Candiru - Disadvantage of Surprise
As with all Relapse 7-inches, this has excellent sound quality. Candiru crush their way through one track on each side. Their style of Industrial is fairly Death Metal influenced, but retains a clear identity. Harsh, raw, and very heavy, this shows much promise.
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Cancer - Death Shall Rise
After their first awesome release, I had no doubt this one would be even greater with James Murphy on guitar, but I was wrong. This album is a great disappointment to me. It is basic Death Metal, not worthy of James’ talents. But I’ll give it one thing: the tunes are catchy. John Walker still has a great voice, but not great enough to save this album. Favorite song: “Hung, Drawn and Quartered.”
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Broken Fear - Beyond the…
Heavy, but underproduced Death. A better production would help a lot, but I’m sure this was the best that could be done. The songs are somewhat experimental, mixing faster parts with Doomy bits. And the vocals are raw, but understandable, and not too deep - in fact sometimes the vocals are kinda screeched for a line or word.
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Brant - Destined to Deafen
Musically this is great sounding and pretty Thrashy. Vocally and in the lyrics is where it grabs me - in a bad way. The lyrics show no originality whatsoever. A new approach to these ancient lyrical topics would have helped. About the vocals: Brant sounds sorta like The Great Kat, but almost worse. And this is really too bad, because musically this is cool.
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Bolt Thrower - War Master
Ah yes, another tale of war and destruction from Bolt Thrower. It seems to me that Bolt Thrower is like good wine, it gets better with time. Their latest release, War Master, is by far their best to date. With the classic sounds of Bolt Thrower’s guitars tuned as low as possible, the constant, pounding double bass, and the horrendously deep vocals, they are one of the best Grindcore bands around. Outstanding songs include “Destructive Infinity” (a bonus CD track), “War Master” and “Rebirth of Humanity.” Along with the deadly songs, you get to stare at one of the best album covers ever done. So go out and give these guys (and a girl) a try, you just might become the next war master.
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Boer Knol - Sprookskes van den Boerebuiken
This 26 song Noise demo surprised me by having some actual riffs! Not exclusively Noise/Grind, this sometimes is just fucking weird, but mostly noisy as shit. One of the better Noise demos I’ve received from my pal Steinbock, mostly due to the fast Grind (machine) drums and the introduction of the ultra-heavy guitar. It’s still funny, though. On some songs the vox are sorta ultra distorted, but melodic, if that makes any sense. Much better than I expected. Possibly the Noise demo to own.
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Bloody Mary - Bitch Needs Psychotherapy
Bloody Mary is a Thrash band with an attitude and a groove. This four song demo is completely and totally flawless, despite its few flaws. What’s that supposed to mean? Just that Randy’s vocals are one with the music, which flows so freely as to lock the listener into its embrace- Syrn-like (minus the rocks!). This is not extremely heavy (although it is heavy), nor is it exceptionally fast (although it’s not without speed). What it is, is extremely memorable Thrash, played and recorded to a high standard. Awesome.
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Blackness - Blackness
A warning to all lyricists: do NOT rhyme “fire” with “desire” unless you want me to make fun of you! Other than ignoring this warning in the very first line of the very first song on this demo (which is called “Burning Desire” -give me a fucking break, guys!), Blackness don’t do a lot else which is noteworthy. Musically kinda speedy Thrash, and vocally a semi-screechy yell. Not really bad, but they bring nothing new to this at all. It just doesn’t do much for me.
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Benediction - The Grand Leveller
Fuck this album kicks ass. This is one of the best releases of the year. When I first heard this, I couldn’t believe they found a better vocalist then Barney (now in Napalm Death). The production is unbelievable. Karl from Bolt Thrower provides backing vocals on “Jumping at Shadows.” Two songs even have some lyrics taken from letters written by serial killers. For a band who’s first album was average, to come out with this piece of sheer brutal godslaying Death Metal is a 100% turn for the better.
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