 12)Oh fuck! he's puking 13)Just a bunch of shit 14)Asscheese & buttbeans 15)These titles suck shit 16)So does the pizza 17)My friends are assholes 18)Name this one whatever the fuck you want to

Gore Beyond Necropsy Review: Ah! They keep it their very own way. Dense raw grind-noise, with a piss-encrusted dark sound, totally saturated and heavy in the same time. With drum blasts, a disgorging sewer of chaotic guitaristic noise and harsh vocal grunting eructations. Filthy and dirty as fuck! So, great shit in the vein of their last cd. Pure art in my opinion.
Tracks: 1)Disgorged 2)Millions slaughtered 3)Swirl of puke 4)Eat shit! 5)Goin' my way 6)Chaos rider 7)Minced in pink hell 8)Intro~The great cock'n'roll swindle 9)New world disorder 10)Cock rock corporations

Contact: MINK RECORDS
c/o MARIKO OHKAWA
SHIMOIMAIKE, MORIOKA
HIGASHIURA-CHO, CHITA-GUN
AICHI 470-2101
JAPAN
E-mail: minkrecs@na2.synnet.or.jp

Monolith Review: This is the first time ever I hear about Monolith... So well, it's alwyas great to discover bands! Here is quite cool dirty grindcore! the flyers for this release says crust/grind, but their crust side isn't very big! this isn't a musical revolution but it honestly crushes hard! With catchy fast ryhtms, violent vocals and raw dirty guitars..... The sound is okay too.... The cover is funny and the lyrics are very uncommon too! Moreover they come from Austria, and except Mastic Scum I don't remember having the knowledge of any more grindcore bands from this country (?)... Check this out!
Tracks: 1)Mastbreak 2)Brunch 3)Piledriver 4)I got my coffe 5)Cow's milk (cowboy?) 6)Anything goes 7)My america 8)Enriched carbonate

Monolith Review: Oh! This is the second vinyl release I hear from this interesting slovakian one-piece grind-gore band. The 3 songs here have a quite muddy sound, but you can hear the drum blasts (programmed ones) quite well, like the vocals too, which are distorted with great splattery effects! Once again, Deviant Viral Source isn't outrageously surprising, but cool to listen to... Dirty to the core! It's pressed on vinyl, so it's really cool! I'm sure you have 4 USD to spend to spend for this! You can get this split single for this cheap price on the address below! Don't hesitate! Deviant Viral Source will have a split tape with french Meat Paunch Mafia out soon so watch out!
Tracks: 1)Scratch to bone 2)Phutted piece 3)Sceptic to gory mass all around

Contact: Peter Loffler
Revova 29
811 02 Bratislava
Slovakia

Review: In what was to be their final release (it was recorded during the bands '96 US tour w/ Hellchild), Multiplex belt out 2 of the most diverse and powerful tracks of their career. Side A, "Sunshine" mixes insanely fast blasts that are perhaps the best recorded example of drummer Natsu's speed with slower but still agressive sections. Side B, "Non Fiction" features parts where vocalist Ari actually sings (as opposed to his usual barking), which I don't enjoy, but the song still, still succesfully highlights Multiplex's uniqueness and originality. In addition, lyrics are included with this release, in case anyone was wondering exactly how crazy vocalist Ari really is ; ) While I don't care that much for the B side, I believe the A side ("Sunsine") to be one of Multiplex's best tracks ever, and would reccomend that people interested in the band pick this up as well as the s/t CD on HG:Fact. (Visceral Productions P.O. Box 1142 Mentor, OH 44061-1142 USA)

Reviewed by Pete pcassin@andrew.cmu.edu