(Skull Fucked Prod)
Release date: 2002

Gerbe of Life: This nice Split Cd starts off with Gerbe of Life, I already reviewed the material here before; It's good and tough death metal, stuff that's definitely on the brutal side. Their energy strongly reminds me of early Grave (even though this is not one of their influences) and Napalm Death, "Harmony Corruption" era. Their stuff comes out really loud, and heavy. Growls, very guttural, backed up with rather abrasive shrieks, low distorted bass, downtuned, aggressive, thrashing guitars, and effective brutal drumming that have a real impact. They have a more than decent sound production, their songs are all quite well-rounded. It's definitely quality death metal.
Repudiate: This is quite brutal death metal as well, in the grand tradition of Morbid Angel, Massacre ("From Beyond") and also similar in sound to a more recent band like Nile. Jam-packed with blastbeats, doublebass drumming, insanely skilful guitar soli (lots of those), thrashing riffs, growls from beyond the grave (with lots of echoed backing whispers for some reason) as well as quite prominent bass lines always creeping about. So, this is your typical death metal, more of the old school type, nothing especially original but well-composed, well-performed and with a quite good sound... Overall, this is quality stuff; both bands are quite talented in my opinion. Death Metal buffs should appreciate this split.

Gerbe of Life Tracks: 1)Intro 2)Face cachée 3)Trouble psychologique 4)Bouffe de merde 5)Mascarade politique 6)Pédophile fils de pute 7)Trafic d'organes 8)Insurmontable existence 9)Chrétienté démagogie suprême 10)Solitude exacerbée 11)Vision apocalyptique
Repudiate: 12)Ocean of Storms 13)Blessed by Emptyness 14)Devoted to Betrayal 15)Hangman's Smile 16)Spiritual way 17)Bloody Thorns

Label: www.skullfucked.ht.st
Fred Anton
19, Rue des paturage
67310 ZEIHEIM
FRANCE
skull.fucked.prod@ifrance.com

(Black Hole Productions - BHP 005)
Release date: 2002

Review: So, that's a fantastic full length album by Lymphatic Phlegm. The stuff here seems to be a bit tighter than anything they've done before, the production is slightly clearer than usual, but it still comes with their trademark, raw sound; guitars with tons of reverb, bass with a great deal of distortion, fast, pounding and grinding drum machine blastbeats and gore-spewing pitch-shifted gurgling vocals... But yeah, the sound seems slightly better and full to me and the pitch-shifting vocal effects sound like they've been improved as well. All in all, a great score of 31 tightly composed tracks of the most basic and effective grind-gore; very much in the vein of Exulceration & old Agathocles... There's also a few fun-filled movie intros taken from "Nekromantik", "Flesh for Frankenstein" & "Zombie Holocaust", often with scenes that fit the medical concept of the band. The thing comes as a slick digipack with quite cool design (your run-of-the-mill autopsy pictures and stuff) - there's also a great-looking booklet that contains all the incomprehensible lyrics. Smashing grind, medical lyrics, nice sound with a raw edge, pretty layout... Overall, that's a must-have for any self-respecting patho-grind freak. Highly recommended!

Downloadable Mp3: "Proliferative Reaction of the Reticulo-endothelial System's Elements"

Tracks: 31 titles...

Label: Black Hole Productions
Caixa Postal 1181
Curitiba - PR
Cep 80.011-970
Brazil
E-mail: mail@blackholemag.com
Website: http://blackholemag.com/bhp

(Independent Sickness )
Release date: 2002

Review: Great stuff; heavy, aggressive, mean-spirited, with a sound and style quite close to stuff like Dismembered Fetus & Captain3Leg, but well duh it's got at least one ex-Dismembered Fetus member (that I know of). Yeast Infection is alot less wild & grind-noise oriented than Dismembered Fetus and it's got more of a dirty, raw and doomy vibe à la Autopsy/Abscess. Drums are still pounding and strike very hard, vocals are abrasive and filled with hatred (shrieks + grunt-roars - occasionally underlined by low pitched-shifted gurgling), the bass is distorted as hell and guitar riffs are basic and stright to the point thrashing. It's really and really effective stuff; from a rythmic point of a view, it's moderately fast, but all so very catchy and intense. I'm not sure how to label it, maybe hatecore or something; anyway, it's loud, violent, relentless and really really hateful.

Tracks: 1)Bringer of lies 2)Shithitter 3)Coming home 4)Ooka Mooka (Revisited) 5)Apostate 6)Suffer in Silence 7)On + On 8)Just Aint Right 9)Social cleansing 10)Numb

Contact:
yeast66@msn.com

(Sounds of Betrayal - severe ear damage series)
Release date: 2002

Review: Head Hits Concrete: Nervous and fast grindcore/hardcore: screamed and shrieked pissed off vocals, relentless, pounding, tight and speedy drumming, sharp and viciously thrashing guitars... Heads Hits Concrete is grippingly fast and grindy, with a major hardcore feel and a definitely raw vibe. This is quite the well-oiled grind machine; powerful, convincing & catchy. Anger and noise spewed forth...Plus you've got striking lyrics, the socio-political kind - and song titles that definitely sticks in the mind. The band's name also happen to perfectly fit the music.
My Minds Mine: Some more strictly fast and decidedly raw grindcore on My Mind's Mine side... We have expeditious, thrashing riffs, high pitched screaming with occasional roaring, very fast drums.., blunt speed and sheer aggressivity guaranteed. It is somewhat reminiscent of Abstain, Dropdead & Agathocles... Feels like all the tracks are bursting out, furious and relentlessly explosive.
Overall, that Lp is way-cool, good grind on both sides, the lay-out is wonderful, as always for Sounds of Betrayal/Putrid Filth releases... And well, that's one great Lp, that's all!

Tracks: SIDE HEAD HITS CONCRETE: Day One - The Pastor's Cock in my Mouth (Hooray!) - (Your name here) eat fucking lead (Columbine snowball Massacre remix) - We love ecoli - Jubilee - Hole in the head - Mechanical separation - Intent action effect - Cancer of the side of the face
SIDE MY MINDS MINE: Shameless innocence - Cascading violence crushes - Expose the suspicious - Short cut life - Crippled dog - Fear us - Thank god for plastic surgery - Solutions of the people - Cut me off

Label Contact:
PUTRID FILTH CONSPIRACY
RODRIGO ALFARO
BOX 7092
200 42 MALM�
SWEDEN
E-mail: PUTRIDFILTH@BIGFOOT.COM
Website: fly.to/putridfilth

Band Contact:
Head Hits Concrete: PO Box 26014, 116 Sherbrook St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C 4K9 Canada
headhitsconcrete@hotmail.com - http://headhitsconcrete.n3.net
My Minds Mine: shantia666@yahoo.com / rosco.mmm@12move.nl / l.haven@hetnet.nl

(Power It Up)
Release date: 2002

Review: Old school Grindcore straight out of Japan. This Ep cointains 6 violent outbursts of merciless grind with a touch of groove... Abrupt grind guitar riffs - low roaring, growling & wacky high-pitched shrieking - dynamic, pounding, rapid & catchy (not to mention tight as hell) drumming - and occasionally quite rocking parts. Bathtub Shitter is grindcore all the way, but there's that rocking feel throughout all their songs, that makes it amazingly energic. That's mind-blowing, ass-kicking grind that recaptures the feel of early, more punk-oriented SxOxB material ("Leave Me Alone"/"Don't Be Swindle"), in a nutshell: this Ep just kills.

Tracks: SIDE A: Holy song for you - Hot shit hits - All pants know
SIDE B: Brown bomb in 99 - Life is one link - Shit fly - Tower

Band Contact:
http://www.bathtubshitter.com/

Label Contact:
Power It Up Postfach 114 38156 Vechelde Germany
www.power-it-up.de e-Mail: Mailorder@power-it-up.de

(Power It Up)
Release date: 2002

Review: This is another top notch Bathtub Shitter Ep: raw, fast and powerful grindcore that goes straight to the point. It's nasty-sounding, thrashing, rocking, violent... The band has a sharp edge, with catchy, enticing rythms, designed to crush... That's a truly exciting grinding experience. Side A starts off with a kick-ass original song, followed by 2 brilliant covers of Terrorizer ("Storm of Stress") & SxOxB ("Meddlesome Heart") - excellent cover choices.
Side B is some more original Bathtub Shitter material: pounding grind with a neat sense of speed and rock, definitely down-tuned guitars, distorted bass and vocals between guttural growls & outrageously high pitched insan-o shrieks. The last track is live stuff, with a great sound but a little more larsens and rawness than usual. So, that's just another stunning Ep by Bathtub Shitter to me, nice job!

Tracks: SIDE A: 1)One fun 2)Storm of Stress 3)Meddlesome Heart
SIDE B: 1)Asu 2)Hip is the Main 3)Holy song for you (live) 4)Outro (japanese spoken shits)

Band Contact:
http://www.bathtubshitter.com/

Label Contact:
Power It Up Postfach 114 38156 Vechelde Germany
www.power-it-up.de e-Mail: Mailorder@power-it-up.de

(3X8 Records/Soyunoloko)
Release date: 2002
Running time: 27:29

Review: Trepandead: This is solid, aggressive, thrashing hardcore/metal with a pinch of death & grind. Guitars are quite heavy and thrashing, drumming is pounding, catchy, often fast but never ultrafast. So basicly, we've got real loud hardcore. Vocals are pretty vicious, mostly raw, high-pitched and full of hatred. Sound production is quite clean. Songs are tightly structured and overall this stuff is really satisfying. They sound very metal & hardcore, the style is not really my area of expertise, I'd just say they sound very similar to bands like Soylent Green. Not my favorite style ever, but methinks Trepandead is a very solid band in the genre.
Heresy: Now this is a lot more death metal sounding. Real heavy stuff, with thrashing guitar riffs and alot of melodic arrangements. Reminds me of Bolt Thrower quite a bit. Rythms are moderate overall, with alot of double-bass drumming, vocals are a mix pretty deep guttural vocals and more screamy vocals. Nicely rounded songs and some pretty catchy riffs.
The cd is pro-made and both bands have a more than decent, clean sound production; and this is pretty cheap to get. Label contact below!

Tracks: Trepandead: 1)Burn Babylone Burn 2)Nobody 3)Eat 4)No limit
Heresy: 5)After the death 6)Hysteresy 7)Malignant antler

Label contact:
E-mail: soyunoloko@wanadoo.fr
Website: http://www.soyunoloko.fr.st/

(Deathvomit/Necropolis)
Release date: 2002

Review: New Engorged album! Now this is a really kick-ass new album. "Death Metal Attack II" is one of the discs I played the most in recent years... This new album doesn't disappoint, it's quite an amazing follow-up to their smashing debut album. The band is faithful to their style; fast-paced, thrashing in every direction, turbulent, grinding death metal... The main differences are first, a better, definitely heavier sound production which is a great thing (although I really really loved the raw as hell vibe of "DMA 2") and vocals that feel pretty different overall (the vocalist from the first album isn't in the band anymore). So, the new songs are still truly well-rounded, more death metal-sounding than ever, drumming is tight and guitar riffs and blazing, fast and mercilessly thrashing. You've got guttural roars, vicious shrieks and often a barrage of mosh/hardcore vocals. Engorged still comes with a really wide range of influences from mid-80's thrash metal (Anthrax, Kreator), hardcore (S.O.D.) to late 80's grindcore (Carcass/Napalm Death) & early 90's death metal (Autopsy, Death, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Grave...) - That's alot of references, but I really believe you can find elements from all these bands listening to this album. The references don't stop at metal, most of the lyrics are about cult flicks, often with the intro samples coming along, including: Stuart Gordon "From Beyond", Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive", "Road Warrior", "Shockwaves", Peter Jackson's "Bad Taste" (song: "Beer Guts")... Best of all are the last 4 songs dedicated to Romero & Fulci zombie flicks with song titles like "Night of the Living Dead", "Dawn of the Dead", "Zombie" & "Day of the Dead"! Most of the lyrics are detailed tributes to these movies... Really excellent, especially you're a fan of these flicks, I know I am. (The opening "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." is from one of my fave Carpenter flick "They Live", hysterical way to start off the album!)
So well, here's a fantastic second offering by Engorged, juicy and overflowing with demented compositions of raging death metal & outrageous grind. Definitely one of this year's major releases.

Tracks: 1)March of the Engorged 2)The Dreadnaught 3)It Came From Beyond 4)Cobra Rage 5)Eaten Alive! 6)Death Metal Attack 3 7)White Line Nightmare 8)Slithis 9)Shockwaves 10)Beer Guts 11)N.O.T.L.D. 12)Dawn of the Dead 13)Zombie 14)Day of the Dead

http://www.engorged.net

Release date: 2002

Review: Let's start with a Newsflash: FastForward/Jet Jaguar KR3 Kill Spree-transparent violet 10" LP should be out shortly on Lofi or die. You can contact the label at this address if interested in pure raw noisecore: lofiordierex@hotmail.com
Now on to the review. That's a compilation cd-r of many stuff by different people. That's fairly unconventional stuff, to sum up I guess one could say it's the Merzbow-kind of harsh noisecore stuff. But alright, I'll go into details:
1-MISO - How beautiful you were: "Very very harsh noise, amorphous, saturating, larsen-ridden... Horripilating and with many textures and some sort of radio wave interferences... Anyway, it's harsh and brutish total noise. You probably get the picture."
2-Jet Jaguar KR3 Kill Spree - Musashis Chaingun Opera: "Odd and non-sensical mixture of samples, kinda like if you were flipping channels on a radio, everything intersected with pure harsh noise assaults and extremely distorted screams
3-Sweet Sounds of the Burning Child - foireaux cat ambushes annihilates and ingests a Pillywiggins epithalamic Procession Party (good kitty): "Total harsh noise, just distorted screams and saturating noises - sounds like a tortured cat mostly"
4-5-Shinu Mazafakingu Ujimushi - Carnal kiss/ all Relapse staff like it up the Arse: "This is the first stuff with guitar riffs on this compilation. Good basic grindcore, good distorted grind riffs and devatasting blasting programmed drums. Freaking fast saturated grindcore insanity, but with no vocals whatsoever. Methinks that's mighty excellent stuff!"
6-Hinyouki - Karami Juudai Shanbenosuru: "Ok, now we're back to pure harsh, flesh-ripping, saturating, digital noise! Kinda sounds like extreme modem noise at times or it might be the sound of some guy getting eaten alive by his computer."
Nee-7-8: War Goddess/ Feelings (nothing more then): "More traditional Grind/Noise here. Weird screams & growls, dirty and raw bass sound, fast drums. Nice stuff "
9-Fast Forward - Under destruction: "Decadent technoïd harsh noise. Intense blistering noise, but with a nice use of hardcore techno beats. Nice and noisy, does an effective job of getting on the nerves."
10-Grind Corps - Groin grabbing grind: "Twitching, noisy Grindcore, sloppy saturated demented screams and growls, fast eletronic beats and crappy guitar sound. Insane and pretty fun too."
11-Napalmed - Unknown/nothing: "Alrighty! Here's oh surprise more total noise destruction. Starts with some lame pop track that soon gets bulldosed by usual Napalmed electronic noise-holocaust-sound-wall. The extreme kind... And well, that's what closes our little tour.

If you're interested in that kind of extreme stuff, try and contact Lofiordie there: lofiordierex@hotmail.com

Lofiordierex
2C Lanhill Rd
London
W92BP
UK

Lofiordie guy also sent me a tape with him drumming on it, he was looking for projects/bands/people to play with...
The tape actually starts with 2 songs from something called Shattered Cranial Cavity (RIP) and this stuff rules. The rest is just drums but what drumming! Fast and ultrafast drumming not unlike Terrorizer, yeah that tight! That was quite a long while ago, but he might still be looking for projects who knows? Try contact him if interested in a killer drummer.

(Disgorgement of Squash Bodies)
Release date: 2002

Review: Ok, let me say right away that I did all the artwork and layout for this one, so I won't comment too much on this, but I hope people will like it; I did my best for it. Anyway, I could hear an advance cd of this Bowel Stew debut album and I think it's great. The primarly influence here appears to be Cannibal Corpse from their early albums ("Butchered at Birth" & "Tomb of the Mutilated" in particular): very brutal and basic death metal. Bowel Stew however also have a rawer, more straightforward grindgore-oriented approach to the style. The grunting and growling vocals in particular are strictly performed with effects, low-pitched, kinda splattery and watery. Guitars are tranchant, thrashing and with pretty catchy riffs, between grind & a more death metal vibe. Drumming is tight, often very fast and catchy. The album is not perfect but still very enjoyable, aggressive, grinding and sickeningly gory death metal album, pretty well-composed as well. There is a big use of intros, and the subject matter is strictly sick and twisted, alot of putrid gore, but also depravity, perversion, bestiality, scat and various other barf-worthy themes. I think this will definitely be a noteworthy album, if you're looking for something repulsive, nauseous, trashy, brutal, gory and horror-influenced, you should dig Bowel Stew a great deal. They're from Italy, Fulci's country and the album should be released by Disgorgement of Squash Bodies from Belgium. Recommended.

Tracks: 1. Invocation of Necrocannibal Rites - 2. Bizarre Ovine Gang Bang - 3. Anal Abortion of Mongoloid Foetus - 4. Intracranial Malignant Tumour - 5. Mondo Cane - 6. Fulci Metal Jacket - 7. Disgorgement of Squash Clitoris - 8. Coprophiliac Atrocities - 9. Lymphatic Varicosities in the Scrotum - 10. Abnormal Rectal Constipation - 11. Bowel Stew - 12. Stench of Rotten Gore - 13. Purulent Disfigurement - 14. Massacesi Commando - 15. Demented Acts of Anatomical Quartering 16. Perpetual Sperm Injections (Gut Cover)
(The final cd should have a gory video clip included & stuff...)

Band Contact:
E-mail: stew@lombardiacom.it
Website: www.bowelstew.ht.st