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.

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.