Hatred of Solitude

Melbourne heshers Sewercide recently finished a residency at the Gasometer, which meant for the past few weeks my midweek urges for violent grind/hardcore had an outlet. The second show had a killer lineup featuring Sewercide, Doubled Over, Trench Sisters and newcomers Blood Rule. Doubled Over and Trench Sisters ruled as per usual but I want to talk about Blood Rule. I knew nothing about them and to be honest they were super sloppy and noticeably under rehearsed but despite this I was really impressed with their blend of death, hardcore and grind. So a few days later I picked up their demo at Missing Link. I am really glad i did. I can't stop playing this tape. It makes me want to destroy things.

Before i rant about the music i just wanted to note that I really dig the cool red jewel case and cassette. Onto the demo. From the first song (absolute crusher "MPR") this demo is custom built to start pits. Heavy mosh parts, doom influenced riffs and a really cool dirty bass sound (the first thing i noticed live was bassist Ryan's tone). I guess I would peg their sound as between Noothgrush's doomier moments & Crossed Out's faster moments.

The recording captures them perfectly, a cleaner slicker production job would lose some of the dirty hostile vibe. I wouldn't want them sounding any clearer then they do on this release. I think it will be a tough call between this and the new Flesh Police demo for demo of the year for me, I am that confident about this.

You can listen to three of the tracks on the demo here and i highly recommend you do.

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.

This is a blank formatted diskette.

I have been following local band Forces since catching them by chance live and really liking their blatant Depeche Mode worship. This unique release is their debut single 'Ice' put out by Siberia Records in 2011 on a playable postcard. I hadn't seen this format before but apparently they were quite common in the 60s and have been making a resurgence with the increase in interest in vinyl. With a bit of research I saw the ever reliable Pirates Press press them, so I can imagine I will be seeing a few more of them around. 

The track itself is a pretty great 80s stomper, sounding as i mentioned before akin to Depeche Mode with more of an EBM edge. The band does a great job of capturing that hard 80s industrial drum sound with a harsh electronic snare that wouldn't sound out of place on Pretty Hate Machine. Give it a listen here.

You can buy a copy here.

All in Deeper Shit.

I spoke about AIDS in an earlier post. Was stoked to score this on Ebay a few months ago as it is pretty hard to come by. That said I have seen it pop up a few times. Definitely happy to have this as I really like the way they pull off their brand of fast hardcore.

The 'Fuckface' CDR put out by the now defunct (or at least very very quiet) Fuckface Records in 2003. My copy is part of the machine stitched red fabric sleeve with hand stamped face edition of 100. Another 25 exist in yellow envelopes and the material here was also pressed to flexi in 2004 and limited to 40 copies. I have missed out on the flexi version a couple of times on Ebay as it tends to blow up way outside what I am  willing to pay. Unsurprisingly the songs here are very similar in style and structure to the material on the Infection CS (recorded a year earlier). Extremely fast hardcore. One major difference is the vocals are shared between members on this release due to the departure of the former singer and as such vary depending which member is emptying their lungs. You can read more about this release at the bassist Rohan's blog here.

From tombs of scorn cadavers rise.

Kind of an obvious post this one. First press of Morbid Angel's 1991 classic 'Blessed are the Sick'. Very happy to add this to my collection. I have a massive amount of love for early death metal and the early Earache Records roster is pretty much untouchable. A lot of people have had a lot to say about him and his business practices but one thing cannot be denied: Digby sure had an eye for great bands.

This record almost defines the "classical 90s death metal" sound. Ticks in all boxes: mid paced riffing (still blinding in skill and dexterity) lower and more guttural vocals and muddy production. If you even have a passing interest in extreme metal and don't own this record in any form you are doing yourself a disservice.

Burning Chrome

This is a test press of Chrome Dome's 'Negative Vibes' 7" released by EXSS records in 1999 and limited to 150 copies. Picked this up from DX (of Distort zine fame) online when he was selling some records. Nothing fancy here just the record in a plain sleeve. Chrome Dome are a band I waver between really liking and finding incredibly annoying. Obviously i like them enough to pick up this test press.

Starting in 2009 and playing minimal synth with a heavy goth influence, Chrome Dome bring to mind the damaged synth of Primitive Calculators and the whole post punk "Small Band" scene they helped create. They strike me as a band that could only have formed in the art friendly incubator of Melbourne. Which is not to say this brand of synth punk couldn't be peddled in other Cities, I just find their whole approach to be for want of better words "very Melbourne". A friend of mine puts the classic battle between this way "Like assholes? move to Sydney, wankers more your style? Melbourne's your place". 

My small collection is pictured below. (From Left to right clockwise: Cut Ties 7" - Nihilistic Orbs - 2011, Self Titled 7" - NoPatience Records - 2010,  Self Titled Cassette - Psychotic Reaction - 2010).
 

Their self titled cassette and only full length (to my knowledge) wavers between slinky synth punk numbers ("Life is a Party") and tracks like "I Can't See Her" an annoying dirge featuring obnoxious vocals that sound like two people lost in a nightclub yelling at each other trying to indicate where one of their lost friends are over a cobbled together synth line. Despite their flaws I remain intrigued enough to steadily pick up their releases.

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.