Total Fucking Destruction-Hater

There haven't been many grind albums(since I first discovered the genre) that have surprised me and "knocked me off my rocker" like Hater did. I really don't even know if I would consider Hater a grind album. Sure, it has blastbeats, but Hater is so much more than your typical grind album. TFD throw a lot of different influences and sounds into their style, but it doesn't sound like they try hard to be different, like many other bands. Some of the songs sound like crossover thrash songs, some songs sound like they could be punk songs, and some songs sound like they are rock songs with blastbeats; they are all very awesome! Hoak's drumming is top notch on Hater(much like any other time) and his chaotic, and spastic drumming style really is the icing on the cake for Hater. I don't really know how to describe the vocals on Hater, but they sound like pure chaos(in a good way). Some standout tracks on Hater are "Repeat Repeatedly"(which is sure to get stuck in your head), "Meat Without Feet," and "Tony Hung Himself." "Human Is The Bastard" also joins the ranks along with Robocop's "Maine Is The Bastard," as the best song titles referencing Man Is The Bastard.

It seems with most people that they either love Hater or are a hater(I had to, haha), personally I don't see why any grind fan wouldn't enjoy it, as it is a very unique release that stands out from the "normal" grind sound. I guess a lot of people expect TFD to be Brutal Truth 2.0, and when they hear TFD, they instantly dismiss it as "not grind" or "too weird," without giving TFD much of a chance. Overall, I really have nothing bad to say about Hater, and I definitely see it making my "Best of 2011" list. Hater also has some of the sickest artwork I have seen this year.

I give Hater a solid 8 out of 10

~Andrew Lipscomb

[Full Disclosure: Richard Hoak sent me a download of the album]

Ross Gnarly's Favorite Album Covers

I was asked to write this for my good friend Andrew and I thought I would start this off with a little introduction. I am a huge fan of art. Salvador Dali is one of my favorites along with H.R. Giger and Francis Bacon. All of these people produce extraordinary artwork that has lived on for many, many years. These artists are world renouned and if it hadn't been for people like this we wouldn't have today's artists like Paul Romano and John Dyer Baizley. I think that artwork can give you a good idea of what an album has in store, music wise. In this, I will be giving a list of my favorite album art and why I like said artwork. Check it out.

Coffinworm-When All Became None
All you have to do is look at this. Just look. It is amazing. A giant eye coming up from a decrepit looking tree. Behind that, the remains of, what seems to be, a post-apocalyptic world. Sitting on top of that is Coffinworm's unbelievable logo. I mean, come on! That is one of the best logos I've ever seen! Amazing album that I listened to based on the artwork alone.

Insect Warfare-World Extermination
Death reigning over a cityscape full of cockroaches. Fucking epic. This album art is extremely well done. Every detail of every building is clear and everything is perfect. The roaches are huge and evil-looking. It's just an amazing album cover. Once again, an album I listened to based on the album art.



Kvelertak-S/T
This band literally came out of nowhere. I had never even heard the name Kvelertak mentioned before stumbling across a review of the album in Decibel last year. I didn't even read the review, based on the album art (which was clearly John Dyer Baizley), I was sold. I loved it. The octopus owl and beautiful women, the color tones, everything is beautiful. No text to throw off the flow of the artwork. It's fantastic. I love Baizley's work and this may be one of my favorites.



Lake of Blood-As Time And Tide Erodes Stone
I love how simple this is. The accents on this make it seem like this is an actual painting that I have just never seen. I love it. It's dreary, misanthropic and Lake of Blood have an amazing logo. I went with the Coffinworm rule on this one, based on the logo, I listened to this band. This is not only amazing album art, but it is also a killer album. I love black and grey art. It's simple and it wields amazing results.

~Ross Gnarly(American Aftermath)

Arif Rot's(Wormrot) Favorite Album Covers

Arif Rot is the singer of the spectacular grind band Wormrot(see my Album of the Week post on Dirge here) and he also is a extremely talented artist(check out his artwork here). I recently asked him to do a post about some of his favorite album covers, so here it is:



Insect Warfare - At War With Grindcore

When it comes to black and white artwork, I'm really a fan of the b-grade horror comic style. It adds a raw element which makes it look ultra oldschool. As far as the cover above, this dude probably had his eyes burst inwards right after the very last portion of inking. Not to mention the whole composition of this piece is massive. A balance of white spaces and black ink is incredible in this one. He balanced out the whole perspective which I personally think is fucking hard to accomplish. I have no clue who this dude is but he pull it off agonizingly well. Mad details for a mad ass band = WIN.




GAF - Mongofied

I still remember the first time I saw this cover art, I was like, "Duuuudeeee WTF!???". Aziz from Scrotum Jus Records released this album and brought over the high resolution to my place as he needed help creating a promo flyer for it. I couldn't stop staring for like hours. I'm a huge fan of Stippling artworks. The composition for this one is rather abstract yet kinda easy to be playing around with all those guts and glory. The main medium will definitely enhance the piece although you can see it's in a fucking mess. Stippling does the trick. It adds volume to every single detail. It's a pain in the ass for sure but the results are.. Well look at it yourself. I dig how he concentrates more details on the bottom and not much on the top. Amazing.




Cannabis Corpse - Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise

Now this dude is an all rounder. He did the black and white for Wormrot's Dirge cover art, and now this. It's really amazing how he blends in colors like that. I'm not a huge fan of colors when doing any of my works but this hypnotized me to do one. You can basically imagine the whole story of whats happening in the cover before and after the scene. Loud colors on cover artworks can be fucked up, but this master piece kicked me right in the eye. I'm sure you have seen old school horror movie posters right? So just picture this as a movie. Old school? CHECK.




Putridity - Degenerating Anthropophagical Euphoria

Before I was into grindcore, I was in a brutal death band called Flesh Disgorged. That was during 2004 and I have been a fan of these putrid/gore cover artworks ever since. This dude if I'm not mistaken is from China. Holy shit right? I'm very impressed on how dull yet incredibly sick this is. You can't tell if this was painted in Photoshop, or an actual painting itself. All in all, it looks mighty real. You can't go any grimmer atmosphere than this. His shadings due to the lighting placement is just brilliant, and to pull off that kind of shadings with colors? Goddamn. The perfect brutal death metal album cover artwork of the century period.




Rot/Life Is A Lie - Split EP

Cut and paste artworks sometimes looks a little awkward; and most of the time people tend to think it's shit because no effort is needed by the artist to execute it, but it takes tons of skills to blend everything. This split release is a great example. Everything falls into place. Nevermind the proportions, different textures, etc. It looks fucking amazing. A different kind of abstract with a message artwork that I really appreciate. This dude is ultra old school.

~Arif Rot

Everybody's A Critic

Us metalheads, we're an opinionated lot aren't we? With two cents to chuck in on any given subject regardless of whether or not our opinion is even worth that much (for evidence of this just go to any metal video on YouTube and look in the comments). The internet in general is awash with heavy-handed criticisms not just from metalheads, everyone these days seems to enjoy channeling Charlie Brooker and having a passionate rant about music. Being one of the people who make a hobby of this very thing myself I've begun to realize something...

I started reviewing on the internet by going to my local pub and watching the bands that would be performing and review them on a blog. I would usually spend the night being an unimpressed smug bastard and the next day publicly decrying the acts, harshly. Way too harshly than most of the bands (read 'all' of the bands) deserved. I thought I was being clever, cool, nonchalant. And it's taken a while, but I think this attitude, common on the net, has gotten really old and is ultimately fruitless.

The internet is saturated with people on blogs and in comments sections who spend so much of their free time spewing bile about bands or releases they didn't like, coming up with inventive and humorous metaphors and similes to send up the offending material.

As the saying goes, "Everybody's a critic" especially on the internet. It's become a bit of a trend mainly due to it being easy; mocking something someone else has done is far easier than creating something original yourself, and being sceptical and cynical is always perceived as 'cool' so now everyone takes the piss from their seats of power and anonymity and it's just gotten so weary. I'm officially sick of the negativity.

I'm not saying that people aren't allowed to say they didn't like something, just that there's too much focus being put on the negative. I guess it can make a person feel more naked to declare liking something than hating it, so that's the more common impulse, especially if that something has less of a following that will readily back you up.

I used to have a lot of time for hate and bile, these days I find myself jaded and tired reading about what people hate or even talking about what I hate. Video's like "Top Ten Worst Metal Bands,""Why Bring Me The Horizon Suck," etc., make me sigh with frustration. Not to mention the slew of comments that inevitably follow, usually to the tune of "WTF? Dis list sux. Ur music iz crap!" I just think, if it's so awful, why waste time on it? Listen to something you like or let other people know about this awesome thing you know about! It makes much more sense to me. I feel so much more enthusiasm for the positive reviews than I ever did for the rush of bile I felt for the scathing whine fests.

Essentially I think we all need to chill out somewhat, and remember that we don't listen to music to feel superior or to ruin other people's experience; we listen to music to be moved, to enjoy it. Don't we? Anything else, in my opinion is a waste of time. Recently, I've found blogs and vloggers who more likely than not will use their limited free time and infinite net space to talk about music and topics they think is really good and that they think other people will want to hear about and it's wonderful. Think about it, will you ever regret that you never took the time to call someone an idiot for liking 'Death Magnetic' on YouTube? Will you wish you hadn't just laughed and turned on an album you love?

I'm not saying I'll never write an angry review again or get pissed off when someone has got different taste to me, because I will, but I think it will help to remember the very true remark Laurie Anderson made: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture". Keep that in mind before you waste time trashing the next KERRANG! teeny bopper poser band.

~Martin Dean Grainger

Labeled:Profound Lore

Every release that Profound Lore has put out is excellent and if you are not familiar with any of their releases I highly suggest that you check them out. Listen to songs from all of these great albums here.

Ross' Picks

Coffinworm-When All Became None

Profound Lore is a fantastic label that I have be fond of for quite some time. Last year, they released Coffinworm's debut album "When All Became None" and that album earned it's spot in the top five of my year-end list of 2010. I still listen to this album on a regular basis. It never gets old. Coffinworm's filthy, sludgy brand of blackened doom is mesmerizing and this album perfectly captures every aspect of the band's talent. Punishing riffs, devastating drumming, harsh, haunting vocals. It's all perfect. If you haven't listened to this album, I highly suggest you get it immediately.

Mitochondrion-Parasignosis
Mitochondrion's "Parasignosis" came out this January and ever since I first listened to the track "Trials," which Profound Lore posted on their MP3s page before the album was released, I was hooked. This band blends elements of death metal and black metal to form something much stronger and brutal than blackened death metal. Blackened death metal is more suited for bands like Behemoth, Mitochondrion are definitely a DEATH METAL band that harnesses the intensity and brings a visceral experience to the listener. "Parasignosis" is a perfect example of this intensity and therefore my favorite record by this band.

Castevet-Mounds of Ash
Castevet. What can I say? This band is absolutely fantastic. Their first full-length, "Mound of Ash," came out last year on Profound Lore and it absolutely stunned me. The vibe of this record is unbelievable. A perfect mixture of post-metal and black metal. When these two genres fuse the way Castevet execute them, the result is totally chaotic madness. When I say chaotic, I do no refer the their music. The music is actually very well orchestrated. The chaos I speak of is in the bands uncanny accuracy to create astonishing music. This album is a must have for any metal fan. Not specifically black metal fans, but metal fans in general. Get on it.

~Ross Gnarly(American Aftermath)

Andrew's Picks

Ken Mode-Venerable

I first heard of KEN Mode from the mp3 section on the Profound Lore website. I had heard from a lot of different places that KEN Mode are awesome, but at first I really didn't see what the big deal about them was. I kept on hearing great things about KEN Mode, so I decide to buy Venerable. After a few listens I fell in love with Venerable. I love everything about KEN Mode their heavy drum sound, their unique vocals, and their great guitar sound. This album is a perfect example of a grower and gets better every listen! I usually don't even like most instrumental songs but the instrumental songs on Venerable are spectacular! Even though this album might not be heavy in a death metal or grindcore way, I still recommend that you check these awesome guys(and girl) out.

Man's Gin-Smiling Dogs

First off, let me say that, that this album is in no way shape or form grindcore or even metal! I bought this album after hearing a few songs from it on YouTube. When I first bought this album, I was getting tired of just screaming vocals and fast songs, I wanted something that I could remember the lyrics to and sing along to. It's hard to describe Man's Gin's sound, but I guess the best tag would be folk. Even though this album is not metal, it still has a very dark atmosphere. I remember when I first bought Smiling Dogs, I listened to it like 12 times on repeat that day. All the songs on Smiling Dogs are memorable and extremely great. My favorite song on Smiling Dogs is "The Death of Jimmy Sturgis", it is an almost seven minute "epic". It is also one of the catchiest songs on the album and I consistently have it stuck in my head. Along with Thou-Summit this album is my favorite album from last year. If you are a grindcore, metal, hardcore fan and you want to hear something different, I highly recommend this album to you!

Ludicra-The Tenant

Ludicra are a great black metal band, that also have a lot of other varied influences. From the haunting, emotional vocals, to the great guitar/bass playing, to Aesop's awesome, unique style of drumming, The Tenant is a perfect album. I bought this album after seeing an article about them in Decibel Magazine and I was not disappointed. I bought this album over a year ago, but I still find myself listening to it very often. My favorite song on The Tenant is "The Truth Won't Set You Free". It is nine minutes long and probably the most intense and angry sounding song on the whole album. If you are a fan of black metal or metal in general I highly suggest that you check out Ludicra.

~Andrew Lipscomb

Interview:Gripe

Here is my interview I did with Gripe over email. Listen to/download their awesome debut The Future Doesn't Need You here.

~Andrew Lipscomb

First off, introduce yourself and explain what your role is in Gripe.

DJ: I'm DJ. and I do vocals or whatever.

Brandon: I'm Brandon and I'm the axegrinder.

Tom: I'm Tom and I play drums.

How did Gripe form?

DJ: Me and Brandon's shitty d-beat project fell through, because I never wrote any lyrics, then Tom moved to town and we forced him to play drums for us.

B: Me and DJ were struggling for years to make a decent hardcore band. Alcoholism, incompetence, and lack of Tom kept holding us back.

T: I moved to Athens and was bored.

What was the recording/writing process like for The Future Doesn’t Need You?

B: We did that shit in one fucking day. It was grueling 12 hour session of grind. We worked with the amazing duo of Joel Hatstat and Mike Albanse. They were very pro and cheap which was very important to us.


What are the lyrical themes on The Future Doesn’t Need You?

DJ: Dark, human-hating, apocalyptic, dystopian visions. Basically, I write about robots rising up and killing off humans cause they're idiots and then nature battles the robots. It fucking rules.

How would you describe Gripe’s sound?

B: In a word: hateful.

DJ: Fuckin awesome!

T: A misanthropic ejaculation of blast beat laden grinding beatdowns with down tuned guitars and throat shredding vo"kills".


Who did the cover art for The Future Doesn’t Need You?

DJ: I did it on a pirated version of photoshop.

T: The actual release also comes with a hand-drawn poster by yours truly. The Robo-Reaper.

DJ: That shit's tight.

B: I came up with the art concept. The robo-reaper haunts my nightmares.

What is the Georgia grind/metal scene like?

DJ: Weak sauce, besides Grinchfinger.

B: Mostly pathetic. Either jock-ish 15 year-olds doing sweep arpeggios, or methed-out rednecks playing too slow. Which can be cool but it can also be boring. the methed out doom that is not the suburban guitar center kids, they can get fucked.

Who are some of your biggest personal musical influences?

DJ: Filth, Dropdead, Insect Warfare, Wormrot, Iskra, Descendents, Magrudergrind.

T: 70's rock, Grimy 90's powerviolence, grindcore, and stuff that people make fun of me for liking like Nirvana, Lemuria, etc.

DJ: I hate Nirvana.

B: DRI, dealin' with helped change my life, fuckin Siege, the greatest grind band of all time, Discordance Axis, good-era Napalm Death, Negative Approach c'mon, fuckin Void,all that early fastcore shit, Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi is the reason I picked up guitar, Despise You, I also fuckin love black metal and all negative forms of music, Slap-a-Ham Records.

How did you get into grindcore/powerviolence?

DJ: I rode freight trains for 10 years and grindcore is really big in that scene.

T: I grew up in a super small town and me and like two other friends jumped straight from listening to NOFX to listening to Fuck on the Beach somehow.

B: I was listening to a lot of thrash metal and early hardcore and I was always looking for something harder and faster. I thought Reign in Blood was the end-all be-all of extremity, and then I stumbled onto a Grindcrusher compilation through my friend Tommy and was like "Holy Fuck!" We got way to into it because we grew up in a hick town and we were the only kids who liked this type of music. The alienation of it all made it that much more special to us.

What are some albums that you are currently enjoying?

T: Mainly my old grind/pv records. Besides that, the new Gridlink, Noisear, Rotten Sound and Lemuria records. We are all constantly listening to Wormrot and Insect Warfare. Like every time we get drunk together...

DJ: I can't fucking stop listening to Zoe Muth and the Lost Highrollers. Besides that Del-Tron 3030, and Descendents "Liveage", and my friends' band Hump Yard.

B: Discordance Axis "Jouhou" is still a beautiful slab of grind genius, Siege "Dropdead" is the best grind record of all time, Thin Lizzy, the guitar work gives me chills, Black Sabbath everyday for the rest of my life, Negative Approach gets me through the hard times, Black Flag, Minor Threat, "Scum" and "FETO", the Fiesta Grande comps when I'm feeling saucy, only the most depressing old school country and delta blues, the R. Crumb "Heroes of Jazz, Blues, and Country" is amazing, Insect Warfare's noise records [Ed: By this point in the interview I got sick of transcribing Brandon's record collection]

Are any of you guys involved with any other bands?

DJ: Me and Tom are starting an alcohol-fueled thrash band called Blackout, and Brandon is jealous.

B: While DJ and Tom are busy making a Municipal Waste clone, I'm "planning" on starting the fastest fastcore band of all time called No Applause.

What are Gripe’s plans for the future?

DJ: Keep drinking as soon as I wake up and live off of unemployment until we get a van and start touring.

B: We all struggle financially, but I would love to see us do a regional tour and press vinyl.

T: We're currently in the process of writing our next record.

Any other comments?

We'd like to thank American Cheeseburger/Shaved Christ for keeping the Athens punk scene alive, The Fuzzlers for playing a bunch of shows with us and letting us book shows at their house whenever we demand, A. Lipscomb/Operation Grindcore for supporting grind bands outside of Relapse Records, J. Randall/Grindcore Karaoke for all he does for the underground grind scene and alcohol. Grind or die, motherfuckers!

Weekend Nachos-Worthless(Relapse)

"Hometown Hero" is such a great opener for Weekend Nachos' third full length Worthless. It captures everything that is great about Weekend Nachos, their catchiness, their awesome groove parts, and their harsh vocals. After "Hometown Hero" the greatness continues with songs like "Obituary", "For Life", and "Black Earth", but starting with "The Meeting" things start to slow down. At the end of "The Meeting" some feedback comes in and things take a turn for the worse. The feedback then turns into the song "Worthless". I really don't get the point of "Worthless", don't get me wrong I love it when grind/powerviolence bands such as Robocop, ANb, The Endless Blockade, and Noisear do noise tracks, but it really doesn't fit in well with Weekend Nachos. I also think if a band does a noise track it should have some variety, unlike "Worthless" which is pretty much just straight feedback until the end of the song. After "Worthless" ends, the intensity of Weekend Nachos comes back. In the song "Jock Powerviolence" there is even some clean singing, and I actually(unlike many others) like it and think it is a cool variation from Weekend Nachos' normal sound. The last song "Future" comes in at seven minutes long, and to be honest it's pretty boring . I really don't understand why Weekend Nachos put a seven minute song that is basically just the same riff over and over on Worthless.

Overall, I think Worthless is a pretty good album, but I do think it would be way better without the slower songs. All the songs on Worthless( with the exception of "Worthless" and "Future") are really great and memorable, and I dig Weekend Nachos' unique blend of powerviolence, grindcore, and hardcore.

I give Worthless a 7.5 out of 10.

Weekend Nachos: Bandcamp, Blogspot, Facebook, Merch

~Andrew Lipscomb