3-way Hygiene Records Review: Gets Worse, Cheap Art, Chulo/Marion Barry

As you may have picked up from the Abuse. review I posted a couple weeks ago, I am in a full on Hygiene Records kick. The NC based label has put out not only some of the most solid grindcore and powerviolence records of the year, but a couple records I consider some of the years best! Here are my thoughts on a three of the labels freshest releases.

Gets Worse shouldn't be a very new name to a lot of you. After all the band burst into the undergrounds consciousness with a punishing debut 10" last year, and a crushing follow up EP a few months later.
Now these UK chuggers take another swing with their new 7", "Negative". A record that's as heavy as it is nice to look at (seriously, these records look f-a-b-ulous). The band may have less run time to work with, but they pack as much burly, raw beef riffs into it as they can. They always struck me as a really good mixture of Weekend Nachos (almost eerily similar) and The Afternoon Gentlemen. They definitely bring the blasts, but for the most part the songs are built around crushing slow chugs that turn your skull into a fine powder. Not really a style I listen to very often, but these guys are definitely masters of the heavy powerviolence art. Do not skip.

Rating: 7.5/10

I remember posting about Cheap Art a while ago as a Bandcamp Artist Of The Week, so I'm very happy to see that they got the record label treatment for their next EP. "Desocialized" is 10 minutes of pure fuck off fastcore, and the band sounds as fierce and and as loud as ever! Now backed by a new
singer (male/female tradeoff), the vocals are fantastically overblown and distorted, but that's about the only gruff thing about this recording. The band sounds much more full and bassier this time around, everything is just bigger and better, and fast as fuck. This band goes off the walls ballistic with their blast parts, like a freight train carrying nitroglycerin going mach 3. But that's not to say that this record isn't also full of tasty riffs and brutal slow passages. Class stuff, definitely one of the best fastcore records I've heard this year, and one that I play often.

Rating: 8.5/10


I'm real happy to see that this record finally came out. We here in the OG headquarters have been fans and supporters of Chulo for a long time, and they have been nothing but kind and supportive right back (their ex-vocalist Oscar even did the art for OG Vol. 2)! Plans for this split kick started over a year ago,
and finally, we have this excellent slab of wax available! Chulo are up first, pulling a Six Brew Bantha and starting off with a pulled back, rawwwww recording, before kicking into the actual well recorded part. The band has always sounded good, and this split is no exception. Solid, ripping grindviolence in the veins of Insect Warfare and Assück, with a little 90's Agathocles and maybe some Canadian fastcore a'la Obacha thrown in the mix for good measure. Lots of really good riffs, solid song writing, a great snare tone that's louder then anything else in the mix (I dig it). While I definitely say Chulo are the winners of this split, Marion Barry's side is a worthy companion. Never really dug this band to heavily, but for what they do, it's good. Noisy powerviolence stuff with lots of screeching power electronic samples and tons of movie clips that are actually pretty amusing ("I'm bout to go from ashy, to classy). They definitely lean on the goofier side of things, mostly in their lyrics, which is totally fine and dandy, but I've yet to be blown away by anything they do. Good split!!

Rating: 7/10

You can pick up all these records, and more, from Hygiene Records. Full support!!!

  

~VII

New Music from Mindless, Total Fucking Destruction, Gets Worse, Nails

New music is coming at me from all sides, so let's try to make it all nice and neat here and list a few bands in one article, shall we? Starting with the long overdue and sure to be triumphant return of the almighty Mindless! A new 7" EP has been in the works for a while now, and recently, To Live A Lie was nice enough to debut 2 brand new tracks from the record. Killer stuff, as I'm sure we all were expecting. The main track is a nearly 2 and a half minute slow trudger, followed by a short and sweet blaster. The band sounds heavy as hell, and Faiza is really getting her lower vocals down very well. "Planet Of Pestilence" will be released by To Live A Lie sometime this year, very excited.

Next up, a new 2 track EP from Total Fucking Destruction, entitled, "Monsters"! I've always really gotten a kick out of TFD. Their blend of humor, tight musicianship, and just overall insanity really captivates me. There's really no other grind bands that sounds quite like them. The tracks on "Monsters" are some of the most unapologetically goofy that the band has made. Wild, arena-rock-on-psychedelics-guitar solos are all over the place, cleanly sung back up vocals, lyrics about everyday suicide, and of course, monsters. It's a super short, but super enjoyable listen. Check it out.

Next is a new 4 track EP from UK powerviolence bruisers, Gets Worse. I guess this was released as a companion to their "S/T" EP (which recently came out on a 10" record, which looks amazing and should definitely be purchased), the new tracks here naturally follow the same formula as that release. Super heavy, beefy powerviolence, like a mix of Weekend Nachos and The Afternoon Gentlemen. The songs here a little more straight forward and blasty, but still keeping the chunky monkey grooves. This young band is really going to get a lot of attention soon, I can feel it. Lookout.

And finally, continuing my trend of staying way behind on the current hot topics, the new track from Nails! This is a band that has always kind of had people wondering where they fit in; "Are they grind?", "Are they a hardcore band?", "Nah dude, they're a metallic hard-grind band". While I definitely don't think they are a grindcore band, I know a lot of grinders like them, and fuck me if I'm not head over heels ecstatic about their new full-length, "Abandon All Hope". This track is a monster, and the band sounds as intense as ever. The new album should be out sometime in March on Southern Lord Records. Way too pumped. But screw that craptastic cover art.

~VII

Bandcamp Artist Of The Week: Gets Worse

GRUFF! Oh man, if you like your powerviolence mean, burly, and crushingly heavy, than you need to listen to the new album from this English powerhouse band, Gets Worse. These songs are fucking tough, and will kick your bitch ass wether you're asking for it or not. Seriously, this album has balls. The production is perfectly heavy. The guitars are just smothered in this deep, crunchy low-end, and the bass guitar just booms right along with them. Like, imagine if The Afternoon Gentlemen and Xibalba decided to join forces, and kidnapped "Unforgivable"-era John Hoffman to do vocals. It's heavy (very heavy) and has a nice balance of fast and slow riffs, it's fantastic. AND! On top of all this, included in the song, "Loner", is a sampled from on of my favorite Adventure Time episodes. Bloody brilliant. A 10" vinyl release of this should be out soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that. 

~VII