First Exposure - Topon Das (Fuck the Facts, Merdarahta)

A while back, before I was even a writer for OG, Andrew asked me to talk about the albums got me into grindcore (read here). I had a lot of fun writing it, going back in my head and remembering the genesis of my love for fast and extreme music. Stories like that always intrigued me, so I thought I would serve my own interest and ask members of the world wide grindcore scene to talk about the first grindcore album that they heard. Kicking off this new series, called "First Exposure", is my pal, Topon Das, founding member of the excellent Fuck The Facts and Merdarahta. Big thanks to him for being a part of it and delivering a super impressive essay-like answer. 

I'm gonna say the first grindcore album I ever heard (or at least that I can remember hearing first) was Napalm Death's "Utopia Banished". It's either that or Gorgut's "Erosion Of Sanity", but that's probably not considered grindcore. Either way; both albums just sounded like straight up noise to me. This was when both albums had just come out and I was still all about bands like Metallica, Anthrax and a bit of Slayer. 

At Long Last, There Is New Music From Worn Out!

I've hoped, I mean realllllly hoped, that this day would come to be. The Chicago grind band Worn Out, who released one of the best demos I heard last year, are finally back with brand new music! Goddamn, I'm so glad this band isn't a one-demo-wonder. They've returned with seven new tracks of pummling face-meets-concrete grind for a split pro-cassette and 7" with the Australian hardcore band, Shackles. They've got a crisper recording this time around, and have definitely gotten a touch faster, but have kept that excellent, seamless song-to-song flow and song writing that's as tight as a gnats asshole. No word yet one when this split will be released, but in other news, Chicago label, Diseased Audio, is re-releasing their demo on 7", hopefully sooner than later. Very well deserved. Hopefully no more of you will listen to this awesome band. Stream their side of the Shackles split below, and give them a like on Facebook! Full support!!

~VII

Reader/Vinyl Collector of The Week: Doug Brown

I am so fucking stoked that all you fine people take the time to check out this little blog I write for. Your continued support and feedback for what me and all the contributors do on OG is very greatly appreciated. So, I thought it would be neat and nifty to give me a chance to connect with some of you, and give you a chance to share our passion for grind, and physical formats of music. Kick off the series is Doug Brown. Thank you so much for the support and the enthusiastic answers. I'm pretty jealous of some of the records you got in your photos, man!

Afgrund - "The Age Of Dumb" Review

"The Age Of Dumb". Well, I guess grindcore never won any awards for the most thought provoking album titles. This one is almost humorously straightforward, makes me wonder if there is any Thesaurus's anywhere near these fine Swede's. Whatever, punk fucking rock. Afgrund have come back after a 3 year silence with a brand new full length, which is as fierce and free of bullshit as the title they chose. Admittedly, this is the first time I've ever sat down with a full Afgrund album, mostly because I never found them very interesting. Rotten Sound/Nasum-worship grind has never really been an obsession of mine. The usual characteristics are there; super tight drumming, shout-growled vocals, and a fat guitar sound with the mid's cranked to 13. And yeah, there's nothing truly original being presented here. Some parts of this album sound like they were taken straight from "Cycles"-era Rotten Sound (see "The War On Drugs"). Please don't think I'm bad mouthing this album though, Afgrund really do know how to hold there own and make some seriously kick ass grindcore. I thoroughly enjoy this album, and I don't think there's a dud track on here. Every track is very well crafted, there's a good balance between the blazingly fast and the downright groovy, and they pull off some pretty rad stops and starts ("Planet Monsanto". Major props to these guys for talking about the devil spawn that is Monsanto too. Look it up people). Afgrund really made their songs catchy and memorable this time around. Some of the riffs these guys pull out really surprise me, and get me legitimately excited. The who album does really. It's a super solid grindcore album all the way through, and ends with one of the best face breaking grooves I've heard all year. Check it.

Rating: 8.5/10

~VII

Weekend Nachos Preparing For New 7" Single!

Chicago heavy-violence favorites, Weekend Nachos, have just announced on their facebook page that they are getting ready to once again hit the studio to record a brand new 7" single! From what they've said, it looks like it's mainly going to be a special release for the next A389 Fest in January, but it will probably get a wider release later on (but still, if you're going, hmu because I will pay you to get me one!). It will contain two new songs, one of which will be featured on their upcoming 4th full length(!!), and have an exclusive B-side. So yeah, it will only feature two tracks, probably short ones too. But on the flip side, this means that they've been working on new material and a full length is in the works too!! Pretty exciting news if you ask me. I'm sure the new jams will hatefuck our collective faces. More info soon, hopefully!

~VII

Bandcamp Compilation Of The Week: "USA Power Violence Vol. 1"

These week I'd like to bring your attention to this super kick-ass compilation, originating from a currently unknown source (can't find the origin of the comp. at this time). This digital/cassette release features 18 powerviolence/grindcore bands from across the United States, and each one of them contribute some solid jams to this beast. A good chunk of the bands on here have been talked about on OG at some point (False Light, Curmudgeon, Snakes, Suffer On Acid, Stresscase, etc.), so right there you know you have some good jams to listen too. Most of the other bands are ones that I've been meaning to talk about for a while (Bridge, Necklacing). And holy shit, listen to the Beast Plague track on here, goddamn. The cassette is sold out (darn), but you can download it for free on their bandcamp. Help spread the word, and keep your fingers crossed for a Vol. 2!

~VII

Skuff - "Demo 2012" Review

I'm seriously running out of new ways to say good things about Canada. Home of socialized health care, maple syrup, hockey, and more excellent grind and powerviolence bands than you can shake a stick at. A drum/bass powerviolence band from Canada, well that just seems like a flawless combination, does it not? That's where Skuff come in. This B.C. duo has been kicking around for a couple years, and released this 2012 demo tape earlier this summer. Nine tracks of catchy, groovy, lo-fi, gruff and rough violence. It's the type of stuff that I'm just instantly attracted too, and rarely find any faults with, and Skuff are no different. Sure, it's not original, not even a little bit, but who gives a shit? If it's not broken, don't fix it (or try to break it). The recording on the demo is totally lo-fi and blown out. The low-end from the bass just seeps over everything, but it never reaches the point of just being a distorted, unlistenable mess. The riffs are still present, and if the sound was cleaned up a bit, the dudes gnarly bass tone would shine through a bit more. I do wish the snare drum was a bit more present though, it doesn't cut through as much as I like in my powerviolence. Overall, it's a solid demo, and I'm looking forward to everything this band puts out in the future. They have a split tape with Bridgeburner coming out soon, which is also streaming on the bandcamp, and it's awesome stuff.

Rating: 7/10

~VII

Annihilate! - "Them" Review

I'm really glad that bands contact me to show me their music sometimes. Sure, some bands are crap, but then there are those diamonds in the rough that I would normally pass right by when scouring Bandcamp, or something. Take Annihilate! from Burgenland, Austria as a perfect example. Given their pretty uninspired name, and the kinda/sorta not very great cover art, I would definitely not have inspected this in my free time. But thank Schwarzenegger that they got in touch with me and showed me their jams, because I'm stuck with my foot in my mouth for having judged this book by it's cover. "Them" is a proper and solid grindcore album. It definitely sounds like a lot of care and effort went into making this album, just from the recording alone. This thing sounds great; excellent modern, heavy guitar tone, well mixed drums and bass, and growled, throaty vocals. In a nutshell, it sounds legit and professional, but not too processed and sterile. I'm also a fan of a lot of the inspired riffs that Annihilate! bring out, there's a good amount of fancy, dissonancy, harmonicy, guitar touches mixed in with the meat and potatoes grindcore. The breakdown to "Sleepwalker" being my personal favorite section. I just wish the drums were as consistently awesome as the rest of the band. They really do bring the momentum of the songs down, pretty often. For one, he loves to hit the cymbal every other snare hit during the blast beats, which are not very fast to begin with. It really keeps the band from going full blast, and really brings the intensity down. The blasts also seem to go decrease in tempo sometimes too, like to the point where it's frustrating to listen too. Maybe(hopefully) this glaring issue will get fixed on future releases, cause I'm very excited to hear what this band comes up with in the future.

Rating: 7.5/10

~VII 

Pig Destroyer Debut New Lyric Video For "Burning Palm"

The wait for the new Pig Destroyer full-length, "Book Burner", is almost unbearable. I used to be stoked for October just because of Halloween, but now I have a (hopefully) incredible album to celebrate as well! Little by little we've been getting sneak peaks of the new album, but now, Relapse Records has debuted a full on entire track called "Burning Palms" for a new lyric video. Unsurprisingly, the song is a ripper. Scott really pulled out some weird riffs for this one, harmonics and high notes are all over the place, and the drums are on constant blast-grind mode. Honestly though, I am a bit disappointed about the vocals. JR really seems tired on here, and not all that aggressive. He's always been one of the most intense and desperate sounding grindcore vocalists, in my opinion, so to hear him be pulled back a bit is a little surprising. Fingers crossed that it's just for this track though. Pre-order "Book Burner" now at the Relapse webstore, or pick it up on October 22nd.

~VII

Cellgraft - "Cellgraft" Review

Well, it looks like Cellgraft have decided to call it quits, after some odd years and a few seemingly well received releases under their belts. The "online grind scene" seemed to blow up with cries of literally many bummed out fans, which kinda caught me off guard, honestly. I had never really heard of a lot of people talk about Cellgraft before, or hold the band in high regards. I guess it's that strange/unfortunate phenomenon where a band breaks up and suddenly everyone jumps on board their music. Can't say I ever payed much attention to the band, but it's sad to see them go. The Florida outfit leaves us with this,  a 12 track, 17 minute swan song album. I'm a big fan of this growing trend of releasing full-length albums that could easily fit on a 7", and this album wastes no time kicking in and busting out the heavy intro. Pretty much the only slow part on this entire album. What follows after the pretty well constructed intro is a non-stop blast-grind-fuck fest. Cellgraft have made it abundantly that they're not going to fuck around on this final album, bust out some last minute experimental bullshit or try and be anything more that a legit grindcore band. This is overall, probably their best recording. Their past records always seemed too thin to me, they didn't have a lot of punch. They brought the low end on here, and it's very much appreciated by my ears. However, the left channel seems to be a lot louder than the right, which is distracting as fuck if you like to listen to your music with earbuds, like I do. Another issue I have with the album is that there really isn't a lot about the songs that stick with me. Very little, to no memorable or stand out parts, except for a cool riff every now and again ("Abdication"). I know Cellgraft is not meant to be a catchy band, I accept that. But I would have liked something to stand out. Their really isn't anything original or ground breaking about this album, but as a final output, it's definitely a good output. Throw it on whenever you want to get a 12 minute dose of eardrum violence. RIP Cellgraft.

Rating: 6.9/10

~VII

The New ACxDC Song Is The Best They've Ever Written.

If I may be so bold (and fuck yes, I'm going to be), the newly released ACxDC song, "Crux", is in my opinion the best song they've ever written by this point. With out a doubt, no ACxDC song has gotten me as insanely pumped up as this one. First off, the recording is fucking incredible, especially with the drums. When the kick drum and cymbals hit at the same time, it sounds like an explosion! And the blast beats? Fuggedaboutit. Brilliantly recorded, the band has never sounded so intense and so massive. I think it's obligatory at this point to say that the song is incredible too! The blast part leading into the triplet-riff breakdown is amazing, and the use of double bass is just too good. This song is a sexy beast. "Crux", and I believe four other new songs will be appearing on the soon-to-be-released-but-not-soon-enough-ohmygod-give-it-to-me-know 3-way split with Sex Prisoner and Magnum Force, which will undoubtably be the grindviolence release of the century!

~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

Bandcamp Artist Of The Week: Absvrdist

Fucking awesome modern grindcore from San Antonio, Texas! I've been seeing Absvrdist's debut full length all over bandcamp, and I've seen tons of people talking about them all over the internets. Truth be told, I've listened to "Illusory" a few times over the past couple months, and I have no excuse for why I'm just not writing about them. Tons of great qualities about this release; the recording is superb, first and foremost. Great modern sound, and ridiculously heavy. The guitars are mixed beautifully and the drums are perfectly punchy and bassy. Great song writing too, excellent riffs and with tons of groove, blast riffs and some parts that might catch you off guard (they break out an acoustic guitar at one point). They say that there's black metal influence, and I guess you could say that, given their use of minor-key chord progressions from time to time. But overall (and thankfully), the black metal thing isn't really a focus. Bands like Gadget and Nasum have done this too, and Absvrdist pull this sound of brilliantly. Love it.

~VII

Self-Corruption - "History Of Clowns" Review

Readers of this blog should know that I have a passionate love for bands from Australia. I don't know what it is about that country, but for some reason the bands from down their just know how to do shit right. I could seriously go one for hours about the Australian scene (and I will, later on). Well, the great Down Under has once again proved that it is a fertile breeding ground for awesome grindcore by spawning this stupidly impressive duo, Self-Corruption. More specifically from Melbourne, Self-Corruption's "History Of Clowns" is one of the most refreshing grindcore releases I've heard this year. Sure, there's the usual blast beats, screamed vocals, and hardcore-metallic riffs, but you can tell that these dudes are inspired by so much more than just grind. There are riffs in all different shapes, sizes, colors and textures on here. And miraculously, Self-Corruption somehow made it all make sense. Normally when I hear a melodic death metal riff come after a series of four straight grindcore songs, I'm confused and often times gravely annoyed. But here, I'm just left thinking, "Huh, this band know's what it's doing." Australian juju, I tell ya! You just don't hear grind bands doing this type of thing and doing it well, pretty much ever. Take the track "Sickle Cell" for example. That's a total thrash/melo-death metal riff, and it totally fits! Or the funky drum beat on the interlude track, "Silence.jpg". These guys clearly has a lot of ideas, and the skill to execute them well, separating Self-Corruption from the rest. Check it out!


Rating: 8.5/10

~VII

Download A Metric Buttload of New Six Brew Bantha Tunes!

Props to those who get my witty title (I'm hilarious). Not content with just releasing one of the best grindcore albums this year, Canadian power-trio, Six Brew Bantha, have finished recording for not one, but two new split 7" records! One with blackened-crusters, and fellow Victortians, Iskra, and another with Agitate, from Minneapolis. What's even better, is that they've put up their new recordings for free download! It should come as know surprise that the new songs absolutely kill it. Tons of groove, incredible stop-start riffs, a great clanging snare drum, and a killer heavy recording. Fans of their self-tlted full length will not be disappointed. The band is currently looking for labels interested in releasing these bad boys, so if you know some people(or are some people), help a sick band out! Download the tracks here!

~VII