Monthly Archives: September 2007

RELEVANT FEW (swe): s/t split Cd with AFGRUNG (swe) 2006 Life Stage

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Afgrund - Relevant FewCompared to the bestial burst of Afgrund, I am not overly impressed by Relevant Few. Too much wanking in the field of dissonance and disharmonies, and all the grindcore energy sinks in the overuse of these experimental bridges. The vocals are lacking real solidity, they’re more like an exercise in screaming that real outbursts of rage if you know what I mean. Seems like the band is lacking in anger  and anger in grindcore is everything. That said there are a lot of interesting aspects here that deserve to be exploited like precise drumming, decent production, brilliant ability to sew together the riffs in a flowing song that parts from the classic schemes, and an interesting array of lyrics. Comparisons might be done with “as far from metal as possible” grindcore bands like His Hero Is Gone or Man is the Bastard but that just scratches the surface – I am not good with finding similarities. Blasting grindcore a good 90% of the time, too bad for the really useless use of leaks and weird harmonies – I’d go for the throat instead.

Top track is the last one, where the band seems to have finally shrugged away the bullshit and did everything the right way. Screams, blasting, guitar hammering for 61 seconds. If I had to save a song it would be this one.

AFGRUND (swe): s/t split with RELEVANT FEW (swe) 2006 Lifestage

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Afgrund - Relevant FewMan I am so fucking stupid sometimes ah ah! I really don’t want to like it, I always try to convince myself that I don’t like political grind but everytime I hear a band that rips like this Afgrund does, I always have to admit: “fuck, this is goddamn excellent”. Another footprint in the fresh concrete gallery of Swedish Grind. Afgrund belong to this new generation of grindcore that just surpassed the big change of the late 90’s when bands like Nasum began installing super productions in a genre that had deep roots in the filth of crusty punk. This new breed has all the good elements of this late grindcore kind but also a massive sound and loads abrasive energy by the dozens. Names that come up to mind when looking for comparisons are those of their first label No Tolerance – Krigshot, Skitsistem, Wolfpack etc. in other words extremely powerful and groovy grind with a huge sound prouction – this is really nice shit. Good replacement for a Red Bull when driving home in the late of the night. Sometimes this fat sound gets almost messy and a bit splatterish, one can even dare to say some early Malignant Tumour or Squash Bowels hints appear scattered in the songs. I only didn’t like much the very last song “Det Sista Brevet” – ithas some dissonance that I never manage to tolerate. Perfect packaging by Szymon Siech (always a master), since I guess the lyrics are of the introspective/social kind, I really don’t care if they are in English, for once – ah ah!

They have a full-length out now, called “Svarta Dagar” on the same label Lifestage – check out the cover, it’s KILLER. (weird, the label’s website is severaly outdated…!).

FORMICIDE (USA-Ma): “Formicide” compilation Cd 2006 Due Process

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Formicide - FormicideDespite I have been into Thrash Metal for a long while when it was vibrating and alive and not a resurrected corpse (I want to stretch this becouse I am really sorry but today there is so much hype about Thrash in Italy that I really cannot stand it much anymore) I admit I never heard of Formicide before. Thanks to Andrew of Aversionline for rediscovering the band for us ignorant worms. I read that the tracks have been ripped straight from the tapes, if that’s the case I am sorely impressed, all the instruments have a punch that I can barely find in professional recordings. I do not mean it is elegantly encased in a super production, I mean it has the real Metal crunch of the ’80s – hell I can even hear the bass lines clearly, I really wonder why some people had a problem with the production of this collection of demos.

Talking abot the music, Formicide is playing pure American Thrash/Power Metal (Power Metal as in Metallica or Jag Panzer, not Blind Guardian – dick) and later evolved into the mildly interesting HC band Only Living Witness (I have seen the band with Cro Mags years ago and they were hopelessly annihilated). The number of power riffs on this album is uncountable, there is really a load of pure Thrash energy loading these tracks. And the vocals too are not just a moan, but aggressive and raucous without sounding indistinct. That said, I realize now that I am really not much more into this kind of music. I like the single songs, but I cannot really listen to the whole thing in a row, two subsequent spins have really exhausted my reserves of energy. I cannot really tell why becouse this thing is technically perfect, with a perfect share of solos and a spectacular drumwork. Must be I am more into really primitive Metal from exotic countries these days, and after hearing Mortuorio a few hours ago my ears were calibrated on a different frequency. Whatever. I am sure this thing is going to please anyone looking for neat Thrash with all the right proportion of screams and palm muted riffs. In my case I am not sure I will be putting this on again soon…

NECROS CHRISTOS (Ger): “Grave Damnation” compilation Cd 2005 Worship Him

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Necros Christos - Grave DamnationNecros Christos from Berlin. A phenomenon that has exploded like a burst of flames straight from Hell taking everyone by surprise, cabonizing churches and immolation priests praying for salvation. The whole underground is buzzing and murmuring on how fucking great this band is. And, well, I could not but agree with the mainstream this time. Necros Christos is really the best Death Metal band coming out of the underground in the last few years – it incarnates perfectly every parameter that makes Death Metal the sickest and darkest form of Art of all times. I cannot tell exactly HOW they do it but the band is able to recreate a kind of dark, hypnotic, demonic atmosphere which moves something inside me that was slumbering inside me since the early nineties. Influences of Hellhammer (a LOT of Hellhammer), Incantation, Imprecation, Symphony of Grief, early Samael, old Paradise Lost and some old school Finnish doom/death (and damn I can even say Disincarnate) are abundant but perfectly balanced in a strictly personal interpretation Metal of fucking Death which is equally obscure and spiritually powerful. This is a band which is 280 times more Black than your average Norwegian penguin. Everything is stripped to the bone, leaving only no nonsense quality music. The vocals are deep and demonical, reverberating as if they were coming from beyond the grave, the guitars deep and grating, slowly evocative of images of gothic damnation. There is really something infernal going on here, haven’t heard this kind of feeling since Immolation‘s “Dawn of Possession”.

Worship Him records re-released this third Necros Christos demo “Grave Damnation” in Cd format – which is a bit disappointing for me since this is the only one I already had in tape, but whatever, anything from this band seems to be sold out nowadays so it is a great buy for people looking for anything by the band. The packaging is superb and everything again just falls in its place in this grand design of blasphemic necromanic Death Metal . A great Goatlord cover ends the Cd.

I am sure I have already heard something similar in style in the past but really cannot remember when… what matters anyway is that Necros Christos has a full-length album out now, so go for it as well.