Avian Terror - "Demo 2015"

Do you remember back in your teen years, and the first grindcore band you formed and started fooling around with? I sure do, and believe me, modest beginnings were rough. Lots of very awkward starting out performances. Something about Australia's younger population though, they really got the knack for making pretty kick ass stuff. So now here comes a duo called Avian Terror, doing brutal grind as Aussies do, and it goes the fuck off. Also, it's written and performed by a couple of 15 year olds. And as cheeky as it may be to highlight that, I just have to. People love to have a little "fun fact" with their bands, ay? Not that all youngsters are doomed to suck until they "reach a certain age", but let's just be real hear. And just listen to this! This is definitely some solid brutal grindcore, in the same vein as countrymen like Internal Rot and Headless Death, with some Hellnation and Insect Warfare in there too. However, Avian Terror certainly are not as intricate and tight as those other bands are, to be fair. They still are largely sticking to the a very linear and rudimentary song writing style. Strictly blast beats over blast riffs. Sometimes boarding into noisegrind territory, thanks in part by the rawness of the recording (tracks like "Visceral Dismemberment" and "Point Blank"). A lot of ye ol' standard riffs are on here too, simple but effective. And the band really does reach some impressively fast and vicious moments ("Decadence", "Gash Desire", "Instant Regurgitation"). There's definitely a lot of promise here. No doubt the more these guys play and perform, the gnarlier their craft will get. Awesome stuff. Naked Noise Records will be handling the cassette release, be on the look out for that.

~VII

New Internal Rot Tracks!

I can remember very vividly recently thinking to myself, "whatever happened to Internal Rot?". An often times overlooked band when talking about Australian grind/violence, they only released one solitary 7" EP on 625 Thrashcore, and then seemed to just drop out of sight. That record showcased some of the best, no bullshit, Insect Warfare-inspired grindcore the country had to offer. Sharing a member of Agents Of Abhorrence sure sweetens the deal too. Well as luck would have it, a random peruse through bandcamp has enlightened me with brand new Internal Rot tracks, slated for release sometime in early 2014. Two new studio tracks, and a live Excruciating Terror cover. The new tracks rip, no surprise there. Insect Warefare and Wormrot fans should be gushing over these new tracks, I know I am. Can't wait to see a physical release for these, and hear what else the dude's have been cooking up. Check out the new tracks below.

~VII

The Kill - "Make 'Em Suffer" Review

For as much as I talk about my love for Australia grindcore, I'm ashamed to admit that I've never sat down and listened to a full album from The Kill. Or even given the band much time at all. I hope you all can forgive this great travesty and with due time, I can redeem myself by immediately listening too and buying every single one of their releases ever until the end of time. Or I can just review their new album, "Make 'Em Suffer". Which I'm doing anyway. So there.
"Make 'Em Suffer"  is definitely what I would call a "ripping" grindcore album. The musical precision and blazingly fast attack to the ears that these Aussies grind out is basically the musical equivalent of a buzz saw to the sternum. Slashing and hacking at anyone that even brings up the words "mid-tempo". Being just a guitar only grindcore band, these dudes really did capture a full sound. The guitar tone is bright, and the overall production is very modern sounding, but the intensity of the bands performance doesn't let these ordinarily unpleasant qualities distract from my enjoyment of the album. Another great thing here, they keep the album short. At a very nice nineteen and a half minutes, the album stays around for the perfect amount of time. It also seems like this band had some fun with this album, and like to not keep things too serious. From the semi-tongue-in-cheek album title, to the very tastefully placed melodic riffs, and even borrowing lyrics from Judas Priest. The cover of Slayer's "Necrophobic" is also a very nice surprise here. Not only because they managed to twist it into one hell of a grind song, but that they actually made something from Slayer enjoyable (bravo)! So yeah, you could say I'm a fan of these guys now.

Rating: 7.5/10

~VII