Numb

Simple Grindcore goodness without any annoying "ringy" snare drums or belches.  Blackened riffs here and there add a nice touch.  If you liked that Male Misandria I posted a while ago, or that Cloud Rat from last year, you'll like this.

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...

Drawn and Quartered - Hail Infernal Darkness

Do you love Death Metal and hate christians?  I thought so...  Luckily, for people like us, there's bands like Drawn and Quartered who share these unpopular feelings.  With Hail Infernal Darkness, "DQ" have treaded the familiar blasphemous path.  They've brought forth forty minutes of brutality that sounds just like an illegitimate child of Immolation and Incantation.  This bludgeoning is further complimented by an organic, "woody"-sounding production (the way Death Metal albums used to sound like).  You'd be hard pressed to find anything original here, but that's ok.  Most Death Metal bands (and fans) don't give a shit about originality, so it's good not to expect too much in that deparment.  As much as I love groundbreaking and unique music, It doesn't necessarily have to be new to be good.

blood of a million Marty's

Black Breath - Sentenced to Life

These kids, they grow up so fast.  You know, how they go through periods of change trying to figure out who they are until they finally find their own path.  This is what seems to have happened to Seattle's Hardcore/Death Metal crossover sons.  In the beginning, they  were more of a Black/Thrash type of thing, then they went more Swedish Death Metal with a hint of Metalcore mosh.  Now, they've left almost all their Hardcore tendencies behind to become an almost pure Death Metal sasquatch.  Their sound is now darker, faster, and more sophisticated.  The playing technique has been bumped up a couple notches too.  You can now hear guitar harmonies and melodies in addition to the standard power chords, and there's a decent portion of time changes without becoming "techy".  You can even occasionally hear that bluesy, 70's rock vibe coming through just like with the originators 20 years ago.  I kind of miss the fun, hard-dancing quality of their last album, but I'm liking this ambitious, new direction as well.

life is more painful than death

Iron Lung - Sexless//No Sex

This is the Premier Powerviolence band here.  I've been a fan ever since I saw this power-duo in a Minneapolis basement six years ago. Iron Lung (which is a great name, by the way) play a modern Powerviolence style with lots of time changes and dissonance, which makes me suspect a Mathcore influence.  The bulk of the songs here are straight-forward blasting, broken by occasional (non-metallic) mosh-friendly parts.  The overall sound is a little too "lean", leaving me with a "where's the beef?" feeling; but to be fair, it is the norm for the style.  They've dropped the long, ambient intros found on the last LP, which is always a plus in my book (we all know ambience and long dialog is just filler bullshit).  They've even dropped those long intros from their shows too, leaving much more time for insulting banter from the singer/drummer.  Honestly, his sarcastic humor is a major component of every show, I've even been told they released a tape of just his stage banter!  I really wish he would incorporate that feeling into his actual albums... maybe in the future.

the young and the sexless