Well who are Straighthate, well they come from Greece, uhhh nice place for a vacation, but who cares who they are, we are here to talk about their latest album, that they gave me a copy, how nice of them heheh, called “Indigenous”, the music fits into a kinda “Death Grindcore Hardcore Metal” thing, just like they say on their website, again, how nice, lets check to see if the music is nice as well, shall we.

I guess Indigenous is plagued by some of the same shit that plagues this kind of music, after a while it all seems the same, it doesn’t feel like its really a band problem as much as a musical genre problem, there are only so much ways you can blast away, well anyways it all starts off from “Middle Class Kidds” with the all too smoothing blasting and growling, its kinda quick and simple grindcorish track, not too bad, “Cannibalistic Society” is more a hardcore grind with nuances at the end, “Higher” starts up with … i don’t know some kind of movie sound sample with people struggling while Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane Starship sing “White Rabbit” on the background… what? higher? hey not all hippies were high hahaha, well anyways it then goes into blast hardcore and kinda keeps like that till the end, still with a nice pace to back it up, “You’ll Never see Heaven” starts off slower more verging on the hardcore side, still with intermittent blasting and then back to the full on blasting grind, till halfway were it kinda goes to more a death mood, humm a bit spliced together but still nice riffs and interesting listening, “Ethnocide” is a bit of a 2min throwaway track blasting half way to more growling and more blasting.

“Curse the Unholy Corpse of Jesus” is another kinda mess of track, and not in a good way, the vocalist seems to be everywhere on this one… txaaa you don’t need to growl all the way through, sometimes not talking makes a bigger impact, let the music speak for you, “Stench of Immortality” is back on the hardcore side of things, and a much better listen, kinda reminds me a bit of hardcore punk, well with the added screaming howls, finishes on a more moody groove, solid track, “Company Car” moves us back into the griding and blasting, kinda standard stuff, “Procreate” is a bit groovier hardcore grind track that finishes with a guitar lead, cool, now “Isolator” kinds starts a bit techie but grows back into full blast grind, “Kollapse” is a bit of more groovier kind of death hardcore metal, i liked it, mostly cause it has a bit of everything and still sounds pretty distinct from the rest of the the album, “Which One of Us is Gonna Die First” again starts off with more hardcore metal and kinda goes on… but well you all know what i feel about 15min tracks, unless they are going to do some groundbreaking stuff, then they mostly suck, this one is ok with some not that good parts… still about half way it stops for the “ethereal” sounds and the low guitar number finishing with some talk that gets lost on someone like me that grabs a cd to listen to music not to someones thought agendas… boring, especially for re-playability… skip skip.

From production values, lets say its ok, a bit muddy at times, still even though most tracks aren’t awesome, there are some interesting ones, also cause most tracks keep it short it listens well as a whole even when they start a lot of tracks with interesting and groovy intros and then blast away until the end, not following through, uhhh also i found the track names quite charming heheh, so what can i say of “Indigenous” humm like i said above this genres are a bit difficult to move beyond what is expected, even if you fuse and mash them together like Straigthate intended, i would say that this album is a solid album for those genres, these guys know theirs chops, this isn’t some garage shit, so if you are into hardcore or grind, be sure to check them out its a pretty sweet listening, but if you are looking for enlightenment, fish elsewhere ^_^

Myspace Straighthate | Video for Ethnocide

Straighthate – Higher
Straighthate – Stench of Immortality

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Ahh back to some headbashing hehehe, Diskreet is kind of the new wave of death metal, it has a more hardcore/grindcore feel to it, and not so much a leaning technical ability, nevertheless they hail from Kansas USA, and that might mean something to be mad about muahhaha.

Infernal Rise starts pretty good with “Infernal Throne”, its kinda a slow burn blast beat kind of track, pretty good and straightforward, “Infinite Hold” comes next and starts with a guttural blast/slow rifts, then it gets into a more speed up but always with a play with the speed, slowing and speeding, always with prologued drummed blasting or small bursts of blasting, actually the drumming is what shines, its always changing the pattern, pretty nice track, it finishes much like it started, “The Bigger Complex” starts with a sound clip then goes into death blasting, it kinda works like the previous track with a bit more guitar work, but it still feels like its an all drumming thing… “Entrails” starts with the death blasting thing, stops and then picks up again almost all the way through… humm

“Faust” at least starts pretty differently with a more groove metal kind of thing, but damn if the drumming isn’t kinda carrying everyone on their backs, loads of variations of blasting, feels a bit like don caballero but with worse mix between the guitarists and the drummer, it even has those more breakneck kind of breakdowns, “The Nightmare” is a bonus track and it kinda shows, its a bit more straight death metal, but still a pretty solid track, again drums shine like hell, “Promising Demise” is the last track and also a bonus one, and again a bit different from the rest of the album, slower and maybe not even death, more like metalcore even with a cleaner chorus, not so bad, its good as a final track.

Diskreet… humm, well this didn’t WOWed me, and it does feel like its a work in progress, i really cant tell if they are really good, i do like some of the tracks, but it seems like a one trick band, well we will see how they fare with time, i did particularly liked the drumming and hell with this drumming maybe its just a matter of tweaking this and that and they have them selfs a kick ass band, so why not check it out (at least the mp3) hehehe

Official Site Myspace Diskreet (Myspace? hum?) Siegeofamida.net (Label Page)

Diskreet – Faust

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I could say i have a sort of love/hate relationship with grindcore, mostly because when its well made, it’s completely and utterly awesome, but most of the times its just an amalgam of noise and not in the good sense, also i could say i have the same feeling with electronic music in general, so when Aaron Specter’s Drumcorps pulls this “Grist” saying it’s a mixing of grindcore and breakcore… i tend to take it with a grain of salt.

It all starts up with “Botch Up and Die” and it’s pretty grindcore, kinda of a homage to Botch, with the eccentric guitars over a grind blast beat, its not only amusing but quite groovy, nicely done, “Down” is kinda dance meets noisecore with distorted samples and guitars into the mix, okkk, “Pig Destroyer Destroyer” has some nice drumming building to a slowed down chopped distorted noise filled beat … are we making fun of Pig Destroyer?, is this supposed to be a compliment or a satire, anyway it all builds up to a distorted guitar breakcore fest, mixing real life drumming with beats and distortion….

“Terrible Things” tsss is a kind of atmospheric interlude to build up “Forgive and Forget” going heavy on the guitars and groove breakdown, pretty awesome beats and catchy samples, it all works pretty well, even with the constant distortion and changes of pace (i guess it’s the point…right), it all goes flat at about 2/3 in… letting it die with echoes and guitar feedback, then it goes into “Grainbeast” that just builds on that feedback… working as another interlude to “Saddest RMX” and back to a more pure form of grindcore, great variety of beats and of mixing them up, but yet short simple and to the point, i liked it, “Incarnate” brings us home to … Amen Break land, old school beats and simple samples…. that get worked up and mingled into some form of breakcore thrash metal, pretty good, i like the old school feel… you can even headbang in the end muahahah

“Worse” starts with some drum work to some spaced out samples, well it feels like another intro to “Time” that builds from the last track into a smooth beat guitar work, that is until it goes all out into grindcore planet, what i like about this is that even when something doesn’t sound that good… it doesn’t matter, since nothing stays on loop for long, and the diversity is very well mixed together… then the last track “Grist” again gives a toned down funky beat … joined later with guitars and sampled vocals, still pretty groovy, the track goes on with different mixing of the same samples, giving them more speed or power, but keeping the same rhythm, it’s pretty nice, until it eventually dies down.

One things is for sure, you have to listen to this from start to finish, at first i tried a couple of tracks and i didn’t know what to think of it, now that i’ve listen to it a couple of times, i can say that this is one funky album, its good for the headbanger metal head that likes it hard and fast, and good for the breakcore noisecore crowd, i enjoyed it… so if your into this kind of music or you want to try something with a bit of an aftertaste, than give this album a go ^^

Official Site Drumcorps
MySpace Site Drumc0rps

Drumcorps – Botch Up and Die
Drumcorps – Forgive and Forget

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This guys have shit, point blank simple, this “A Desperate Man’s Diaries” from Glass Casket is a pearl in a sea of fucking mediocrity, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, Glass Casket play …. hummm i would say some form of eccentric Death Metal, because they cross a lot of borders, like Hardcore, Grindcore and a lot of bits from here and there.

After a sissy intro we get into the groove of it all with “Too Scared to Live” (actually the featured track as well, so go check it out) and damn if it’s not just a a nice piece of music, smooth going in smooth coming out, by smooth i mean freakin awesome, well it starts off with some death grind, followed by some more straight Metalcore style rockin, then it speeds up again to a hardcore breakdown, then some more slowed down Metalcore to some off the wall guitar solo.. well i think so, i didn’t expect that shit, great stuff, it brings you to guitar solo followed by another hardcore one/two, great track, its a great combination of old school death/hardcore but with a different structure for added freshness, this track sums really well the rest of the album.

I can point out tracks “Less Like Human” or “A Cork Stops the Whining” or “Post Traumatic Death” for the solo work, hell this album is a dream come true for a lover of guitar solos, it has shitloads… i mean really a lot of funky guitar solos, i actually went and checked the guitarists (found out that a couple of the members are actually members of Between the Buried and Me), guitar solos and Hardcore breakdowns, you gotta love them both.

So Glass Casket is closer to 3 feet under? Humm, shit no, i liked this one, it sounds fresh, it has a lot of different stuff thrown into the mix, sure it lags in some places, it still has a lot of Hardcore/Grind and that always makes things a bit tiresome, but in my opinion, removing the first and last track (mostly filers than really something interesting), this is a great album and i can recommend to anyone that likes Death Metal, Metalcore or Hardcore, or in another view someone that really appreciates guitar solos, go get it…

Glass Casket – Too Scared to Live

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Noise, that oh so sweet constant in everyones life, if you listen to it enough times it actually starts to sound good, you won’t be able to sleep or have a life, but yeah, just like when you star making some strange noise and your mother tells you to shut the fuck up, because she wants to see listen to some other noise, well noise is noise you can’t listen to it all the time, but sometimes when you do pay attention you might find something you weren’t expecting, in this line comes James Plotkin and he’s apparent ability to ruin fine music, heheh, just kidding, more like adding something in a way of destroying it?

James Plotkin’s, “Phantomsmasher” is what i would call electrohardcore, sure it’s got noise in it, but it’s not that overwhelming (like let’s say
Merzbow) it’s more a layered fusion, i stress the word layer, because it feels like a rock/metal/hardcore jam, that later on had samples included and was heavily distorted, so it still has that feeling of what it was, but in a quirky unorthodox kind of way, yeah i know, difficult to define, but nonetheless interesting.

From the first track “Bishop Hopping” you get to the point, you start with a interesting rock groove that quickly transforms into a distorted drum machine with a short looped guitar sample building up to a distorted vocal and then just intermixing these things, adding things like real life drums, bass work and clean guitars, it somewhat resembles a music, until it shuts down half way just to play with the samples until the end of the track when the drum machine kicks in again, weird stuff, not a lot of sense, or maybe the other way around, at least interesting, the rest of the album follows the same notion of a mix of live instruments through electronic eyes and ears, i should mention tracks like “Anubis Innertube”, “Scrolling Sideways” (my favorite and the one that’s on the site) and maybe “Digit Dirt”.

Hum, good or ham? well its strange, but not strange enough, maybe because of the abusive nature of the drum machine, i tend to pass out throughout the album, it also has the feeling of being a quick and dirty work, just like i said above, do a quick rock/metal album, and then a cut/paste/add/distort quick process that gives that hardcore feeling, and there you go, i kind of like it, because it’s got some grooves and some unexpected parts, but after staying for a month on the playlist it’s time to retire it, so might as well tell the world and maybe someone will pick up were i left.

Official Site Plotkinworks

James Plotkin – Scrolling Sideways

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This shit has some of the fastest riffing i have ever heard, although this seems to be based on some form of mathcore, Psyopus tend to walk the same road as the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, combining a turmoil of fast and hard drumming with blazing guitar work and guttural vocals, all in a very technical pack, being their first full length it’s quite the show.

Although i did made some comparisons with The Dillinger Escape Plan, these are 2 different beast, hell i should have said Into The Moat, since Psyopus don’t go for a more eclectic range, even thought it’s quite the chaotic mix, with rapid changes of pace and patterns, it tends to stay in genre with some small intermissions, don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, it’s just boring, even though I’m quite adept to these kinds of music, they don’t seem to capitalize in anything, and doing a 5 minute song with 30 different riffs, with loads of drumming variations with double bass rolls, blast beats or whatever the drummer can think off, doesn’t mean you have a song, or more importantly a good song.

Psyopus does deliver the goods, that’s for sure, this is one heck of a album, trying to stretch the limits is always a good thing in my book, but as i said before it tends to drag on, there are some tracks that stand out, but they don’t stand out enough and after you listen to it cover to cover, your a bit sick of it all, the guitars start sounding all the same, i know it’s not the same riff but the fucking guitars are screeching anyway, a friend of mine said the album just wasn’t tight enough, and after a couple of good listening i understand what he said perfectly.

Psyopus – Death I…

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