Crawlspace (New Hampshire - USA) - Shelter
Pretty decent Hardcore, with a lot of energy. The somewhat raw production helps give them a “meaty” sound, which in this case, is good. The Good Guy lyrics bothered me, but maybe you won’t mind. [The band changed its name to Everdown after recording this EP. -Editor]
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Crawl/Child - Principles of Exclusion
Holy shit, is this distorted! Imagine E.N.T., but the vocals and, I think guitars, and sometimes drums, run through a massive distortion, or maybe those elements are just mastered too loudly, like the speaker-raping 13th track on Exit-13’s Ethos Musick. The difference here being that the whole CD has this sound, and that, thankfully, it only sounds like it’s mastered at 50 times the normal level - it’s actually mastered a tiny bit low, so no speaker damage from this brain fucker. Ultra-freaky, and if that wasn’t enough, there are odd sounds and keyboards thrown over the top of this just for added spite. You want the most intense “soundscapes” ever? Here you go.
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Corpsevomit - Gathering Chemical Children
As far as Death Metal is concerned, I just don’t see it getting a whole lot better than Corpsevomit. They are beyond heavy, and intense past all reason. The production is punishing, but never muddy, and the mix is really perfect. Deicide wish they sounded this good. Anyway, Corpsevomit alter their attack from crushing slowness to numbing speed, and use their power to utterly destroy the listener. This demo should get them signed immediately.
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Convulse - Reflections
Very high energy music and vox. Their sound is not an easy one to describe, and that’s good, because it means that I can’t easily compare them to another band. They’re kinda groovy, and the riffs are sometimes in the NWOBHM vein, but the vocals are kinda harsh - not really Death growls usually (although they can get raw when necessary), and certainly not Hardcore yells or melodic singing. I will rip off my own review of their MCD and say that it’s a sound not unlike that which Cemetary had on their Godless Beauty album. Originality in this day and age is a tough thing to find, and Convulse successfully integrates that with good songs to come up with quite an excellent CD.
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Conscious Rot - The Soil
Intense, and bass heavy Death Metal from Lithuania, which is quickly becoming well known for very high quality extreme Metal bands. Conscious Rot are not quite up to Ghostorm’s level yet, but they tear through these songs with tremendous energy, and the songs themselves are well written and played, as well as being pretty memorable. A little fine tuning, and these guys will be able to go head to head with anyone.
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Collective Soul - Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid
For a brief moment here and there, I thought this was going to pick up a little, but I was wrong. Standard radio Rock piece of complete shit.
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Collapsing Lungs - Colorblind
When I saw this band’s “tough-guy” picture, I was prepared for them to really suck shit. To my surprise, other than mostly terrible lyrics, this isn’t too bad. Sort of a Hardcore sound, with samples and some Rap-ish elements.
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Collapse - Martyr Specimen
The music has a groove to it, but isn’t exactly what is thought of as groovy. This sounds more like later day Voivod, but the vocals are a sort of horse yell. It’s a pretty unique sound, and I like it. Maybe you will too.
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Cold Mourning - Looking Forward to Reason
These gentlemen play Doom the old fashioned way. That is to say, they sound more like Trouble than [early] Celestial Season, and maybe more like what Cathedral want to sound like. A little too Groove-laden to be very depressing, but categories aside, this is a fine release.
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Circle of Dust - Brainchild
When someone in a band is given credit for playing the Stick, you’ve got to know the band will be good. Especially when it’s an Industrial band. Musically fairly heavy, and vocally diverse. An interesting release.
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Cianide - A Descent Into Hell
I just even don’t know where to begin with this review. This is such an incredible album that nothing I say will do it justice. They pay their respects to Venom and Godzilla, and even cover Slaughter’s “Death Dealer.” This album is truly awesome. The sound is unbelievably heavy - it’s just beyond words. Cianide normally keep things at a fairly slow tempo, and that only adds to the crushing feeling. A Descent Into Hell is one of the greatest Death Metal albums ever recorded - a classic in every sense of the word. Anyone who does not own this album should be killed on sight.
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Chronic Black - Something for the Sick
Interesting and heavy Death Metal, with a good, thick production. I must, however, wonder about the lyrics (which are not included, and I can’t really make out), when a song is called “Blood Puddle (With a Lump in It).”
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Chaos and Technocracy - Abstract Reflections
After the weird intro, they get right into their unique style of Thrash. They have the advantage of having a female singer, so that gives them a unique sound.
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Channel Zero - Unsafe
Oh how neat. And I had thought that Alice in Chains were already signed. Oh wait! This is Channel Zero. Well, the singer is about 10 thousand times better than that hillbilly from AIC. Golly, they even have some of those cool distorted vocals! Maybe they borrowed the fx rig from Panzytera.
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Caustic Butchery - Offerings to the Overseer
This demo sounds great. The production is powerful, and clear, but the songs aren’t really very memorable, and they are completely over-shadowed by the truly raw vocals. However, they do have a handle on the “brutality” aspect of Death Metal, so if that’s all you need, then these are they guys.
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Johnny Cash - American Recordings
Here’s a review I’m sure you didn’t expect to see in this zine. But here’s the deal: Nearly all of the songs on this album are pretty cool, and some are amazing. My favorite is Cash’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire.” By the way, this is almost totally not a Country album. Generally these songs are more Folk, with an occasional nod to Country at most. Cash has a very powerful and haunting voice, and puts it to amazing use here. Many of these tracks were written for him (including one by Danzig) or are covers, but the ones he wrote are among the coolest. Don’t miss hearing this.
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Casbah - March of the Final Decade
This is an improvement over their 1992 demo, in that they have lost none of their Thrash intensity, but gained a lot more memorability. The somewhat strange, but very powerful and clear, production helps them, but they mostly just know how to write good riffs, and they cram these three songs full of them. Taka’s vocals are yelled with more energy than ever before, and everyone’s playing has improved as well. An outstanding demo, that, if there were any justice in the world, would get them signed in a second.
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Cannibal Corpse - The Bleeding
I was very surprised, to say the least, when I first listened to this album. The Corpse have traded a little of their brutality for about a thousand times as much memorability. This allows them to show what talented musicians they have become. Chris has also altered his vocal style so that you can sorta understand what he’s saying. But fear not, this is still as brutal as a nuclear war, and twice as sick. Notice my favorite songs: “Fucked with a Knife” and “Stripped, Raped and Strangled.” Really all the rest are excellent, too. This is their best album, and has totally changed my mind about this band.
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Candiru / Fat Hacker - Propulsion / Fat Hacker
Candiru sounds way more experimental with this release and I must say, it fits them better. The more Death Metal style seemed a bit off. Perhaps a little forced. This is still heavy, but in a different way. I like this better.
Fat Hacker is weird. In the good way. I’m reminded a little of John Zorn. That should, hopefully, give you an idea of the awesome range of styles this band can achieve. It takes a couple listens, but this is incredible.
An excellent split EP, available on black or swirl vinyl.
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Cadaverous Quartet - The Extinction Agenda
For only $10, this is a deal. CQ have a style similar to that of Death’s Leprosy album, but a bit more experimental. Very clear sound, and well thought out songs are the least of this band’s assets. Excellent vocals, and even lyrics. I also like the solos. CQ are at the point where all they need is a little fine tuning of their drum sound and a label with a distribution deal to pick them up. And to get rid of the dopey Hendrix cover.
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