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.

Enter the realm of chaos, your nightmare has just begun.

One of the bands that helped introduce me to grindcore (and extreme metal in general) are England's mighty Bolt Thrower. I really lucked out and picked up first presses of both Warmaster (1991) and the gatefold edition of Realm of Chaos (1989). Both records are absolute masterpieces of their style and arguably their best material.

Guitarist Gavin Ward's dense crushing tone and vocalist Karl Willetts' guttural vocals form the backbone of the classic Bolt Thrower sound, perfected on these two records. Hitting a great mix between the fast blasting material and a slower death metal influenced riffing style are what make the band so unique. Riffs like the epic and catchy "Eternal War" and the grinding mid paced "World Eater" are hardly bettered in the world of extreme metal.

'Realm of Chaos' had the original lyrics booklet featuring the lyrics aside artwork taken from the world of Warhammer 40k, obviously a massive inspiration on the band. For closeups on select pages see below. The dark unforgiving world depicted really adds to the whole experience of the band and the original artwork is infinitely better then the recent CD release. For an interesting read as to why they had to change the artwork and how the band feels about this (VERY displeased) read the Ask Earache blog here.

Gene Mutation

So this is the Kromosom demo released by singer Yeap's label Hardcore Victim in 2010.

I don't think I really need to talk about this too much as most of the people who read this blog would already be into this band. I will just say I like this band more then I liked Pisschrist.

For bragging rights I also have a copy of the "Official Bootleg" version released by Total Fucker for the US tour. It basically looks the same except the cover is orange. So i figured it wasn't worth a photo, plus i am feeling slack tonight. Mine is hand numbered 14/50 for those who want to geek out with me.

Distort Finlandia

Caught these cats live a while back with The Zingers and they absolutely blew me away. Total Finnish hardcore worship of the highest order. Soon as i got home I sourced a copy of their demo from Magick Crowbar. Since then i have seen copies floating around at Missing Link and distros here and there. I can't recommend seeing them live and picking this up enough.

Unique aggressive screaming/yelled vocals and wailing guitar, self described as a mix between Discharge, Disclose & Disorder this should appeal to fans of Kromosom. No big surprise seeing as they have an ex-member in their ranks (Matt for those curious).

 

You can read a short but interesting excerpt of an upcoming interview with them from 'Stitches in my Head' zine here. Amusingly the first time i stumbled across that zine was the day after i received 8 stitches to my head after an Extortion show that they happened to be reviewing. This tape has got me wired to hear the Flexi when it comes out. Brisbane fans if you dig you can catch them on tour June 15th (Animal House) and June 16th (Squatters Arms) with all round great dudes Vaginors.