Embodied In Skin

Went into Missing Link recently and picked up the Acephalix - "Patricide" 7" put out by Prank in 2009. Really dug their  "Deathless Master" album of 2012 so figured this would be worth a spin.

The material on this is re-recorded tracks from the 2009 demo and as such is very different to last years effort. This release leans a lot heavier in a Motorcharge metalic crust direction, worlds apart from the atmospheric death sound I was digging. Singer Daniel Butler employs a more typical gruff crust vocal style and the riffs careen along at a suitably cracking pace behind him but i just felt the songs, whilst being catchy enough, were lacking some spark. It's an enjoyable release in it's own right, but i can see it getting listened to a lot less than 'Deathless Master'.

Primitive Underling

So here we have it. Flesh Police's second demo. Had this one for a little while and I've been stupidly slack in posting about it. I heaped hyperbole upon their previous demo here and this new demo is just as deserving. The whole demo hits like a dirty bomb.

Dug the artwork and hand assembled/cut sleeve. DIY as fuck. Time consuming and tedious work but that personal touch makes a lot of difference.

As many others (Skullfucked, Operation Grindcore) have noted the recording has improved a tonne. Which, before you cry foul, works in their favour. Adam Findlay did a good job recording this. Personally I liked the absolute raw as piss, blown to hell shitty sound of the first demo - but this new recording really cleans up their sound giving the songs (many reappearing in slightly altered form) a bit more room to breathe.

The whole bands performance feels a lot tighter this time. Seeing as I have followed a bunch of his bands over the years I can confidently state Lee Yoresh's bass remains as solid and reliable as ever (read: awesome, do not read: boring). I don't think I mentioned the drummer (Olie Rundin) previously. I feel I should rectify this. Keeping the songs grounded with his pummelling, guy can really blast. There is a lot to be said about a good drummer and it's damn tough to find one who can both blast and swing.
 
Duncan's excellent guitar playing is in the fore of this mix and it's nice to pick out the riffs. "Consequence" & "Hour of the Goat" are standouts both featuring uranium soaked filthy mosh parts. There are a lot more grind parts and a lot less slow parts on this demo, which means when they do happen those slow parts really stand out.

What makes this band stand out so much for me is that they don't wear their influences so obviously on their sleeve. Too often "influences" is code for "bands we've most obviously stolen from" and you can't really say that Flesh Police sound like band X or band Y because they use their influences as just that, influences.  They weld, beat and graft those sounds into something new. A rarity in this genre which relies so much on recycling past glories.

You can listen to the demo here.

More Blood is Shed

One of the burning lights of the largely derivative 80s UKHC scene was Heresy. This release in particular, The legendary 'Never Healed' flexi from 1986, helped cement them in the hardcore history books mostly because of it's bullet train drumming and unrelenting pure speed.

Lets get this straight right away - this release is FAST. Even by today's much advanced standards. Just listen to the opening neutron megablast of a track "Despair" and prepare to be blown away. Absolutely essential record. I scored my copy in a trade and I was extremely happy to find that the copy i had scored had all the inserts and stickers it originally came with.

Vile.

Picked this up alongside another tape pretty cheap. Vile Gash - Leech cassingle put out by Life-Rot in 2009.

Call me a total neophyte but this was my first exposure to Vile Gash. I'd heard the name thrown around a bit and when I saw this alongside the other tape i was buying i figured 'why not' so picked it up too. The recording on this tape is absolutely distorted as hell, i imagine the needles were buried heavily in the red. To be honest this worked for me. I think my exposure to a lot of black metal recorded underwater with dictaphones helped though.

What you get here is 3 tracks (Side B repeats) of blitzkrieg hardcore that are apparently not representative of the band, but having not heard their other stuff who am I to judge. My only criticism is that it is all over before you really begin to get a feel for the songs as the only track that clocks in longer then 50 seconds is the third track, a cover. From this tape I wouldn't say I was entirely sold on the band, but I certainly didn't hate it.

Condensed Flesh

This, monoxide inhalers, is The Flesh Police rehearsal tape. Had this posted to me by the guitarist (and all round legendary bloke). Feat. ex and current members of a bunch of notable and upcoming Perth bands (Grandmother & Suffer to name two) and limited to around 20 copies send out to friends, affiliates and total assholes around the country. To put it simply this tape RAGES.

Flesh Police play that special brand of hateful hardcore with dirgey slow parts that tickles my fancy. With catchy, hooky riffs and an absolute rabid dog vocalist (Berkay of Slays4Days fame. Buy his excellent zine here) I think their own description of West Coast Grind Violence does the job nicely of summing them up. When they lock into a groove you can feel the sweat of a pit closing in. More obvious reference points are Crossed Out, SQRM and the new crop of Australian powerviolence influenced hardcore (you know who they are).

Rumour has it of a split 7" due 2013. Really keen to hear what these cats do next. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.

UPDATE: The CS is also available to pay your filthstained dollars for HERE.

Check out a recent set here:

Innocence To Ignorance

Courtesy of a trade board i scored this absolute ripper. A first press of Extreme Noise Terror's 'A Holocaust in Your Head' put out by Head Eruption Records in 1988.

Having picked up the Kuro discography bootleg that has been floating around hearing E.N.T.'s blasting (although for some reason uncredited) cover of "We, the Helpless" was a pleasant surprise.

I had been reading about the recording of this (land speed) record and a brief biography of the band in Ian Glasper's excellent book on UKHC "Trapped in a Scene". In it he accurately describes the record as "Pissed off hateful noise with its roots somewhere between early Discharge and Disorder".

In a weird moment of serendipity i happened to listen to Hellbastard after listening to this record and was immediately struck with how similar the track 'Use your Mind' is to the Hellbastard track 'Pylons' released the same year.

 

Compare the opening rumbling bass riff and guitar counterpoint to the similar hellbastard part occurring at around the 1:08 mark below.

  

Now i am not accusing anyone of anything, it was just a moment of musical geekery that I felt was worth sharing. 

Petrol Sniffer

Was very happy to grab this from The Bay recently. The Self Titled 7" by Sydney rippers Taipan. Notoriously violent live, this 7" attempts to capture that raw intensity. I prefer the material on this to the much better recorded and produced "Ten Day Dawn" 7" of last year.

Many people make a big deal about the supposed "black metal" influence in their sound, no doubt encouraged by stunts such as the Darkthrone aping cover art of their demo. Personally though I wouldn't say I hear 'Black' per se but I definitely hear Death. Especially on the raging 'Khanate' with it's melodic trem picked riff, very reminiscent of Dismember's 'Override the Overture'.

Instead of centre labels both sides have an amusing hand scrawled note:

 

"This ain't it sucker"

"Gross, not even in a fun way"

Here is some footage of Taipan getting themselves into a lot of hot water. Total chaos.