This has five tracks from the band’s Sinister Slaughter album, but they’re all a bit different than the LP versions, especially “Zodiac.” If you’ve not heard Macabre before, now’s the time. Their style of Murder Metal is without peer, and sick and brutal are too weak to describe them. You were warned.

Murder Metal from the bowels of Chicago. All the songs are about serial killers. And all the songs themselves kill. There is a certain element of humor, which makes it all the more sick. Heavy enough for Death Metal, sick enough for The Dead Youth, cool enough for me: This is an utter masterpiece. Favorite track: “Is It Soup Yet?”

There is certainly no lack of brutality here. In fact, they may have even sacrificed a little feeling in the name of increased brutality. This is Malevolent Creation’s first effort to not be recorded at Morrisound, and they have never sounded better. An excellent LP, although not quite the perfect album I was expecting. Next time it will be, though.

Yeah this new album has the best production and, supposedly, songwriting so far, but several of the songs travel really far from the Thrash realm, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea for these freaks, but at least the songs are memorable (and pretty amusing). Lots of drugs, sex (with a quadriplegic) and destruction (by a mutant dinosaur) grace the lyrics. The Scumdogs have broadened their style, but this remains mostly true to form. Does several homosexual, crack smoking, human butchering monsters, destroying the Earth in graphic detail sound cool? Well, except for the gay parts, it’s at least stupid (and funny) enough to be entertaining. And they have apparently learned to play their instruments pretty well. But I have to wonder how much longer they can keep the joke going and the image up…

These guys have the balls to cover Venom’s “Black Metal” and not even credit them. I assume that was an oversight on Hypocrisy’s part. Or maybe they figured that if you don’t know who wrote “Black Metal,” you don’t deserve to. Anyway, the rest of this album is really good Black Death Metal. Not much of a progression from their first album, but that’s fine.

Two new tracks, which utterly kill everything. A demo track from ‘86, which is very raw and also very cool. A track from the In the Eyes of Death compilation. And two more tracks from their debut, Into the Grave (which you should already fucking own), but in remixed form. You have heard of Grave, right? Get this or get dead.

Here we have eight live tracks from the Dynamo Festival, which is held in Holland. The sound quality is excellent, and after reading the above two reviews [of 1992’s masterpiece False and 1991’s Mindless], I shouldn’t have to say anything else. Unless you hate live albums, buy this.

Fuck! It’s been a while since I heard vocal grunts like these - I mean, Sylvian growls the lyrics and then he also just sort of makes some sick noises. This is unbelievably intense, even when they slow down from blast-speed, and amazingly heavy and brutal. Get this, just get this.

Maybe it’s the samples from The Wizard of Oz in the first song (it’s about witches). Maybe it’s how loud the bass is mixed. Maybe it’s just ‘cause this is cool. I like this a lot. I wonder if the Sage in this band is the same one who’s in Youth Gone Mad. Anyway, this is a kinda Punk-inspired two woman band. Lots of energy, and the songs are short and catchy. It’s only about 20 minutes long, and I dug every second.

It takes them almost a full minute to get things in gear, but once they do everything is fine. Now you have to understand that this is the classical Metal style. Remember when they collaborated with Motorhead? Well, you might not, but they did. Anyway, this is great, but I understand that it’s probably not for everyone.

Hard, pro-god Industrial. It’s got a good sound, heavy guitars and all that. But it’s kinda boring and honestly didn’t do much for me. When there are vocals, I don’t like them either.

This is available in regular and special edition packaging, which is limited to only 2000. Either way, you get seven songs that out-Carcass old Carcass, as was the intent. Even though this is only about 16 minutes long, it is worth every cent, especially for those who have the 7-inch and dreamed of this being released on CD (with extra tracks, no less).

This sounds like the bastard child of early Helloween and a Thrash version of Queensryche. It’s extremely intense and very well played. Impressive.

The bass is loud in the mix, and the songs are mostly at least listenable, if not good or even really good. The lyrics usually bite, and the vocals could be okay, but I think the singer wants to sound stupid. At least they have some energy, which is one of the many things utterly missing from what now passes as Alternative music.

Totally stupid lyrics, and silly stage names aside, the songs on this demo are really, really, really catchy, especially the title track. They’re kinda heavy, too. This is goofy as shit, but I like it.

Foul Play is, I guess, a Hard Rock band. They’re good musicians, but I have trouble standing this style. Oliver Magnum is heavier, maybe along the lines of early Overkill, in both music and vocals. This 7-inch EP is pressed on marbled pink vinyl.

Of these five tracks, three are on their Merge album, and I wouldn’t say they were exactly the best three, either. But also present is their cover of “Rocket Ride,” complete with some help from the Space Ace himself - which is okay, I suppose. The other track, “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” is good, but hardly saves this. I’d get Merge first.

Mostly this is nothing too spectacular. But also nothing too terrible. And occasionally something really cool happens. With a bit of time, FLNL could develop into a real power. Favorite track: “Merge.”

I’ll admit it: I never heard Flipper before. Sure, I heard of ‘em, but I never actually heard them. I guess I wasn’t missing much. These guys sound a little Hardcore, a little Punk and a little Art-Alternative. It’s weird, but not really in the good way. I just don’t get the feeling of energy from this. I’m not exactly sure what they were trying accomplish with this LP. It has its moments; about enough for an EP.

These vocals are the definition of brutality. I can’t really make out any words at all, but I’m sure that it’s some sick shit. Musically very intense, but not up to the insanity level of the vocals. Very potent Death Metal. A note for future Fleshgrind releases: Unless you include a lyric sheet, there is no real need to do anything other than make noises (which is fine), like Jon Tardy used to do, back when he was cool.