Late Bloomers: Noisem - "Blossoming Decay" CD Review

Okay, so I don't want to spend too much time on this release since the hype around this album was already pretty high and at this point I could cover my eyes and hit a review of this album with a rock. (Of course the metaphor here being that the Internet is a field or some wooded area and that the  metal sites and their reviews are tangible things laying around that I could chuck a rock at. Good? Moving on.)

Noisem made a big splash two years ago with the release of their debut album Agony Defined on A839 Records. A lot of whoop la was made about the old school thrash/death metal sound dished out by these New England teenagers with their sweet riffs. Due to the slight blend of thrash-metal, grindcore and punk, that thing was in every distro and on every blog. Despite how uber crusty the LP cover looked, I still never quite got into that album. The twin guitar solos and thrashy-Slayer-style-semi-clean vocal yells were lost on me. Metal has never been and continues to still not be my bag. I'm sure if I was more into metal and not such a grind snob I would've liked Agony Defined a bit more. I mean it was a decent album. I might also have been imagining it, but Agony Defined gave me an Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses vibe. But what do I know? I'm comparing apples to oranges of two bands I don't listen to.

Now, Noisem returns with their highly anticipated Blossoming Decay; fulfilling several of the many favorable cliched attributes a band's sophomore album could ask for. Too many to list here and now and already written too many times else where. Let's just say it's somewhere between Aliens and Terminator 2. The boys seem to have really matured since their debut. In fact, if I had to choose one word to sum up this new album it'd be "more-maturatismo." 

The recently development heavily rests on the shoulders of vocalist, Tyler Carnes. Carnes spearheads a much darker and heavier sound this time around. His vocals are harsher and carry a renewed intensity that I thought he was missing in a much more passive performance on Agony Defined. 

In the guitars department we find a new bass player, Billy Carnes, brother of vocalist Tyler Carnes joining the group. This now allowing ex-bassists, Yago Ventura, to move from bass to guitar along side of Sebastian Phillips. Together the two wheel and deal palm mutes, solos and and an all around killer thrash style. 

Harley Phillips, you guessed it, brother of guitarist Sebastian Phillips, is also responsible for major changes in the band's sound. The addition of more blasts beats brings the grindcore element to the forefront of the thrash, punk, grind and the standard A839 Record's hardcore sound. The blast beats might be the pivotal reasoning behind my enjoyment of this album as much as I do.

The boys also experiment with some ambient noise intros and interludes. On the LP each side starts with melodic guitar and cello passages. On the CD the tracks play more as a beginning, middle and end. This new choice in experimental instrumentals again showcases the band's growing sophistication as well as helps underline the darkness of Blossoming Decay.

This is not an up and up grind album, but touches base on the old school death-grind sounds of bands like Repulsion and Cretin. I'm also reminded of Agoraphobic Nosebleed's last album Agorapocalypse, which had a huge thrash influence and similar vocals, yet with more variation.

Blossoming Decay is another step forward in the growing music trend of blurring the lines of the extreme genres. Like I said previously, I'm not too experienced in metal, but I'm going to go ahead and pigeonhole Noisem as a thrash-metal band with at least one album I like. The guys finally have an album that I think matches the intensity of their live performances.

FFO: Repulsion, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Cretin, Toxic Holocaust, Brutal Truth

Nagaz Wit Attitudes: Kaliya - Self Titled CD Revew

I actually had to do some leg work to obtain this album. Even though Kaliya hail from my home of DFW, I some how missed show after show and a even a show in which my band was suppose to open for them was cancelled due to overbooking by the venue. Eventually I caught up with the band opening for Aborted on a predominately metal bill. Their merch table was largely ignored, save for the over flow of metal-heads from neighboring tables who used the Kaliya spread as a place to set their drinks down. I think I was the only one who showed up looking to pick up Kaliya's newest release. 

Kaliya's 2015 self-titled CD is way more than just a coaster for some dipshit's half empty PBR. It's a great release from probably Dallas' best kept secret in underground extreme music. Combining equal parts hardcore, metal and melodic grindcore, Kaliya are a refreshing and dynamic addition to the Texas grindcore scene while avoiding the metalcore aspects of other bands that they've been compared to on the web. Lately Kaliya has been playing a string of shows to promote the band's new CD after lying seemingly dormant since their 2011 release, Annihilator. 

Manning the kit and thus putting the "grind" in Kaliya's death-grind cocktail, Jesse Fletcher is a leveled hand of precession and fluidity. His collected and composed style of drumming is in direct contrast with his speed and high quality blast beats. Fletcher blasts with a steadfast bounce that I wish more grindcore bands utilized instead of spastic snare thrashings. Like his speed, his versatility is just as impressive. Steering the helm, so to speak, from song to song, he shifts from d-beats, more mid paced tempos tractored under by flying double bass pedals and even commands the album's slower dirges with heavy, doom laden spills. The ladder two of which allow the death metal and the hardcore root work to shine to the forefront. It's clearly the trifecta of genres that lends to this albums awesomeness. 

The viney network of death metal roots are mostly thanks to seeds sowed by tandem guitarists Thomas Booe and Ben Cooper. Wether it be the expeditious, palm muted riff intros, the whining throwback solos or the melodic leads that bleed through the songs, these guys are responsible for a mojority of the metal sound. The melodic guitar overlays aren't in the vein of Nasum, but hint more towards a blackened metal. You know, it sometimes kind of reminds me of an evil NOFX lead in a way (no disrespect guys.) On the flip side, their crunchy tone and chugging riffs lend credence to the hardcore style imbedded in Kaliya's breakdowns. And these guys are not afraid to break it down. 

Vocally, Tyler Berry is amazing. His harsh style of vocals remind me a lot of Naplam Death's Barney Greenway's later work. That is if Barney had Tyler's range. His low, gruff roars are pretty much standard here. But he pilfers through a throaty bag of tricks that rotate from an even lower guttural to a scratchy high. A Mark Hunt is recorded on the album as back up vocals so it gets a little convoluted on who's doing what. Hunt might be responsible for the goregrind, rabid dog vocals. I'm not sure. What I do know is the vocals aren't just poured over grind tracks willy-nilly. The sound and style seem to show up exactly when and where they are needed. It's a subtle but effective trick and a veteran move.

Kaliya's self-titled album is a texturally layered piece of death-grind. There's a lot going on here and this is a great CD by some very talented musicians. While this album isn't a straight blast fest it is way more encompassing than just your average grindcore record. It's also on the less frantic end of grind and seems to be more stable. More mature. If I had to find a fault, and I feel I'm obligated to, I'd say Mike Arnold's bass is mostly in the background and is token. However this is nothing new in grindcore. Anyways, this is top notch Dallas death-grind. Don't you dare call it deathcore!

FFO: Napalm Death, Phobia, Pig Destroyer

The Name's Core, Grind Core: Unrest - "Grindcore" CD Review

Denak's Grindcore LP, Mind As Prison's Maryland Grindcore 7", Copeater's Wisconsin Grindcore CD, Haemorrhage's Grindcore EP, Phobia's Grind Core EP and now Unrest's Grindcore CD. Maybe not the most creative genre for titling albums, but at least you know exactly what you're getting into. I was formerly unfamiliar with Unrest until discovering this 2015 release on Bandcamp. Unrest is throwing out some hefty chunks of melodic, crusty Grindcore. The band is playing songs split between the signature style of Nasum (which the band openly admits to paying homage) and that catchy riffing that would fall just short of the likes of bands such as Iron Reagan. Grindcore is a little bit of all the forms of the genre presented as a brutal grind mixed bag of nuts. 

I didn't see any names or a current line up on the band's Bandcamp, but from what I could figure out Unrest is a three piece from Philadelphia and Brooklyn. They definitely sound much bigger than a guitar, a bass and a drum kit.

Unrest's heavy handed drummer skillfully marches through this album with a natural precision. He slings out d-beat runs and tempo switches that flow flawlessly between flurries of blast beats, stop/starts and some brief tribal drum filler. Some of the slower passages are marked with double bass rumbles and crashing doom style cymbal work that really shine on this album. 

The guitar work on Grindcore might be the key to the album's grinding eclecticness. Songs weave their way amung various riffing styles while still keeping things fast and furious. They effortlessly shred through your stardard grind blasts while also detouring into doomy intros and breakdowns that are rich in thrash style chugging. These riffs add a lot of crunch, especially in tandem with the drumming. There are a few slower songs on this record that really take advantage of the more melodic and layered guitar sound. 

This melodic guitar and the familiar vocals probably draw the biggest comparisons to Nasum. Just as varied as the grind styles on the album themselves, vocally Unrest mainly put into use low gutterals and screaming highs. Again, these dueling vocals are so Nasum-esque that comparisons can't help but be made. Unlike most grind bands, however, Unrest also apply some cleaner, hardcore vocals that are more reminiscent of early punk and crossover bands. All these vocals pop up randomly from song to song and add a nice depth and freshness to the album. It reminded me of when I first heard the vocal work on my first FUBAR 7".

Overall, this album is highly recommended. Production is on the cleaner side allowing you to hear everything that the band members are doing, definitely not a bad thing in my opinion. Again, The Nasum inspiration can not be over stated, so if you are missing Human 2.0 or Helvete, try this album out. I've already placed an order for my copy. 

FFO: Nasum, Ramming Speed, Afgrund, Bloody Phoenix, Infest (the other one)

A Pessimist For The Rest Of Us: Abaddon Incarnate - "Pessimist" Review

Old school Irish death-grinders, Abaddon Incarnate, first emerged from Dublin's death metal scene in the early 90's and since then have slowly but surely been guiding their helm into grindier waters. The band's first full length, since 2009's Cascade, Pessimist, damn near shipwrecks into the Grindcore Reef. Easily Abaddon Incarnate's best work to date. Pessimist begins where Cascade left off, just as Cascade was the natural progression of 2004's Dark Crusade and 2001's Nadir. These lads not only ground down their emerald metal into a finely tuned death-grind, but sharpened it to a fucking razor's edge.
Track for track, it seems this album has faster blast beats and more of them compared to past albums. Johnny King pummels behind the kit. I'm not saying past recordings featured subpar drumming in the slightest, but this drumming sticks with me a little more for some reason. No choppy/alternating metal blasts, no drab death filler, no boring instrumentals. King brings only speedy blasts trading off with d-beat gallops. I'm probably happiest with Pessimst because even though this is definitely a death-grind record, the guys are keeping it punk as fuck percussion wise.
Where the death metal roots are still exposed in this newest layer of Grindcore top soil are in the guitars, in-which the other three members of the band all play. Guitarists Steve Maher and Bill Whelan and bassist Steve Finnerty use combinations of flying buzzsaw riffs, head banging grooves and interment bursts of naturally placed thrash solos. The guitar tone is perfectly balanced with the sound of the drums; consistent, crunchy, driving, fuzzy with distortion but not too much so that it's chunky or murky. Remnants of younger Abaddon Incarnate still survive in some of the longer, mid tempo songs with stomping riff fests that showcase the musicians' metal know how. There may not be an out of place note on this album.
Vocally, again everyone but King contribute to the mix. Three vocalist dishing out mainly variations of shrill high yells and gruff, low death metal roars. The Grindcore standard.
Overall, Pessimist is Abaddon Incarnate's best album so far. These Irish blasters are tighter and faster than ever, shedding their earlier raw metal sound for a stronger, more up and up grinding assault. The band still keeps well within their traditional standards of dark song writing with an undercurrent of melody; not too far off from Nasum and their many clones. They definitely have a comfort zone as far as song writing goes that you may or may not pick up on depending on how many times you listen to this release or the band's back catalog. But no harm, no foul. This album is a great example of some old schoolers still showing they can kick ass and keep up with the sharpness of today's modern day grind.



FFO: Brutal Truth, Kill The Client, Nasum, Napalm Death

The Soufflet Of The Samurai: UNSU - "K.I.A.I (Kill Icons And Idiots)" Review

UNSU is a grinding four piece from France and their 2014 album K.I.A.I (Kill Icons And  Idiots) is a ripper. I didn't realize this album was released in 2014 until I stumbled on to the band's website and saw that they were hyping up the album's release in December. (I didn't even know bands still had websites.) Had I known this, K.I.A.I. would've been high on my "2014 best of list." Like top 5 at least. UNSU slays the majority of that list.  

UNSU drummer, Adrien, is a blast metronome behind the kit. I'm hearing little in the way of tom work during the speedier passages, which makes up almost the entirety of the album; instead, relying on mostly snare and cymbal work. I love the snare sound in the mix. It's right up front and has that poppy, solid, wood block sound that sticks out. The snare sound makes his blast beats and the pulsing drag rolls he has a penchant for utilizing resonate that much more.

The guitar is nice and hefty with distortion. Bassist Micky and guitarist Manu do their jobs quite nicely driving the songs forward, fleshing out the bones laid down by the equally propelling drumming. I appreciate the fullness of the strong use of power chords. No wankery here, as they say. The bare meat and bones approach is usually the best. These songs are great. 

Vocalist Dam is right in line with the rest of the band. I'm not sure if he's doing all the vocals here, but he's the only one listed as such in the liner notes. Either way, we hear your standard grind vocals here: low gutterals, raspy highs and even higher pig squeals. 

K.I.A.I. is a well rounded album from a great band. Production sounds good but not overly polished; just slightly fuzzed over enough to even everything out without tredding into the "raw" territory. Again, the snare sound is the nicely jaggged edge of this smooth pebble. Popping out in the mix just the way I like it. I've always believed in the emphasis of the snare drum in grind over the more metal mix of counting on the double bass kick. There is double kick presence here, mainly in the hardcore, mosh heavy breakdowns of the longer songs. (Longer songs being about a minute and a half, so we're not talking epic here.) The breakdowns and the songs that open with slower dirges that eventually fall away to sweet sweet blasting seem to be the formula here. If I had to nitpick, that use formula would be the only downside. UNSU use three types of songs on this release: open-dirge-fast, fast-breakdown-fast and all fast. But I don't mind at all. I love the grind formula. I love this album. This thing owns. It's French, bitch! 

FFO: Human Cull, Nolentia, Rotten Sound, Mumakil

Start Panicing: Nervous Impulse - "Time To Panic" Review

Nervous Impulse is a Canadian death-grind band that I was completely unaware of until I stumbled upon Time To Panic, the band's second album. This record is a sonic assault of grind blasts, shredding death metal guitar and some real unbridled vocal mayhem. There's an undercurrent of maybe some deathcore, not unlike late Cannibal Corpse. Especially in the guitar tone and the breakdowns.
The drumming on Time To Panic is what initially sold me on Nervous Impulse. Almost non stop, rapid fire blast beats. The snare drum seems to almost be overflowing with blasts on top of blasts. Snare rolls sandwiched between twitching blast beats that pulse with hyper blasts. The steady machine gun fire of the double bass pedal is a constant trampling hum ricocheting from song to song. At first, judging from the tone and speed of the drumming, I thought the band used a drum machine. The addition of an Agoraphobic Nosebleed cover had me thinking my suspicions were confirmed. Yet, low and a behold there's a name on the liner notes; Yan Chamberlan. The dude's a beast. He's not the flashiest drummer, but he's fast and precise. All killer, no filler.
The guitars are nice and heavy and full of pitch harmonics with the occasional staticy solo. Chuggy stop/start breakdowns fill out the dirge interludes of the longer songs. These slower segments may be a tad on the repetitive side. Possibly the only down side to the album depending on your personal tastes. The audible bass is a pleasant surprise here. Bassists, Felix Bourcier's quick, spring loaded solo runs really stand out within in the songs. Breaking up the structure or lighting the fuse within a song. Everyone on this album is on point and tight.
Lead singer, Eric Fiset, does an insane job of covering mic duties and gives truth to the term "harsh vocals". This guy has about a half a dozen different voices going on here; screechy screams, breathless yells, guttural lows, muffled roars and so forth. His style is rambling just as much as it is ugly and vile. He's like a regular Linda Blair.
All in all, this might be a little too deathcorish for more traditional grinders, but the blast beats are well worth it. Like most of Blast Head Records' catalog, Time To Panic sounds shiny and sharp. Crisp production helps secure the metal sound in the death-grind quintet's latest release. Well, that and the punishment dealt out by the band's speedy riffs and even speedier drums. More speedier? Most speediest.

FFO: Aberrant, Misery Index, Agoraphobis Nosebleed, Cannibal Corspe

It's All In The Meat: Napalm Death - "Apex Predator - Easy Meat" Review

This is a shocking choice for my first album review because it is widely known that I openly dislike Napalm Death as a band. I don't even like their first album Scum. Now all you grinders out there who just recoiled in horror and vomited on themselves, hear me out. I tried to like them. I did. I could never get into them. Not even "FETO" held my interest. And everything after that just seemed liked varying levels of death metal rather than Grindcore. Don't get me wrong, I recognize Shane Embury's genius and I recognize that Napalm Death has influenced the Grindcore genre as a whole. I mean I'm not insane, but still. Napalm Death is a perfect example of a Grindcore band for metal heads who don't like Grindcore. Jokingly I've refered to them as the Metallica of grind: everybody likes their early stuff, they've influenced scores of extreme metal bands, they've been going for four decades and fans are steadfast.

All that aside, this is the best Napalm Death album I've ever heard. Highly decent for their 15th studio album. This is the most venomous I've heard the band sound. I'm shocked at how good Apex Predator - Easy Meat is. I'm very tempted to buy this album. (I can't believe it either.)

Like with any grind album, we'll start with the most important thing -the drums. This isn't a blast fest, by no means. They are there, but the majority of these songs are just straight punk as fuck fast. Accompany this with the thrashy-punk and discordant riffs that are being throw around here and we're in good shape. And when the blasts do come into play, they're blistering and sharp. Very modern sounding blasts instead of the choppy, alternating snare clomps that are typical for some metal/grind acts. All this packaged in a professional studio mix. This album is well produced without being overproduced.

Moving on, my second main concern with Napalm Death, besides their copacity to blast, is their vocals. I've never liked the vocals on any of Napalm Death's earlier releases and I certainly have never liked Barney Greenway's vocals. His past efforts only rang as strained, constipated grunts to my biased ears. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Barney's vocals have improved a great deal. Fluid and consistent, somewhere between Shane McLachlan and Oderus Urungus' gruff roars. And for the record, whoever is doing the backing highs is on fucking point. 

The only down side to this album are songs like the titular "Apex Predator - Easy Meat." Clean vocals accompanied by a Gregorian chant/pirate ditty/that troll song from the 1986 movie Troll style of music. There's a couple of these songs on this album that I'm sure fulfill some artistic vision, but I found completely unnecessary. The cockney tinged clean vocals remind me of early 80's British anarcho punk. Which makes sense since Napalm Death originally sprang from the Crass Records scene. Must be a British thing.

All in all, Napalm  Death seemed to have returned to their punk roots instead of the groove metal they've been passing off as grind since the 90's. This is their stab at keeping up with today's modern Grindcore, much like Brutal Truth's End Time. Not bad.

FFO: Extreme Noise Terror, Brutal Truth, Terrorizer, Phobia