Triple B Bicentennial!

You guessed it, this marks my 200th post!  It's been well over a year, but I've finally made it.  Thanks for everyone for sticking with me through the slow times.  To celebrate, I'm posting the new LP from one of Washington State's finest purveyors of Hardcore: Marrow.  Much like my aging "bod", The Sea Of... has everything you could possibly want: metallic riffs, blast-beats, dissonance, and a scathing production.  Sure, bands of this style are a dime a dozen these days, but how many of them are actually worth listening to?  This one is...

White Lung - Sorry

It's rare that I post something that's not unabashedly heavy, but this works for me.  White Lung hit that sweet spot between Punk agression and Post-Punk moroseness.  The monotone vocals, the jangly guitars, the reverb-soaked recording, all the elements are present.  They also fit in pretty well beside other Post-Punk revivalists Signal Lost and Alaric.  Do they bring anything new to the table?  Not really, but so few recent bands play this style as well as White Lung that it's still refreshing nonetheless. 

you sunk my battleship

I The Unlord

It's time for us to take a trip into the thick, cheesy depths of Münster (which is in Germany, in case you thought it was in Wisconsin or something).  What we have here is the finest example of Sludgecore that I've heard in months.  It's brutal, viscous, and plodding without ever becoming droney (a tag you'll never see on this blog).  I the Unlord  manage to be lethargic and violent simultaneously, which is a very fine line to walk.  The production works very nicely too, with the proper amount of sharpness and low-end without distorting your brain and speakers to oblivion.  If you're (like me) waiting for the new Xibalba full length, Praise the Most Dead should satiate your hunger for seismic musical catharsis.

I the Bunglord

When Tigers Fight - Death Songs

Here's a great, refreshing LP from a new group of Hardcore vets.  Supposedly, members have been in Damnation A.D. and The Promise.  It's definitely evident that these aren't pimple-faced 'tweens here, as Death Songs is indeed tightly played and maturely written.  I hear the grit and muscle of No Warning and Damnation A.D. (of course), but I'm hearing more influence of hook-driven Posi bands like Betrayed and Have Heart.  Theses songs are all catchy and memorable as hell.  There's no complaints in the production department either.  The only thing I'm left wanting is a more intense, heavier attack (something I can really dance to).  Otherwise, this is a very enjoyable and accessible Hardcore record that surely deserves repeated listening.

tiger uppercut

Ephel Duath - The Painter's Pallette

It'd quite strange that I never listened to this band until today.  Usually I go apeshit for super-proggy metal like this.  Jazzier than the usual prog stuff I post, but still has enough impact and structure to satisfy me.  Surprising that the former singer of the Nu Metal band Crisis (that I'm sure none of you are fans of) has recently joined this band.  Sonically, I would say this sounds like a pretty even mix of Alamaailman Vasarat and Ihsahn.  Go for it.

 

 

duath-ity of man

Sexcrement - Sloppy Seconds

I honestly forgot this band still existed.  I remember Sexcrement being sort of a splinter of the band Goratory (whose album Rice on Suede might be the most underrated Death Metal album of the previous decade).  I'm actually glad their singer Adam Mason decided to keep doing Death Metal in the wake of his former bandmates forming some of the worst bands in recent memory: Despised Icon and Job for A Cowboy.  Anyway, that's beside the point.  What is the point is Sloppy seconds is a damn tasty platter of mosh-heavy Death.  They've taken the riff-driven groove parts of Goratory and Skinless and really them dominate, instead of following tradition and using sheer speed as the foundation.  Sloppy Seconds is very listenable and accessible (in a good way) without sounding  weak.

...told you it was bad

you can have this lapdance here for free

Martyrdöd - Paranoia

You know how people are always saying "their first album was amazing, but everything after that sucks"?  Well, I often find myself saying the opposite.  It can take a band a decade's worth of albums before they've reached the level of maturity that my exquisite pallete demands.  Such is definitely the case with Swedish D-Beaters Martyrdöd.  Their vaguely Metallic Crustcore never quite drew me in.  Their riffs were just a little too ordinary and they never brought enough of the Black Metal influence that (their cheerleader) Felix Havoc would go on and on about.  Usually Crustcore bands keep toiling away with the same formula (Wolfbrigade, Wartorn) their entire career, which is fine if you love that style.  Thankfully, Martyrdöd have bucked that tradition and have shown great progression since I last heard them in '05.  The Black Metal presence has increased as well as the overall songwriting.  Aside from a couple of straightforward bashers, these songs actually develop and have depth.  The tones have better "texture" and there's some real melodies being played (not just two-chord overdubs).  Yes, this is still Crustcore and inherently modest in techincality, but is a million times more interesting than the contemporaries relying only on distortion and militant politics.

   

good taste is easy to recognize... 

Parasitic - Poison Minds

Parasitic (I'm intentionally spelling it wrong) are somewhat of a supergroup with members paying dues in slightly better-known bands: Cannabis Corpse, Behind Enemy Lines, and Morne.  Those bands were all fine for what they were, but always fell a little short of my standards.  Thankfully, Parasitic very much delivers.  Poison Minds is a concise blast of serious, stinky Thrashing.  Parasitic remind me of the English "Stench-Core" originators Hellbastard and Deviated Instinct, mixed with modern purveyors of the genre Hellshock and Age.  If you're not hip to all this Crust Punk jargon, imagine Discharge playing Slayer covers and you won't be far off.  The riffs are outstanding, the song quality is consistent, and the musicianship is above average for this sort of thing.  You can't lose!

egregious bladder