[November 2009]

NASHGUL "El Dia Despues al Fin de la Humanidad (The Day After the End of Humanity)" Cd

(Power It Up)
Release date: 2009
Running time: 26:16

Review: I'll just sum things up right away, this is high energy grind spiked with some awesome old school death metal influences. The production is quite punishing and reminds me of early Nasum. The skiful, brutal drum work comes across powerfully, and coupled with a wall of low-tuned guitars and a truly heavy bass sound, this thing hits you like a ton of bricks in the gut. The shrieking and growling vocals sound as ever ferocious as ever.
Song-writing is quite distinctive and varied enough, hard-hitting. The whole album is clearly carefully put together, truly, mercilessly brutal and tied together with an overall dark atmosphere, probably derived from the album's awesome post-apocalyptic concept. These are 19 intense tracks in only 26 minutes, a real concentrate of great riffs and all around butt-kicking grind. Some very gorgeous art and stylish layout; lyrics sheet in spanish with thorough english translations (or vice-versa) to round things off! This is really swell work... Nothing much else to say really, except get this right away! This one's a must-have in my book. Spain seems to be pretty fertile ground for grind and this is assuredly one of Spain's top bands to me.
New NASHGUL Interview

Mp3: "Crematorio"

Tracks: 1)The Day After the End of Humanity 2)Hidrofobia 3)Predicadores de la Muerte 4)Cremated Remains 5)La Plaga 6)Odor a Napalm 7)Colonia de Leprosos 8)Crematorio 9)Mad Max II 10)Snake Plissken 11)El Dia de los Muertos 12)Terrorist Warhead 13)Invierno Nuclear 14Street Trash 15)Disintegration in a Flash of Light 16)El Vengador Toxico 17)Planet Cancer 18)El Horror Oculto 19)El Fin

www.myspace.com/nashgul

DOUBLED OVER Demo Tape

Release date: 2009


If a demo has the Hills Have Eyes freak staring at you as cover, you know it's gonna be great... This band is one of the greatest associations of talents in nowadays grindcore world. Roskopp's drummer whose speciality is speed, precision and swiftness (with some groove too) and some of the guys from Die Pigeon Die who are more like the kings on ball-crushing down-tuned heaviness. The result is some of best grind/death I've ever heard! Vocals are mostly in a low and guttural, roaring range which I like a lot (a little tired of all the screaming type of grindcore), except for their Haymaker cover version which contains some (well-done) visceral shrieking.
Song-writing is just about the perfect mix of all-out type of ultrafast grindcore (some of the fastest, natural-sounding drumming out there) and really intense and heavy sludge moments. I'm hearing echoes of Hemdale and Inhume, only better, in my opinion!
This demo tape seems to be very, very limited so probably sold out by the time I actually publish this review! But keep an eye on this great fucking band.
ps: while the tape format is pretty cool and retro, this tape actually fucked up my tape deck, it kept skipping, so I had to pry the thing open to get the tape out! Anyway I listened to it on old tape deck and in the end the sound was pretty fucking distorted... But oh well I could still hear the greatness of Doubled Over. But yeah, I guess tapes are pretty cool and "cult" and stuff, heh....

Tracks: SIDE A: 1)Swimming in Shit 2)Bloated 3)Sick to Death
SIDE B: 4)It Only Gets Worse (Haymaker) 5)Copout 6)The Cleanser

www.myspace.com/doubledovergrind

THE DECAPITATED MIDGETS "30 Ways To Die" Cd

(Goatgrind Records)
Release date: 2008
Running time: 31:59

Review: This band from Finland is one of my current favorite goregrind bands. I had their demo for a while but of course it took forever for me to write a review so I guess this review will cover their demo and their latest cd out on Goatgrind Records. I've been blown away by the "Gurgling Olympics" demo but the sound on this album is absolutely amazing! If I understand correctly this self-recorded stuff... Well this is powerful stuff... Everything comes across limpid and well-balanced.
The main influence here is obviously Regurgitate from whom they based their band name on (song "Parade of Decapitated Midgets", right? ) but they also remind me of some great australian bands like Roskopp or Super Fun Happy Slide, not quite as varied in the vocal-department but I feel like these bands are in the same line of work, or anyway they all play grindcore the way I want to hear it! Intense, fast and highly energetic drumming, rather trebly guitar riffing (not as down-tuned and purely heavy as most current bands...) and disgusting, gurgling, phlegmy vocals. Riffing is very inspired, song-writing solid and execution very assured. This is expert Grind/Gore, up there with anything that Regurgitate or Cock and Ball Torture has ever done in my opinion! Honestly, this is exactly my type of music, it goes straight to the point, it's fast, brutal, splattery and effective... it's clear the band puts alot of effort into their craft and their sound. Doesn't get any better than that!
I hear the band is already working on a new album, I'm glad to see such a great band being so creative and productive...

Mp3: "Splattered in a car crash"

Tracks: 1)Maggots Devouring Your Innards (1:38) 2)Compressive Asphyxia (0:45) 3)Lethal Liver Failure (1:08) 4)Splattered In A Car Crash (1:05) 5)Pathologist Slices Your Festering Corpse During Your Very Own Autopsy (1:14) 6)Explosive Menstruation (0:58) 7)Boiled Alive In Your Own Piss (0:42) 8)Brainburger With Slashed Fingers (0:39) 9)Kidney Tumour, Bloody Piss And Death (0:18) 10)Kidnapped, Killed, Gutted And Cooked (0:46) 11)Executed In The Electric Chair... The Smell Of Flesh (1:17) 12)Fermented Bile Cocktail (0:31) 13)Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (1:51) 14)Unexpected Brain Haemorrhage (0:15) 15)Seven Days (0:26) 16)Slowly Sliced With A Dull Blade (1:54) 17)Dramatic Decapitation And Gore Shower (2:11) 18)Malignant Neoplasm (1:02) 19)Forced Giblet Gurgling (1:00) 20)Bloody Rectum/Bloody Diorrhea (2:12) 21)Human Haggis (0:53) 22)Human Head On A Cannibal's Plate (0:24) 23)Cannibalized In A Big City (1:39) 24)Gore-Tex Killer (1:17) 25)Guts In Tea (0:47) 26)Mutilated In The Toilet (1:12) 27)Hang Himself With His Own Veins (1:25) 28)Blowing Implants (0:04) 29)Eaten Alive By The Rats In The Sewers (2:09) 30)Fallen From The 34th Floor, Splattered To The Ground (0:17)

www.myspace.com/thedecapitatedmidgets

SPIRAL/HAEMOPHAGUS Split 7" Ep

(ZAS/Ignorant Worm)

Spiral Review: Spiral hails from Japan; the drummer from this band used to play in Vivisection & I.R.F, two of the best japanese grind bands! Heavy guitars, monstrous low guttural vocals (with tons of echo/reverb) on the forefront, crunchy metallic bass sounds(maybe a little too low on the mix), a couple of guitar solis, and nice, pounding drumming. Early Napalm Death definitely comes to mind and some of the thrashing parts reminded of good old S.O.B.... Sound production is real fucking muddy but also visceral, heavy and crunchy sounding... Great sparkling energy, simply some of the best grindcore out there!
Tracks: 1)Spiraly Soul 2)Deep Desire 3)Chaos Grinder

Haemophagus Review: And now for some very compellent old school Repulsion style death/grind. Bouncy and super catchy tunes, awesome crunchy guitar riffs, perfect in-your-face drumming. I'm hearing swedish death metal influences in there, the whole thing reeks of Death Breath and Cretin to give you contemporary references. It briskly goes from fast grindcore to death metal or total doom. There's at least one great virtuoso metal guitar solo moment in there too. Abrasive vocals, nothing too low or too high, just a nice mid-register which I enjoy very much personally. One of my favorite bands nowadays, probably the best band from Italy right now in my opinion. Simply exhilarating kind of stuff. And of course I love the "Bay of Blood" themed cover and lyrics! Can't wait for the announced full length!
Tracks: 1)Back to the Mortuary 2)Possessed by the Unknown 3)Swamps of Horror

Link: http://www.myspace.com/zasrec
http://www.myspace.com/ignorantwormrecords
www.myspace.com/haemophagus
www.myspace.com/spiralwideblaster

SUPER FUN HAPPY SLIDE "The Undislodgable Nugget Scenario" Cd

(Bizarre Leprous)
Release date: 2009

Review: Here's one of my very favorite albums in recent years. This is grindcore done right. Yeah, the sound production is fucking nasty but filty, raw sound is part of the true grindcore formula to me. Anyhow this Super Happy Fun Slide album is simply a masterpiece of high octane thrashing old school grindcore! So much energy, amazingly catchy riffs, fullspeed blast-beats, mind-blowing drumming, gore-gurgling insanity and wild, sickening humor are crammed into this one album it's unbelievable. It's really a mix of the best late 80's Napalm Death grindcore, with brutal thrash metal mosh parts injected for good measure and some really kick-ass d-beat crust type stuff as well. This is exactly the type of stuff I want to hear! Composition-wise, song writing is flawless, songs are cleverly arranged, stripped to the bone, only sticking to the essential, fast, in-your-face type stuff... Riffs don't have time to bore you as the band constantly moves on to the next exciting thing, and there's absolutely no time to catch your breath. This is an avalanche of flesh-ripping riffs with a crunchy and blistering guitar tone, and there are also totally wild shredding guitar solos with crazy old school Bill Steer type effects that sound out of this world... Again drumming is super tight, insanely fast, on the level of Mick Harris, except groovier. Vocally, the pitch-shifted gurgling and barking are pre-dominant and that definitely strikes a chord with me, I love that stuff... This is the band's main goregrind stigma but there are also other types of vocals like extreme shrieking and pissed off grind/hardcore type shouting that fit perfectly as well... There is a "Retreat to Nowhere" cover version in there somewhere which I think lives up to the original! The rough sound production might alienate some people and the album might sound repetitive to those who don't get grindcore, but hey, fuck these people, they deserve to be executed. This is the absolute best grindcore album I've heard in a long long time! Definitely get this one at all costs...

Mp3: "Thrashed Out Gash"

Tracks: 1)It's A Fast One 2)It's Not Taboo If It Happens To You 3)Thrashed Out Gash 4)Designer Rock Can Suck My Cock 5)Regurgitation Of Giblet-Like Chunks Of Pathologically Perverse Gore 6)De-Virginiser 7)Bohemian Sodomy 8)Hot Dog Down A Hallway 9)Let's Thrash Metal 10)Fuck... I Just Copped A Beer Glass To My Head!! 11)Gastrological Ventriliquist 12)Revenge Of The Afterstench 13)Retreat To Nowhere (Napalm Death Cover) 14)I Can't Believe It's Not Carcass 15)Placenta On The Dancefloor 16)Undislodgable Nugget Scenario 17)Napalm Shower 18)Superfunhappysong 19)The Day Everything Became Something 

Link: www.myspace.com/superfunhappyslide
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