Full Of Hell's Spencer Hazard On Noise In Hardcore and Some Essential Listens

Hardcore and all it's various interpretations and evolutions is surely no stranger to weird, obnoxious, noisy sounds. To me, noise is and has been a logical progression from the standards of aggressive "musical" music. A bastardization if you will, a rebellion towards the rebellion. Something that early extreme experimental groups like Whitehouse and Throbbing Gristle made their mission statement. It doesn't take a genius to see that noise has made a serious comeback in the hardcore/grind/powerviolence that we listen too. One of the biggest recent forerunners of incorporating

noise in their music is Full Of Hell. A band that has over the years made their noise and more experimental side almost as important as the guitar Mr. Hazard uses. FoH are right on the cusp of releasing a full on collaborative album with legendary Japanoise artist Merzbow, with a bonus second disc of just noise (2xCD will be released by Profound Lore records and the vinyl will be released by A389 and Stab/Repeat November 25th). Guitar player Spencer Hazard was gracious enough to give me his 2 cents how these sounds are utilized in aggressive music today, and gives some essential listens for those who are still new to the genre of NOISE.

~VII

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Recently I was asked by Operation Grindcore to write about how I felt about noise music making its way into more hardcore oriented stlyes of music. Frankly despite me being in a band that relies on noise heavily, I do have a love/hate relationship with the resurgence of bands utilizing it in recent years. I mean noise making its way into other underground music is obviously nothing new at all. Look at the bands that were part of the punk scene, groups like Whitehouse,Throbbing Gristle and NON all started out being tagged with the term. No Wave artists such as Swans and Sonic Youth also disoriented punks in the early 80's. In the 90's bands such as Man is the Bastard, Gasp and Integrity, who were all made up of hardcore kids and punks, took these roots and melded them into their own hardcore bands. Dwid from Integrity even had two power electronics groups back in the day featuring members of the powerviolence band APT 213, Lockweld and Psywarfare. Man is the Bastard even had their own all electronic project Bastard Noise.  Dwid would also use his influence to spread noise to other parts of the underground by booking influential Japanese noise artists Merzbow and Masonna on some of their first US shows. There are also more examples of other bands in recent years taking noise influence and incorporating it into their sound such as The Endless Blockade/Column of Heaven, Water Torture, Eel and a plethora of other grindcore/powerviolence bands blending different influences.This leads me to why I said earlier that I had a love/hate relationship with bands taking these influences. This may be the elitist in me but I feel like a lot of newer bands only take this influence from more recent and popular bands rather than digging deeper into the roots of the noise genre. Too many kids just grab a distortion pedal and a delay and claim to have noise influence after checking out the Man is the Bastard/Crossed Out split. Not enough people are digging and taking influence from stuff like SPK, Nurse with Wound or Hanatarash, or even newer experimental/industrial/power electronics artists such as Prurient, The Rita, Pharmakon or Deathpile. So before you go off calling me an elitist prick, internet poser or asshole nerd, all I'm trying to say is kids should expose themselves to a whole variety of influences and music, especially noise. I still think its great people are trying to expand and destroy boundaries. There is already too much of the same mundane, formulaic music, but don't make an exotic influence a boring and formulaic style. Noise is experimental, so experiment, be creative!

Essential listens:

Merzbow- "Dharma". Released on the imprint of influential label Hydra Head, HHNoise Industries, this is probably some of Merzbow's most focused work. Still using his signature techniques but also
including more memorable loops and rhythms, creating a more enjoyable and less testing listen.







Prurient - "Pleasure Ground". This is probably some of the most trying and emotional noise ever recorded. Not only is it a painful experience sonically, you can truly hear the anguish in his voice as he screams depressed and sexually deprived lyrics. This release also combines some truly unique keyboard work found in his later years mixed with his walls of ear piercing feedback.







Whitehouse - "Birdseed". An uncomfortable listen all around. Using their signature shock values and focusing them more. Utilizing Peter Sotos tape loops and samples plus mixing it with their classic 'Wasp' keyboards, it is truly a bizarre album. This release also features the track "Cut Hands Has the Solution" which consists of nothing but pounding drums and
distorted vocals, giving the album more variety compared to some of their other work.







Wolf Eyes - "Burned Mind". Released on the same label that has released albums from such bands as the Shins, Nirvana and Soundgarden, Sub Pop. This is the period in which a noise group became part of 00's alternative culture. This album combines harsh screams, walls of distortion, blown-out guitars
and other instrumentation, almost giving this album a hard rock feel. Memorable vocals and "riffs" make this album stand out in their extensive catalog.






Throbbing Gristle - "20 Jazz Funk Greats". Marketed as a jazz album in the 70s, listeners were totally taken off guard when they were exposed to distorted keyboards, sound collages, drum loops and
moaned vocals. A lot less noisy then other albums on this list, but just as, if not more important. Truly wreckers of civilization.

~Spencer Hazard

Interview: Matt Goodrich (Water Torture, Inerds, Deciever, Bestower, etc.)

Most people might not know the name, Matt Goodrich. But I'm sure plenty of you have heard at least one of his bands. Over the last few years, Matt has been a member of several Buffalo, NY based hardcore/grindcore/powerviolence and noise bands. playing bass for such bands as Inerds, Water Torture and Bestower. last year, Inerds became the band in the Grindcore Karaoke roster everyone seemed to talk about, and is now leading the pack again with the devastatingly heavy Water Torture. I caught up with Matt to check in and see what we can expect from his bands in the future. 

Operation Grindcore: We'll get the boring questions out of the way first. Tell us who you are and what bands you're involved in.

Matt Goodrich: My name is Matt also known as Phil Collins. And I play bass in water torture,Inerds,and bestower. Also I do deceiver which is solo noise stuff. pacing which is me and moezes of all the same bands doing harsh droney stuff. And my newest project is breached hull which is with Justin of Pusdrainer it is SCI-FI PE based on event horizon.

OG: The first band of yours to get large acclaim was Inerds, after being featured on Grindcore Karaoke. How did that band come to be?

Matt: Me and the drummer, Moezes started hanging out and he was in some crappy pop punk band. He got me all whiskey drunk and we went to his practice space and we started to jam. From there we decided to ask Jessika if she wanted to do vocals and we had also talked to Corey and they were both down to do vocals and it just went from there.

OG: How did the relationship with Grindcore Karaoke start?

Matt: Jay got ahold of us on the Inerds myspace and asked if we would be down to do a free release on his new label. Of course we were down right away.

OG: Inerds pretty much become one of the most popular bands on the site. Was this surprising to you guys at all?

Matt: Yah, deff. We never would have guessed people would like it so much. I think it helps a lot that we had a pretty good sounding recording. We go to the same guy for every band we are in. John Angelo is the man.

OG: I have noticed the consistently good recording quality your bands have. Is John the guy to go to in Buffalo?

Matt: Yah, we record everything with him other then noise. I was in a band with John before Inerds so I have been recording with him for awhile now. He knows what we want sound wise so it is really easy to record with him. We are recording next week and we are going to a new studio in Buffalo and John will be with us so I am really excited to see how it turns out.

OG: Moving on to Water Torture, who I think I can safely say is the band that most people talk about now in the GK roster. How did this band come to life, because at it's core, it's pretty much a stripped down Inerds.

Matt: Moezes and I have been trying to do a lot of touring and we were having trouble getting our other bands out of town so we decided we would do a band that was just the 2 of us.

OG: And just like that, Water Torture was born, huh? So then you definitely wanted to keep the drum/bass powerviolence/grind sound, but just be more freed up?

Matt: Yah, we are in a much lower tuning then Inerds. We hoped that would be different enough, hahaha. And just being 2 people always makes it easier.

OG: I've seen videos of you guys playing with an addition bass player. Is that a permanent part of the line-up now?

Matt: No, we have our friend, Ian playing with us a bunch and we are going to be doing some recordings together but it is not a permanent thing. We also had our friend, Justin Pusdrainer do noise for us on our last tour.

OG: Speaking of recordings, I hear Water Torture has a few splits in the making. What can you tell us about those?

Matt: When we get back from tour in May we got a bunch of stuff to record for. Split with Witchcult from the UK, Anthophobic from Pittsburgh, Ultra//Negative from Mass, and Happy Birthday from Ohio.

OG: Will we being seeing any Water Torture on vinyl?

Matt: Yah, the split with Witchcult will be a 7 inch and we are recording next week for a 7 inch on Diseased Audio from Chicago.

OG: Fuck awesome, I can't wait to get those. Wrapping up here, what's the current status of Inerds, and can we expect any releases from any of your noise projects in the future?

Matt: As we speak the Inerds/Bestower 7 inch is being pressed and should be out In the next few months. As for noise stuff I got a lot of stuff coming out.

Deceiver has a split with Lost Appeal as well as a split with (<o>). Also working on a 4 tape 4 way split wall box with Scant, Discretion, Oblive. Breached Hull has a few releases coming out soon as well one being a split with Blessed Sacrifist.

OG: Awesome, I'm super glad to hear there will be more Inerds music released. In closing, off the top of your head, if you were stuck on a desert island, which 3 albums would you bring with you?

Matt: First would be, Discordance Axis - "The Inalienable Dreamless", J Dilla - "Donuts", Moss - "Eternal Return"

OG: Thanks for the interview!

Matt: Any time man.

~VII

Listen to Merdarahta!

Grindcore may be closest to our hearts, but we here at Operation Grindcore are also huge noise music junkies. A genre of music that many may find even more abrasive and challenging than even the fastest grind band. We've dwelled into noise with our own projects and groups, and when you look at it, noise and hardcore/grind have had a special relationship for decades. Bands like Man is The Bastard, The Endless Blockade, Insect Warfare and more recently Sea of Shit have all shown appreciation for the distorted and grinding textures of noise. With members of said bands and many others branching off into their own decibel shattering projects. 

And so we now have Merdarahta, a relatively new band featuring members of Fuck the Facts and The Sun Through a Telescope. Merdarahta go for more of a brooding, slow moving approach to noise and sound. Definitely more of a dark/harsh ambient style, with more more traditional instrumentation like drums and guitars sprinkled in, which reminds me of groups like Yellow Swans. Some of you may have already heard these guys if you listened to the B-side of your "Die Miserable" cassette tape. They currently have two releases on their bandcamp page, both of which are also featured on Grindcore Karaoke, with many more releases and collaborations to come. 

~VII

Pig Heart Transplant/The Endless Blockade - split Review

It's always sad to see a great band break up. Late 2010 saw the unfortunate demise of The Endless Blockade, one of modern powerviolence's most impressive and musically mature/developed bands(In Disgust and Thousandswilldie also broke up that year, endless bummer). This split with Pig Heart Transplant is their final goodbye, their swan song release, which will probably be a big deal to a lot of people, and be judged under that context. Going into it I expected TEB's contribution to be on the noisey side, given who their sharing this split with. Pig Heart Transplant(the noise project of Jon Kortland, the guitarist/vocalist for Iron Lung) give us a 3-part-mini-epic of droning noise with vocals and percussion thrown in. This is my first exposure to PHT and I have to say I was dreadfully unimpressed. I appreciate noise music, but this just did nothing for me. The piece just kinda stayed in build-up mode but didn't actually climax to anything. Sonically, it was unimpressive to. There was an early Swans vibe, but I feel that the 4 1/2 minute time limit PHT was stuck to hindered the song from developing more. So already half of the split left me unimpressed. The Endless Blockade's side is almost definitely left over material from a previous recording, possibly from the "Primitive" album. Only two songs from them, one being noise, and the "lead" track being a mid-tempo sludge dirge. Many, including myself, will be a bit let down by the lack of fast tempos. But looking at it again, it feels like the last song to any one of their albums; the slow climax after a career's span of fast songs. Unfortunately, it's not a very good one. After listening to it a few times, I still have a hard time remembering the song, it's just anti-climactic. I feel like the excellent 14 minute epic "Deuteronomy" from "The Red List" split with Bastard Noise would have been a more fitting ending to the band. Dissapointing finale, but at least we still have the rest of their discography to enjoy. 

Rating: 5/10

~VII

Interview:Full Of Hell

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PA/MD band Full Of Hell have recently released their first LP entitled "The Roots Of Earth Are Consuming My Home" and are making a name for themselves by playing constant shows and adding many different elements to their simple hardcore sound which make them a very original and innovative band. I caught up with their vocalist Dylan and asked him a few questions.

~Dante Fotino

OG-Full Of Hell have recently released their first full length LP entitled "Roots Of Earth Are Consuming My Home." How was the reception from people been?

Dylan-From what I can tell, it's been largely positive. I'm extremely humbled and pleased that people have been so receptive. We were very confident going in that we would be proud of the finished product, but we were unsure what everyone else would think. Dom at A389 helped a lot of course. He had the record sent out to so many distros and reviewers sites before it was even released. Overall, it's been great.

OG-As any listener of your band could tell, your influences vary from Grind, to Sludge and even to Power Electronics; what were some of the main influences you guys had while writing the songs for the record?

Dylan-It is a little all over the board of extreme music. We were definitely under the influence of GASP, Throbbing Gristle, Cursed and Pg 99 while we were writing this, and as always, I personally was listening to a lot of Tom Waits.

OG-How were you guys approached by Dom from A389 and how do you think it has affected your band as a whole?

Dylan-Dom was under the impression that we were a KISS cover band from Ocean City. He brought us into the fold and once he released that we weren't what we said we are, he tried to cut off ties. Thankfully, we have him legally binded to us. God Bless America.

OG-You guys recently played one of the biggest Hardcore fests in America "This Is Hardcore" how was the experience of playing the fest and how did you guys feel the audience reacted to you guys, as you're not the traditional hardcore band that the fest is known to put on?

Dylan-It was really surprising to suddenly be a part of This is Hardcore. It happened last minute, and we were really grateful to be a part, but we also knew going in that we were kind of the odd men out. I wasn't sure how we were received until the days following the fest, and it seems like it went well. Joe is the absolute best promoter to work with and the entire weekend was a blast.

OG-You guys are doing a full US tour with Heartless, how did that offer come about, and will this be your first headlining tour?

Dylan-Adam from Heartless invests a huge amount of his time and money into booking DIY shows in Pittsburgh, and over the last couple years, he has helped us with shows several times. I was always really into Heartless, so this past summer we just brought up the idea of doing a tour together, and it went from there. I wouldn't call this a headlining tour at all though, Heartless is an incredible band and we are both going to be supporting the releases of our first LPs.

OG-How does the song writing process usually go with you guys, as there seems to be a lot that goes into a song until the entire band is fully?

Dylan-Everyone in the band besides me lives in Ocean City, MD. They hang out almost every day to practice and write. The band is a borderline obsession for all of us, so I'm pretty sure it's just about all any of us think about. They compose and demo the song and email it to me. From there, I write the lyrics and demo it again on my laptop and send it back. It's actually a pretty quick and smooth process.

OG-While on tour, bands always seem to have an eclectic amount of music that they listen to in the van from venue to venue, what music could we possibly hear coming from your van?

Dylan-A lot of shitty electronic pop music.

OG-After the tour, do you have any plans on new material?

Dylan-We have a lot of plans. So many in fact, that our releases for 2012 are already all planned out and being recorded next week. Hopefully we'll start announcing our collaborations soon.

OG-Any things you would like to add?

Dylan-Check out Dave Bland, a real mother fucker living on the edge.

Thank you for the interview! you can check Full Of Hell out with links below

http://www.facebook.com/fullofhell
http://www.stereokiller.com/fullofhell

Listen To Japanese Torture Comedy Hour!

I have been on a bit of a noise kick lately, so I was thrilled to see that some unreleased Japanese Torture Comedy Hour albums have been posted on the Grindcore Karaoke Bandcamp. Out of the 3 albums that have been posted the craziest, most awesome is 'The 24 hour Japanese Torture Comedy Marathon." Which is exactly what the title suggests, a whopping 24 hours of harsh noise! I could try to give you a summary on the story behind it all, but I think J says it better himself.

"By the end of '97 I had this almost nightly ritual of getting stoned and recording a 60min. session of live electronics. All these recordings were created by simply patch wiring guitar FX boxes into a self-sustaining sound loop and manipulating the feedback rushing through them. I used absolutely no instruments (synthesizers, guitar, microphones, samplers) as source for any of these recordings. Even though I had a computer I was still recording to either VHS cassette or to minidisc due to concerns with PC hang ups and crashing. In 2004 I had the intentions of finally converting over some of the few hundred hours of audio I'd accumulated into some usable digital format and maybe try and release something.

Audio Terrorism "The Soundtrack For Blind Hostility"

This comp is awesome! Originally released in 1997 and limited to 500 copies, this comp was put together by Scott Hull and J. Randall along with a few other people. With 99 tracks from 99 bands this comp may seem a little overwhelming and you might expect it to be a burden to listen to, but it is an enjoyable listen. Seeing how each song is around thirty seconds long, you need to listen to this comp in it's entirety to get the full experience. Just picking out songs by the bands you recognize wouldn't work. Some of the bigger names on here are Noothgrush, Benumb, ANb, Spazz and Bastard Noise and loads more. Cattle Decapitation's track on here is really neat, it's noisy powerviolence that is completely different from their deathgrind style that they are most known for. Also the artwork is fantastic! If you are in the mood for a crazy listening experience look no further.

Download here

~Andrew Lipscomb