Might be my impression but this is one of the cleanest, straightest of HAEMORRAGE’s releases. The sound doesn’t come out much messy nor particularly distorted but the sonorities, riff-wise, are definitely of the sort which composed the IMPETIGO irresistible sound. Moshing, almost CARCASS (“Symphonies” era), with alternating low tuned and phlegmy high pitched malignant spurts, for the rest of my opinion read the review of the same-titled picture disc.
Archives: Reviews
GROINCHURN (RSA): “Whoami” CD 2000 Morbid
After a mild lethargy of experimentation and controlled groovy Grindcore which culminated into their previous “Fink” (see above”), GROINCHURN surpass themselves in this excellent “Whoami”. An absolutely thorough Hardcore feel permeates their already established style, bringing their absurd music towards awesome levels of integrity and aggression. Fierce, powerful, but with the undistinguishable grooviness peculiar to GROINCHURN this is a disc that reaches the end in a very short time, a disc you can listen to at any time, donating vigor and energy when you’re on a trip for a concert or whenever you feel somewhat exhausted. There’s something that I like in this album, and it’s the feeling that passes between the crustcore simple, basic melodies, and something that just used to entertain me when I was into crossover/hard core a few years ago, the thing that made you listen to SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, WHERMACHT, CHARLEY’S WAR, CRUMSUCKERS, MOD and similia. I think I gave the idea that I don’t have a clear idea on how to describe this album. It’s weird but yet very classic in its passage. Whatever it is, it’s something I will keep hearing on and on in my car, close to MOTORHEAD’s “On Parole” and “Overkill”.GROINCHURN (RSA): “Fink” Cd 1998 Mobid
Rolling Grind’n Core might seem a bit uncommon definition but GROINCHURN is a very atypical band as well. They have that fresh, original groovy sound despite a vaguely distant Grindcore feel. The riffs are twisted and catchy as fuck, stuff you can definitely mosh and bang your head with. The maelstrom of Grindcore accelerations have a bit faded away, leaving space to those parts that defined their particular approach in their demos, identity which have grown pretty definite. Despite what mentioned before, don’t think they have that DOMINUS-like retro aftertaste, nor any pointlessly melodic ideas. They’re just catchy. To define them still as only grind would fit em pretty tight in my opinion. A more controlled, catchy version of BLOOD DUSTER with some almost AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED experimental “slow” to “mid tempo” contorted parts might be a fair comparison. Vocals are full and growling, sometimes evolving into hysterical screams, always keeping a really interesting level of freakiness and freshness.GRIP INC. (USA/Ca): “Solidify” Cd 1999 Steamhammer
Just like SLAYER seem to have lost good part of its sjoine when Dave left the band a few years ago, seems like their ex drummer have found no much better place to militate. Actually, GRIP INC. is far worse than the latest SLAYER which somewhat maintain a decent share of ferocity, if not their inimitable sound they got in the 80’s. GRIP INC. follow the weakened, tired path of modern thrash metal, with some fair resemblance to WHITE ZOMBIE or STRAPPING YOUNG LAD. That this music is not my cup of tea should be blatant, but to hear this disc while looking at the picture, thinking what kind of absolute, ultimate war machine SLAYER was, it’s disheartening. Yeah I know, there’s no point in making parallels, but so unpersonal, so banal, repetitive is this music, I have no much interest in finding other ways to describe. If you like new crossover or whatever they call it, this is for you. Not for me.GORGUTS (Can): “Obscura” Cd 2000 Serious Entertainment
Long, long time veterans of Death Metal, GORGUTS have lost some pieces during the trip to the 21th century. Only remaining member since the demotape days being Luc Lemay (for what I can read now that I compare the line ups), and what evolved from that old, classic band is now something so weird that even I got hard time digesting it. When I first had KATAKLYSM’s “The Orb of Uncreation” in my hand, it was easy to accept. The school of post-psycho grind was at its beginning but after all, that confused gathering of ordered, technical chaos had still something human in it … and I come out loving it at the very first listen. But the new GORGUTS really escapes any definition of sort. At first you hate it, then you slowly drift to the warped, cacophonous style. And start to read through the lines. Just like with VOIVOD some decade ago. There’s such a schizophrenic yet horrendously technical art behind every instrument, any fucking mind behind these songs must have a perverted genius. This is one of those discs that define one style. But I have my reservations that anybody else would be able to do anything close to this again. I am really speechless.GODS OF EMPTINESS (Ger): “Disobedience” Cd 1998 Perverted Taste
Tracklist
1 - Intro 2 - D-Generation 3 - Best before:65 4 - Pumpgun Symphony 5 - Last Bungee Jump 6 - Burn you Nazi Pig 7 - Destination: Work 8 - Landmine 9 - You're a Sucker 10 - Tiananmen '89 11 - Sick 12 - Bonebreaker Blues 13 - Gert 14 - Invest Your Mind 15 - train Collision 16 - Hate Song NR. 16 17 - Blind Obedience Madness 18 - Tote Fur Mich 19 - Fucking Sense of Life 20 - Unite 21 - Who Do You Think You Are? 22 - Fuck the Fuckers 23 - Disobedience 24 - Outro“Disobedience” is not GOD’s first effort, as the band
did already release a MiniCD in ’96 titled “Blind Obedience
Madness”. I never got to listen their earlier and according
to their letter, different material, so I will not compare this
work to anything previous. What is clear is that the band is playing
a sort of diseased Gore-metallic Grind with alternate guttural
and high pitched vocals characterized by an anomalous precision
and skill. The sound of the instruments are fucking is fucking
bass-saturated and distorted, kinda remind me of some CBT and
SANITY’S DAWN, if we want to keep it in german ground, and vocals
sometimes shifts down to below guttural as say, SUBLIME CADAVERIC
DECOMPOSITIONstyled copro-noises. The music is not entirely and
continuously grinding but oftenitmes is temperated by a punk/core
backbonewhich makes the riffs smoother and more flowing between
a blast and another, like NYCTOPHOBIC, as said before. Songs are
short, to the point, and intuitively speaking by the name of the
songs seem to have a socio-cynical inclination (although humorous
and clever in its directness). All
in all the music is good gore/death metal with a good grindcore
obliquous cut. Good, much good.GODGORY (Swe): “Resurrection” 1998 Nuclear Blast
Slow, moody music, which has some glimpse of death metal vocals amidst keyboards that remind me of some soundtrack from the 80’s like Rocky and Flashdance. The guy likes to whisper, which I suppose is his way to imitate some real talented band like TYPE O NEGATIVE, sadly they have not a single ounce of class. From track 2 on, thankfully in a way, they shift into a cliché of Speed Death Metal with an interesting old school feel. Might be their style, but they are able to mix fairly good tracks like “Crimson Snow” with absolutely uninteresting depressive arrangements like their 3rd track “Adultery”. In my vocabulary slow and sad doesn’t mean automatically shit. But seems like very few bands have the real magic touch for this stuff. And GODGORY is not one of them. Everytime they get almost interesting, they cut it with some idiot use of keyboards… I think I should write two different reviews from this album as it seems like a two bands split with alternating tracks of one and the other… hm. Nah, they don’t catch my attention at all. Get SKEPTICISM is you want depressive shit.