Parfumerie - "Transmundane and Unprofessional Delocation of Superfluous Extremities, Organs and Rare Tissues E.P." 7" (2015) Review

The debut Parfumerie EP/demo first emerged from Canada and into the grind world in 2014, and pretty quickly turned a lot of heads. Not only because of the members associated with the band (the usual crew behind Archagathus, Horrible Pain, Violent Gorge, Meatus, etc.), but because it was so.fucking.good. Over a year later, an excellent group of labels got together and gave it a proper, beautiful vinyl treatment. This excellent and disgusting record is one of the best recent examples of goregrind that rocks! Right from the monstrous intro track "Venereal Excavation", which grooves like mash of Mammoth Grinder and Dead Infection. The power of the riff and the love of the golden age of gore and deathgrind is fully embraced in Parfumerie. You won't find a single slam or even a cheesy sample used. Just powerful songwriting and catchy as hell riffs that fester like a putrefied corpse. And layers of over the top, monstrous gurgles and barfed out roars. This thing had to have been recorded on a 4 track tape recorder. It just had to be. It sounds like an old demo that was kept in an attic since the 90's. All six of Parfumerie's songs are quality rippers, and the closing cover of Regurgitate's "Deranged Menarche Injection" is the perfect tribute to a band that gives so much inspiration.

This still remains the only Parfumerie recording that's been released. I'd assume the members other bands take up a majority of their attention, but it would be cool to see a return. If not, they left their mark with a memorable little EP. I highly recommend it.

Listen: HERE!

~VII

Haggus - "Mincecore Until You Die" 5" Lathe Cut (2015) Review

One of my top bands from last year was the unbelievably fun and amazing mincegore band Haggus, from Oakland CA. Although only around for barely two years, Haggus have already recorded dozens of songs and released numerous cassette splits and EP's. All of which are brilliant and highly essential in my opinion. I've been itching to obsessively hoard and collect every release they've done. Like with every mince band I enjoy. I swear it's a curse that these bands are so prolific, but that keeps the fun of the hunt going on. In any case, I was able to finally snag a chunk of their tapes from Mullet Death Records. And also this, the second pressing of the "Mincecore Until You Die" 5" lathe cut. A charming little release that I knew I would have trouble with, but had to own it regardless. This was released on the bands own label, Fuck Your Life Records.

Haggus are a band that is proud to be mincecore as fuck. Fun and greasy to the marrow. Creating a beautiful hybrid of catchy, punky songs, high speed goregrind and brutal imagery. "Mincecore Until You Die" is a tight collection of six songs in their catalog, remastered into a neat little EP. Real banger tracks are on here, all wins no flubs. This would probably be a great thing to show anyone who wants to get into Haggus. The opening track "Accurate Exaggeration" alone pretty much sums up the fun of Haggus in a tight minute. With it's polka beat, memorable stops and powerful blasting. 

The clearly labeled "Second Press" also has a completely different cover then the first. Both were limited to just 50 copies. The thing's also 1-sided to go along with it. I really dig the look of this thing. Going back to what I hinted at earlier about knowing there would be problems with this; lathe cuts have been really tricky for me. They're a gamble no matter how you look at it, and a lot of time the major payoff of having a lathe in aesthetic, not sound quality. Coupled with the fact that my turntable doesn't like playing 5-inch records, I had to do some trickery to finally hear it. I got it played through, and it sounded good. But just mechanically it's not a "throw on and play" record. I just had to have it because it's Haggus and they're too good not to have everything they do. 

Some helpful tips for lathe cuts. I did the old put a penny on the head trick for extra weight. 

A nice little collectors piece from a great band. I hear splits with Archagathus, Lt. Dan and many more are on the way. 

Listen: Here!

~VII

Couple Skate - "Tales From The Corpse" (2015) Review

Man, there was a lot of talk and anticipation floating around the release of this lil' ol 7" record. Personally I was looking forward to hearing this new Couple Skate EP for a couple years. Their vocalist Kyle Schroeder has been a musical commrade of mine from afar for a long time. And knowing him, I was pretty instinctually positive that "Tales From The Corpse" would be good. Couple Skate is a mince/gore trio from Lima, Ohio and has been spreading the gore gospel for a couple solid years. Their debut vinyl EP, "Tales From The Corpse", was finally released towards the end of 2015, thanks in part to over half a dozen labels.

Now generally, if you're in a goregrind band, you will generally be pulling from one of two sides of influences. The side that goes for more of a "riff composed", polka beat/blast ridden, deathy and raw approach (Regurgitate, Dead Infection, early Carcass, Maggut, Squash Bowels, etc). Or the even more raw, noise guitar, toilet vocal, structureless, blast abuse side (Last Days of Humanity, Anal Birth (gorenoise), Inopexia, Phyllomedusa, among countless others). While all these artists are more then likely adored by the members of Couple Skate, the old-school sounds are proudly in their music. They've taken the bold step to actually steer away from the easier latter half and make Couple Skate *gasp* a band. With some real *wait for it* lyrics, and write some *omg* sick riffs! And they do it very well I might add. Look at that, my gut was right. Always trust the organs.

Couple Skate do not set out to revolutionize any part of the goregrind genre on "Tales From The Corpse". You know whatcha gonna get, and they give it to you in every way you could like. All twelve and a half minutes of this EP are incredibly solid and fun. A perfectly balanced amount of super blasting and gore stomping grooves. The classic riffs and chord progressions we've heard hundreds of times are here, and played well. There's Regurgitate and Agathocles worship in abundance. Thankfully they do manage to sneak in a couple real attention grabbings riffs that remind me a lot of Internal Rot. Side B is definitely my favorite side of the record. The opener "Abra Cadaver" has all the fun of a good Rompeprop or Rectal Smegma track. And something about all the songs afterwords just generally sound more savage and aggressive then the flip side of the record. The quantity of samples used is surprisingly very low and used well, and overall the EP sounds very good. Counting the fact that it was recorded on a cassette 4track. The drums, one of my favorite parts of grind, are just a tad too low in the mix which is a shame. I can't hear that snare go BOOM BOOM PANG!

Plenty of people had their hands in putting this out. You got a lot of options and places to pick a copy up from! No excuses! Also let's get more bands to stick three or more variations of their logo on their record sleeves. More!

You should check this out, I give it a solid, necrotic thumbs up!

LINK TO LISTEN: Here!

~VII

Hyperemesis/G.O.D. - Split 7" Review

I've made it pretty frickin apparent lately how much I adore BC, Canada's best goregrind unit,
Hyperemesis. For years now, lone grinder Andy Ringdahl has been crafting festering piles of crucial gore/mince jams. Either recording and performing every instrument himself, or with the newer recruit, Detroit's Issac Horne on drums. At long last, Hyperemesis have a vinyl release, the first of many upcoming. This split 7" with Ontario's long running gore band Grotesque Organ Defilement (G.O.D.). For some reason goregrind has a pretty sour reputation in a lot of grindcore circles, and I can't help but think that most people are listening to the wrong stuff. You know, the transparently cartoony and offensive stuff.  Both bands here really work with the of the early greats of the genre; Dead Infection, Regurgitate, Last Days Of Humanity, etc. There is very little to no outright goofiness or sarcasm on either side, just straight punishing grind that will rip your body into pulsating viscera. Hyperemesis half is a few years old, and was performed entirely by Andy. Three originals and two covers and it's dynamite the whole way through. This is a very good recording for Hyperemesis, the guitars and bass are super thick and soupy, but the riffs aren't suffocated lo-fi harshness. The drums are especially well played, Andy slams the shit out of that snare. That beautiful, tinny, clanky snare. The last two songs are covers, "Slaughterhouse Visit" by Blood Suckers, where Andy pulls off some seriously impressive drum tempos. And "Alexandrian Dissection Exhibition" by Meatus.

G.O.D. come at you on the flip side with a raw and relentless 4 minutes of blasting. Sticking with tradition, the recording is still quite lo-fi and gutter basement quality. But performace wise, G.O.D. don't really pigeon hole themselves to just replaying the same gore-riffs and grooves. For the most part, the music on here is pretty Swedish-sounding grind, but with deep gore vocals. There ain't not a single slow moment or chugging mosh riff in here what so ever. Real deal grind, with a very tasteful Dead Infection cover to close this split up. Buy this!!!

~VII

Parfumerie - "Transmundane and Unprofessional Delocation of Superfluous Extremities and Rare Tissues E​.​P." Review

Though I rarely get around to posting about it on the site, I do have a very big soft spot in my heart for goregrind. It's hard to find a genre as ridiculous, gimmicky, or just plain fun as this one in extreme music. Trouble is, it's hard for a goreginrd band to impress me enough to warrant posting, outside of Phyllomedusa. But a few weeks ago some live videos of this band Parfumerie caught my eye and I was blow away by their energy, catchy songs and stage presence. I've been looking for recordings ever since and it appears that yesterday a whole EP was posted! Parfumerie is actually a trio featuring Joe (on bass and vocals) and Dan (on drums) of Archagathus, and they lend their great, catchy song craft heavily into this project. "Transmundane and Unprofessional Delocation of Superfluous Extremities and Rare Tissues" is an instantly enjoyable goregrind record, right from the thick beefy, Coffins-ish instrumental intro song, "Venereal Excavation", with some great grooving, chugs and some great trembelo picked riffs. That leads right into the blaster track "Upheaval Of Partially Digested Innards". Each track is a perfect little piece of goregrind compositioning. Great, memorable riffs and song writing bits like the evolving groove of the end riff on the closing track, "Deranged Menarche Injection -//- Regurgitate",  show to me that the same care and attention was given to this band as it was to the guys other main projects. Not to mention, this thing sounds fantastic. The guitars and bass are crazy thick and punchy, and dan gives a great drum performance with tons of kick/snare blasting (just think Regurgitate's "Carnivorous Erection"). This was a great first release from this project, definitely something I can see any gorehound drooling over. Can't wait for more in the future.

Rating: 9/10

~VII

Ladies and Gentlemen; Phyllomedusa

I admit, I'm not what you would call a scholar on the "gorenoise" genre, but I do recognize it when I hear it, and it certainly takes a lot for me to take time out of my day to do a full article about one band who plays this style. If I'm doing that, you know that this shit's worth checking out. So all that being said, Phyllomedusa! The sickest one-man gorenoise project out of Baltimore, Maryland that your likely to hear, with one of the coolest logos I've ever seen.

Tons of things to talk about from this dude. For one, his discography is MASSIVE. About 70+ releases since 2007 according to his Facebook page, so it could be a bit intimidating knowing where to start. Fortunately, pretty much everything I've heard by him brings the same level of noisy destruction. For the beginners though, I'd say check out the album "Crepitate In Raorchestes Idiom". It's one of his more "polished" records, but that's still sounds very reminiscent to albums like "Putrefaction in Progress" by Last Days Of Humanity. But like, you know, kinda better. A brutal cover of "Phllautus Elimination" by F.I.D is included on there, it rips. 

Phyllomedusa also takes the "animals > humans" aesthetic, which is nothing new, as anyone familiar with bands like Animals Killing People or Cattle Decapitation can attest. However, I've never seen a grind band like this dedicate their whole schtick to one species in particular, in this case, frogs! Those cute little guys are the main inspiration here, and saving them from a grisly death by human hands is the mission. It may seem a little gimmicky, but everything from the song titles, to the concepts behind the albums seem amazingly genuine, and you're more than likely to learn a thing or two if you actually take the time to look up the meanings to these songs. Aside from that, there's a lot of cool frog-based artwork to go along with the albums. 

I know that Phyllomedusa isn't going to be for everyone, but I really do think this dude is making some killer jams, and I know that if you dig into his discography enough, you'll find something you'll like. Fans of grind, gore and noise music should find a lot to like here. I highly recommend the albums "Birdkiller", "Been Caught Herping" and the aforementioned "Crepitate In Raorchestes Idiom" as good starting points. Check out his blog, where he has all his releases available for download, with descriptions about each one included, and give him a "like" on facebook. 

~VII