Suffering Mind 2015

It looks like Poland's grindcore Czars Suffering Mind are going to dominate yet another year with their masterful and expansive recording output. Seemingly never slowing down despite line-up changes and missing band members (that was scary). The duo of Kuchar on guitar and Daro on drums have proven their complete loyalty and dedication to their band. Reaching out to some of the best projects the Canadian, midwest and European scenes have to offer and releasing split after incredible split. The status that Suffering Mind made for themselves as one of the most impressive grind bands today, doesn't dismiss the fact that these guys are fans of the music, first and foremost. Getting connected to and supporting the smaller bands they love as much as any of us do. Grindcore to the bone in a completely down to earth kind of way.

Suffering Mind will finally be making their way on to some North American soil for the annual Maryland Deathfest, as well as a few select shows along the mid and East coast (a few of which I will be attending). Performing alongside some newer split partners like Lifes, Nak'ay and Excruciating Terror. Let's hope that at least a few of these new records will be out in time for these shows. New tracks and cover art from these obligatorily amazing records has already shown the light of day. And so, let's get into the real point of this post, showing off some cool music!

One of my personally most anticipated records is the split 7" with Edmonton's fastcore spazz kings Detroit. Both sides of this record have been put online, and both are expectedly fantastic. Detroit's side is 13 tracks in something like 3 minutes of blood-red raw fastcore. Seriously hard stuff, this band has yet to let me down. Suffering Mind have 3 new tracks and a Dropdead cover. Longer songs, all with a lot more metal/grind chord progressions, and some very powerful screaming vocals. There is a very strong animal rights message on their side, made even more abundantly clear by the excellent cover art by Roland Straller. No idea who's putting this out yet.

THIS RECORD! This is the kind of split that just seems destined to happen. If you're not yet aware of Nak'ay, then you have a bit more homework to do. These guys (now a duo) have been making some of the heaviest blaturbation grindcore I've heard in a while. The kind that sounds like if you put Insect Warfare, Kill The Client and Blasphemy in a blender and then put that on fast forward. Originally going to be a 7", Fat Ass Records has decided to boost this behemoth up to a full 12". The amount of blast beats on this will be down right illegal. Two songs and some amazing cover art have been posted today from Suffering Mind's end. A rawer recording, and unadulterated blastcore the way Suffering Mind do. I got to say I'm really liking their new vocalist Ben's sound. He has a much more unhinged, visceral higher scream then SM have really had before. No word yet on Nak'ay recordings.

Of course SM eventually got around to doing a split with Agathocles. My only question is why did it take until 2015!? So far there is one song and a Dezerter cover from Suffering Minds side. Hopefully Agathocles can offer up some new tracks for this record instead of some live gig someone recorded on their Walkman. This will be released on Dark Side of Punk Records.

Lastly, as many of you may already know (maybe I told you), Suffering Mind's 2nd 12" of new recorded material will be released soon! The new record, entitled "Waste Farm",  will be Suffering Mind's first new full length since their "S/T" record back in 2010. Almost half of the album has already been put up for stream. And from the look of things, it looks like "Waste Farm" is going to be a super short and tidy slab of 100% grind. I'd be surprised if this thing goes over 15 minutes, which is perfectly fine by me! A real treat for all grind fans comes on track 12, where none other then Spinach from Assück makes an appearance on vocals! "Waste Farm" will be coming out soon on 625 Thrashcore and Crucificados.


Other records in the works include a 1-sided LP compilation of their long out-of -print splits with Asshammer and Septic Surge on Give Praise/Power It Up Records. A split 7" with Lifes and two split 10"s with Endless Demise and Warfair? Grindcore is alive and well.

~VII

Some Recent Noteworthy Splits

2013 is very quickly wrapping up, and yours truly is scrambling trying to get together an end of the year list. Truly, this is not an easy feat. 2013 has been a gargantuanly good year for grindy violent music, and more so then any year prior, choosing one release over the other is a hard task (though I do have a pretty firm idea what my #1 record is). To start wrapping things up, here's a couple brief reviews of some recent splits that I feel are worth checking out. If you're still working on your own year end lists, here's a couple more you might want to consider.

Suffering Mind/Six Brew Bantha - Split 7"

(all photo's by VII)

Suffering Mind are no stranger to praise on this blog. The Polish grind Gods are seemingly in a perpetual state of constant writing and recording, and have proven record after record that they are not a force to be ignored. Halo Of Flies brings us their pairing with Six Brew Bantha, one of Canada's best. Suffering Mind's side is a constant shredder of solid grindcore perfection, throwing in some serious headbanger grooves, and ends with a fucking Zardoz sample (personal highlight). SBB just get better and better every record. Each song on here is like a mini-grind epic, throwing out riff after riff like they're ninja stars at every chet who can't handle the blast. And they still have the best snare tone in grind. 100 were pressed on white and red (I'm a fanboy and own both), with a remaining 500 on black. 

Archagathus/No Thought - Split 7"

I think Archagathus had almost 20 records released this year, at least. It's getting quite difficult to keep up with this band, who are quickly becoming a personal favorite. Everytime I get one of their illusive, over-the-border records, I hear of about 5 more that are coming out. Can't stop the mince. Here's a beauty of a 7" split they did with No Thought from Denver, CO. Released by Uranium Overdose Records. Two re-recordings of some more obscure Arch songs. Great stuff, their recordings are always a ton of fun. No Thought play a disgusting, brutal, deathy grind style that I fell in love with instantly. Anyone who's into bands like Goner, Nak'ay, Insect Warfare and Pizza Hi Five are in for a treat. Beautiful looking vinyl too. Hand-numbered out of 525 copies.

Archagathus/Nak'ay - Split 10"

I could not wait to get my mitts on this guarenteed-to-be-awesome split when I first heard about it. It's announcement caught me completely by surprise, and I scoured the internets looking for anyone who had a copy, until the always excellent Diseased Audio ended my quest and supplied with this crucial fix of raw grindage. This being Archagathus's first 10" split, I was even more excited. Nak'ay are a band that are just too good at what they do. They play brutal grind, and they do it exceptionally well. The blasting just does not stop! Definitely a band I can't wait to hear more from. Archagathus dish out some raw, metallic mince, and I believe most of these are new songs (as a brief look on Discogs tells me). Fortunatley this record is more widely available now, and you can pick it up from Haunted Hotel Records, Grindfather Productions, Witch Bukkake Records, and many more.

Suffering Mind/Water Torture - Split 7" Flexi

The next split was released by Mannequin Rein Recordings, and highlights two of the undergrounds best. On here we got the previously mentioned Suffering Mind, and Buffalo's heaviest, Water Torture. Originally this was going to be a 5", but ya know, those cost 12 arms and 32 legs to make, so we have a killer 1-sided flexi! This is my personal white copy.  One song from each band, as is the usual formula with the planned SM's 5" splits. One 2+ minute slow dirge-ala-Noothgrush from WT, which has some of the most wretched vocals the band has recorded yet. Suffering Mind give us an almost 2 minute super blaster that has some excellent stops-starts and some crushing chugged chords. A pretty good introduction to each band I'd say.

Suffering Mind/Dead Church - Split 5"

More Suffering Mind, this time with an actual 5" record split with Dead Church, released by 7Degrees Records. One song from each band, and woah man do both pack a punch. Dead Church are on full berzerker mode on this track, going from 0 to 150 right from the start. It's a loud, fast, and incredibly solid punch to the nose. My favorite from the band so far. Suffering Mind's song is great, don't think I should have to tell you at this point. The whole split is less than 2 minutes, but it's a great listen the whole way through. And every copy comes on beautiful blue wax, and has gatefold digi-pack packaging. Quality stuff.

Ultra//Negative / Ira Graves - Split 7"

Lastly is a devastating split from two bands that are definitely due for some attention. Ultra//Negative, a band that I've had interest in for a couple years, but rarely find updates from, were kind enough to supply me with this record, many thanks guys! U//N are a bassy, sludgy, kinda spazzy powerviolence band. Like if Charles Bronson smoked a lot of weed, found sludge music, and de-tuned their instruments 2-whole steps. Ira Graves are a band I hadn't checked out previously, but I'm a definite fan now! Powerviolence with a bit more standard Infest/Crossed Out influence, with a little Vaccine thrown in their and some death growls thrown in mixed with throat ripping screams. Buy it!

~VII

New Upcoming Extortion Splits are STUPIDLY AWESOME!!

I've been very up-front with my love for the Australian grindcore/powerviolence scene on this blog. And anyone who knows me, or has seen my record collection, know's that I have a special place in my heart for Extortion. Everyone should know what this band is about by now, and if you don't, shame on you, buy their records immediately. Their recently released split 12" with Cold World was an excellent return form, after a few underwhelming splits with Completed Exposition and Septic Surge (I should probably review that record soon). But the awesomeness doesn't stop there, because according to a recent post on their blog, it looks the these Aussie fuckers are hard at work writing and recording songs for four, count em, FOUR sure to be amazing and legendary splits. 

"OTHER NEWS. THE COLD WORLD SPLIT LP IS OUT, AND THOUGH  WE'VE RUN OUT OF OUR ALLOTMENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET A COPY FROM RSR OR SOME HELL COOL DISTRO SOMEWHERE.
WE'VE WRITTEN FOR AND ABOUT TO RECORD OUR SIDE OF THE HATRED SURGE SPLIT 7". THEIR SIDE IS RECORDED ALREADY SO SHOULDN'T BE TOO LONG A WAIT TIL ITS OUT ONCE WE'VE GOTTEN IN ALL HELL RECORDED.
ALSO IN THE WORKS IS SPLITS WITH LOW THREAT PROFILE, AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED AND BASTARD NOISE. WE ALSO AIM TO RECORD OUR NEXT FULL LENGTH LP SOMETIME HELL SOON."

Holy.fucking.shit. I knew about the Hatred Surge split, but I had no idea that it was so near completion. Fucking outstanding. But those splits with ANb and Bastard Noise, man. I mean...that seems almost too good to be true. Some of my favorite bands..doing splits...my brain almost can't take this much awesome sauce. 

~VII

Interview: False Light

False Light, if I way be so bold, is one of the most impressive new grind/powerviolence bands I've heard in the last couple years. Even when they put up half of their excellent self-titled EP on bandcamp, it was some of the best music I've heard this year. I've listened to their EP countless times, and it really is one of the most enjoyable releases of 2012. In my effort to spread the word and get every single person aware of the force of nature that is False Light, I bring you this interview, done via email, with their vocalist, Patrick(I never got his last name).

Operation Grindcore: Boring question first, how did the band start? 

Patrick: We were all in bands that either broke up or that we stopped playing in around the same time. Brian's old band was actually also called False Light which I almost did vocals for when I was still in my old band, but it never worked out. But I stayed in touch with him, and we finally were able to work on something together.  

OG: Your EP is one of the best things I've heard all year, How long did it take to write the whole thing?

Patrick: Thanks! We started jamming together as a band at the very end of 2011 and recorded in March. We had some songs come and go, but everything was done in that time. 

OG: The recording sounds absolutely disgusting and raw, in the best ways possible, of course. Did you guys intentionally go for a sound like that?

Patrick: Absolutely. Grind should sound disgusting. Our friend Cory who recorded us is a genius, and he nailed the sound we were trying to capture.

OG: My friend wants to know how you get your massive bass tone. Care to share the details? 

Patrick: For the recording we ran an Electric Volume Unit 120 through an Emperor 2x15 and used an HM-2 and a Peavey t-40. This gave us the tone we were 

looking for, but we also recorded a clean DI track that really pulled out a lot of clarity and punch. Nothing overly intricate.

OG: Do you guys generally prefer the rougher sounding recordings, or do you see False Light getting a more refined studio recording in the future? 

Patrick: We definitely appreciate quality studio recordings. We're not pretentious enough to act like that isn't something that is important. The trick is still keeping a gross sound but one that is clear at the same time and hits hard. 

OG: Where do your lyrical themes stem from? They's some pretty grotesque and negative things being described.  

Patrick: Like most aggressive bands, I tend to write about things that piss me off. Whether it involves politics, religion, animal rights, or human nature, it's easy for me to write about issues that trigger emotion. Which is why a lot of my lyrics also deal with really personal issues like anxiety and depression. 

Get Your Skull Stomped By Sordo

See, I'm really trying to get creative with my titles. All the other blogs I follow really have the quirky/kinda tongue-in-cheek title thing down. So, bare with me while I get better at it. I think only fans of the band will actually get the reference I'm making in the title here. Anyway, the band in question is the mighty Sordo, who are quickly becoming one of my favorite bass/drum powerviolence bands. People in the know will recognize this as the main musical outlet from our bosom buddy Eduardo of DIY Noise.

This California trio really know how to tear shit up, and have gotten better and better with each release they put out, consistently. Originally, they were a stupidly raw, almost bordering on noise, powerviolence band. But, with the recent recordings, their music really breaks through and makes the band truly shine. On their recent splits with Crutch and Chulo, the band sounds better than ever. The bass is absolutely punishing and thick, and the drums have an excellent punch to them. Kinda reminds me of the drum sound on the Water Torture EP. But most importantly, Sordo really knows how to write songs that are as enjoyable as they are brutal. And even better, I don't think there will be any shortage of new Sordo material! Their list of upcoming splits is just staggering. Follow them on Facebook and check out their split with Chulo below!

~VII

Sidetracked's Upcoming Release List Is Fucking Incredible

Looks like Suffering Mind have some competition for having "The Most Jizz In Your Pants Worthy Upcoming Releases" list. True, that's a bit of a long titles, but I honestly can't think of a more suitable and fitting way to describe how absolutely incredible this list is. The Tacoma, WA fastcore unit, lead by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Jay Tichy, has been keeping busy and putting out quality fast jams for several years now. They even released my 3rd favorite EP of last year with their 1-sided 7", "Uniform". This year has already seen the release of the "Wrench" cassette, and a 7" entitled "Forfeit". But if even 1/2 of these releases come out this year, I think my little fastcore heart would burst with joy! Take a look over at Jay's blog and will show you his "Upcoming List" in better detail, but since you all are probably too lazy to click that link, I'll do you a solid and post it here.


1. Self Inflicted split 7inch (pre-order this now at Deep Six Records)
2. Gaz 66- Intrusion split 7inch
3. Walk it Off single
4. XBrainiaX split 12inch (brb, changing pants now)
5. Gride split 10inch
6. Abandon cdep
7. Dismissal cdep
8. Hired Gun cd
9. Recourse cdep
10. Unnerved 7inch
11. Fever split
12. God's America aka The Seeds Of Rape split tape


Holy fuck, am I stoked. Especially for that xBrainiax split. Talk about fastcore perfection right there. You can also hear preview tracked for some of these releases at the Sidetracked bandcamp. Hail fastcore!

~VII

Suffering Mind Will Dominate 2012

People who pay attention to this blog should know that I have a soft spot for the Polish grindcore band Suffering Mind. Definitely one of the bands on my "Most Criminally Underrated" list, over the course of their existence they've made nothing but visceral, ferocious grind, and created what I consider to be a perfect grindcore album in their "s/t" 2010 full-length. All while managing to keep a strong DIY ethos, in particular with their recordings which they occasionally do at their practice space. Something that they proudly display in print on their records.

In their relatively brief existence, they have managed to be quite prolific, releasing many splits and EP's. But it looks like 2012 will be the year where Suffering Mind will dominate the underground. Already having released 2 splits (a 7" with The Afternoon Gentlemen and a 5" with S.A.T.A.N), and with a shit-ton more on the way. Splits with Phobia, Protestant, Needful Things, P.L.F, Catheter, Massgrave and Powercup are in the works. As well as a live 4" picture disc, a new 5" which will be released on 625 Thrashcore/Crucificados Records, and 12" for Give Praise Records. Holy fuck right? Just trying to keep up with this band is exhausting. I hope that they manage to release all of these records this year. For a fanboy like me, the anticipation for some of these is just painful. You can hear choice tracks from some of these upcoming releases on their bandcamp.

~VII