Phantom Lung - "Starving To Serve" Single Review

    Well, the holidays are over and the winter solstice was just a few weeks ago, so that means that we here in the Northern Hemisphere are officially in the coldest and darkest days of winter. Historically, shorter days meant less time working outside and more time at home surrounded by the warmth of family and fireplace. For generations, European winter nights consisted of ghost stories and spooky tales of haunted folklore told around the glow of the hearthlight. In North America, scary stories are modernly thought of as a strictly Halloween affair, but throughout the United Kingdom the tradition of Yuletide and wintertime horror has and remains a firm cultural institution. The telling of tales of ghosts and ghouls in Victoria England was an oral pastime before the industrial revolution pushed the country's creepy Christmas yarns beyond the fireplace. One need only look as far as Charles Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol, or The BBC's A Ghost Story For Christmas, which was an annual supernatural television series event that aired throughout the 1970's. 

    It makes sense when you think of the dreary and dead landscape of winter and the natural inclination to populate it with specters of the dead. And when it comes to specters, this House of Grindcore has its resident spooks in the form of Toronto, Ontario's Phantom Lung. 

    Phantom Lung's debut EP, Abhorrent Entity, was originally reviewed here in 2023. Since that initial 2023 release the band released two more EP's that same year—Abhorrent Entity II: Moribund and Abhorrent Entity III: Solivagant. The Abhorrent Entity trilogy was an interesting way of releasing essentially an album in the form of a triptych that, while still encompassing a central concept, released its movements far enough apart that the band's quick evolution is charted from first to last. It is an organic take on what could have easily been just another series of digital releases. 

    2025 finds Phantom Lung thawing out from their Great White Northern freeze of 2024's dormancy. Yet, even though 2024 didn't have the volume of releases as the year prior, the band spent the year focusing on live shows and writing new material for an upcoming full-length album. 

    As a show of good faith—that isn't just an obligatory band announcement of "big things coming"—our favorite grindcore phantoms have done us one better and released a foretaste of what they have been working on. "Starving to Serve" is a demo version of a single that will be part of a new album set to release sometime in the spring, hopefully.

    The freshly posted "Starving to Serve" is a minute long blast of sprinting, pounding grindcore delirium. Phantom Lung are a band that does things at their own pace and often take their time easing listeners into songs, but from note one, "Starving to Serve" kicks off in a cacophony of distortion, blast beats and screaming. The track wastes no time getting into things. The drums are a perpetual hammering that do little in the way of letting up. When not straight blasting, the drums are a mechanical omnipresent obsessive pounding. The hardcore dawdling is kept to a minimum, leaving the song very lean and base. Compared to the two and three minute long songs on Abhorrent Entity III: Solivagant, this single track is a more streamlined version of Phantom Lung and I am all for it.

 

    Phantom Lung's vocals are as rabid and deranged as ever. Through my experience with the band, I've come to find Andy Dinner's vocal performance as a maniacal, unhinged, sort of scornful prattling. Subsequent songs in the Abhorrent Entity trilogy even hosted some vocals that were more on the cleaner side of things, yet still came off as sneering and taunting. However, the vocals on "Starving to Serve" are again leaning more towards that rawboned, singularly focused style like that in the drums. The vocals are unexpectedly binary, but once again, you will hear no complaints from me. 

    What makes this song differ the most from the band's previous discography is the addition of a guest vocalist. The guttural lows in the latter half of "Starving to Serve" were courtesy of Brian Ortiz of the California Aztec/tribal themed death/doom metal band, Tzompantli. Phantom Lung became enamored with Tzompantli and their 2022 album, Tlazcaltiliztli—an album that made Decibel Magazines' top forty albums of the year. After Phantom Lung dropped into Tzompantli's DM's, a year-long friendly dialogue between the band and Ortiz led to "Starving to Serve's" collaborative vocal set. Ortiz's vocals fit well and are given the spotlight they deserve. 

    Lyrically, "Starving to Serve" is the first stab from what is promised to be an album of a whetted critique of Canada's systematic political and economical deterioration. Dinner's disillusion with the country's leadership is very real and very distressing, and I think it is a frustration felt on both sides of the border. Phantom Lung's upcoming album will definitely have a Rod Serling meets George Orwell political sort of a sinisterly surrealistic theme. 

     

    Generally, I enjoyed "Starving to Serve." I appreciate the straightforward, death-grind minimalism of it. Phantom Lung seem like they are pissed off something awful and don't have time for pleasantries or ambient vibes. They are grinding it out on this track; only slowing things down in the slightest to keep things heavy and somber. My only real criticism of "Starving to Serve" would be the fact that it is just a demo—at least the version that I heard. The guitars are a bit muddied in the mix and kind of subscribe to that cloudy jet engine sound. The riffs and instruments are discernable, but not to the standard of the previously released Abhorrent Entity EP's. But hey, it works for Deterioration. Some things seem un-flourished and might simply be acting as placeholders for now, or this might just be part of that new lean and feral Phantom Lung songwriting. 

    The band is either currently in the studio or soon will be at the time of this review and an album version of "Starving to Serve" is on the horizon. If this new track is any indication of the direction that Phantom Lung is going, then I think the upcoming full-length should be the band's fiercest material yet. It seems as if the cold, dark, desolate days of winter will last well into the spring and summer of 2025. 

FFO: Vermintide, Vermin Womb, The Arson Project

Listen to the song: https://phantomlung.bandcamp.com/track/starving-to-serve-feat-tzompantli-demo

In Cold Blood: A Sangre Fria - "Yunque" EP Review

     Published in 1966, In Cold Blood is a best-selling true crime novel by American author Truman Capote. The novel detailed the homicides of a rural Kansas family of four in 1959. The book was an instant best-seller and served as the archetypal true crime novel of the twentieth century, which laid the foundation for the popular genre today. 

    The commonly used expression of "in cold blood" is of course a reference to cold-blooded animals. Most notably animals like sharks and crocodiles which are generally thought of as emotionless and unconcerning killing machines. The application of the term in reference to the human condition might refer to that killer instinct within the primal, lizard portion of the human brain. The relation describes excessive cruelty and merciless acts of violence or ill will as animalistic or subhuman when compared to the moral qualities that we think of as civilized humanity.

    Colombia's A Sangre Fria adopted their name from that commonly used idiom when they formed in Bogotá in 2018. The origins of the band's name is anyone's guess, yet it would soon become morbidly fortuitous. Much like the United States during the pandemic, Colombia was embroiled in political protests and riots in 2020 and 2021. The 2020 death of Javier Ordóñez at the hands of Colombian police officers very much mirrored the death of George Floyd in America earlier that same year. Much like Floyd's death, Ordóñez's death was filmed and the officers' excessive use of force caused widespread outrage. The protests spread throughout Colombia and riots and deaths ensued in their tumultuous aftermath. 2021 saw the country in much the same state with more demonstrations and more deaths. Javier Ordóñez's cold blooded murder and the dozens who died in its wake certainly warranted that animalistic merciless lethal indifference—a sangre fria. 

    

    A Sangre Fria's latest EP, Yunque, was forged in the fires of those Colombian riots. After a pair of demos in 2019, a 2021 full-length and a recent lineup change, Yunque marks a new chapter for A Sangre Fria. A chapter rife with political unrest, choked in plumes of tear gas and clotted with blood. Yunque is a nasty mix of hardcore and powerviolence that tends to lean more towards the former. The EP isn't exactly jammed packed with blast beats, but it isn't your general monotone of hardcore either. 

 

    A Sangre Fria's vocal disgorge is quite a nice divergence from the typical hardcore rhythmic shouts or the pubescent yelling of youth crew bands. Instead, A Sangre Fria offers all that and more. In addition to the hardcore bouncing barks, the band includes more than a fair amount of those constipated caveman powerviolence yelling and some grindcore mannered gutturals. In addition to some quick snare work, the grindcore and powerviolence comparisons are very blatant in the vocals. I don't know much about the band and its members, but from what I have gathered, the vocal duties are shared between the lead vocalist and guitarist—at least when playing live. Knowing who does what and who ends and begins where is tricky. The vocals spill and pour out in a constant flux. It immediately presents a more aggressive edge over similar hardcore bands. Hardcore is usually pretty intelligible when it comes to the vocals. Sing along choruses and straight vocals are not uncommon. Yet, I would consider A Sangre Fria's vocals more unintelligible. Although, despite the prevalence of Spanish spoken in my family growing up, mi español es bastante mierda, so the vocals are indiscernible to me regardless. But I like my vocals highly political and terribly indecipherable. After all, that's what lyric booklets are for. And A Sangre Fria make the most of their lyrics. Given the political climate, the band's lyrics were mainly influenced by the riots and protests, the anger at the government and police on the other side and the anger at those who haven't quite picked a side yet.

    Musically, A Sangre Fria are fairly stripped down. The guitar riffs are mostly chugging hardcore power chords that when triggered ignite into a streak of powerviolence speed. The bass guitar's nimble slinkiness wavers in-and-out of the mix and keeps pace with the guitar's quick sprints. The drumming isn't overly technical, especially when compared to the more pure grindcore bands that have been featured in this blog. Yet, A Sangre Fria still bridge the gap between hardcore and powerviolence. Quick mid tempo beats set the pace for a majority of the songs, but they do slow things down with the obligatory moshing hardcore breakdowns which can turn on a dime and shift into spastic powerviolence seizures. Faster tempos in songs like "Acumulador," "La Revuelta" and, well, most all the songs, are proof of the presence of true blue blast beats. I also appreciated the abundant use of snare rolls on this EP. It reminded me of old Los Crudos songs that were brimmed with snare fills. 

    The EP mix is pretty decent, definitely when compared to the band's earlier releases. I did get aural flashbacks to live recordings of band rehearsals in the practice space. Something about the accent in the guitar distortion and spacious drum tone took me back to those garage days and the visceral sounds and flavors of playing in a punk band. Paralleling more of that Los Crudos style of hardcore, Yunque is a tad rough-and-ready. There is a rawness to it. The guitar chord changes have a myriad of audible finger slides up and down the fretboard. This is common in records of any genre and might simply fall under being a matter of pickiness, I suppose. But it could become overly distracting to those who would hyperfixate on it. 

    

    Overall, A Sangre Fria put their politics where their mouth is in Yunque. What you see is what you get, so to speak. They are exactly what you would think of when you think of a cross between powerviolence and hardcore. The band toggles the genres like rungs on a ladder. And I have to admit that I am a tad rusty on my hardcore, but comparisons can be drawn to most modern day monosyllabic hardcore bands like Spy, Gel or Gulch. The same could be said about the powerviolence influences. Fans of Infest, Capitalist Casualties or Weekend Nachos should find purchase in Yunque. Those expecting overt metal influences or technical grindcore flamboyancy might need to look elsewhere. A Sangre Fria are as straightforward as a brick hitting a cop in the face. 

    

FFO: Violencia, Come Mierda, Coke Bust

Listen to the album: https://asagrefriapv.bandcamp.com/album/yunque

Goth Grind: "Blast No. 1: Blastbeat Tribute To Type O Negative" Compilation CD Review

 

   

    It's that time of year again. The veil is thinning, the nights are growing longer and darker and the smell of burning leaves rides high in the wind. Dollar store ghosts teeter from tree branches and bellow in the breeze. Plastic pumpkin shaped blow molds illuminate windows in glowing orange hues. Streetlights bathe sidewalk corners in ominous, golden cones of light, offering little sanctuary from the shadows that surround them. Even the smallest suburban thicket of trees exudes the deepest sense of Sylvan dread.   

    The month of October always awakens a certain flurry of emotions inside me—feelings of childish excitement, a healthy dose of general trepidation, a wistful melancholy and a stern obedience to ceremony. I'm flooded with the memories of sharp edged vacuformed plastic masks and serrating, saliva filled plastic befanged dentures. I remember the smell of latex masks that were doused with a veneer of talcum powder that burned my eyes while the nose would fill with a condensation that dripped cold and constant down my mouth and chin. Horror movies, trick-or-treating, jack-o-lanterns, scary stories, vintage die cut paper wall hangs, overpriced faux-goth home decor materialism, candy corn—I'm enthralled by it all. 

    Like the TGIF lineup from my childhood, I like to try and do a special Halloween themed episode of the blog when I have the opportunity. Therefore, I have been whittling my way down to a submission from 783punx/783label that I think aligned pretty well, although tragically late. My apologies to the label. The UK record label released a compilation album, two years in the making, entitled, Blast No. 1: Blastbeat Tribute to Type O Negative, back in 2023. I think the title should be self explanatory enough, but this is a collection of bands doing Type O Negative covers in the style of grindcore. And just so we are clear, we are using the term "grindcore" somewhat loosely here. Some of these bands I would label as just black metal or death metal, for sure. 

    For those who are not aware of Type O Negative, they are a far cry from grindcore, especially when it comes to the tempo; making this cover album an interesting study in the genre. Additionally, Type O Negative's solemn, goth vibes and loose Halloween associations seem like the best a grindcore blog can pull for this holiday.

   

    In my youth, compilation albums were some of my favorite CD purchases. You got a lot of tracks for usually fairly cheap and it was a great way to get introduced to new bands that you might not have heard otherwise. Tribute albums on the other hand were notoriously less reliable. The above list of attributes was still applicable, but hearing rehashed interpretations of your favorite songs from one of your favorite bands might seem like a great idea on paper, but it's an equation that seldomly works out. In 2013 I bought the CD release of Undead: A Tribute to Disrupt and despite the absolutely stacked lineup of bands and legendary tracklisting, the release was underwhelming. I know over the last few years labels like The Hills Are Dead Records have been pushing out grindcore tribute compilations of bands such as The Ramones, The Dead Kennedys, The Misfits and Extreme Noise Terror, to name a few. There seems to be some sort of unofficial challenge of "will it blast?"

    

    The Misfits—in addition to probably being my favorite non-grindcore band since the sixth grade—have the most tribute albums I have ever come across. Through those releases I learned a lot about cover songs. Bands will typically go one of three routes: either they will hopefully deconstruct the song and make it their own, or they will play it beat for beat to the original, or they will opt for some kind of a parody rendition of the song. Ideally the first option is preferable. As far as a grindcore cover, I think Wormrot's cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, "Rich" is the best possible outcome. All that being said, I've never reviewed a compilation of various artists before.

A brief history of Type O Negative:

    Type O Negative is a band that has its roots in the 80's hardcore scene of New York. Founding members of the band wanted to try for a sound that was a bit of a departure and through a series of evolutions and name changes, coalesced into the Type O Negative we know today. The band was hugely instrumental in popularizing gothic metal with the mainstream and their slow, doom rock ballads are instantly recognizable. Their third album, Bloody Kisses, was Roadrunner Records' first album to go gold, and now has since gone platinum. 

    The band was known for their controversial, mean spirited or darkly romantic lyrics as well as embodying a tongue-in-cheek and almost desperately self-deprecating humor. Much of this is in large thanks to frontman, Peter Steele. The vampiric vocalist's sonorous and sultry singing style coupled with his six foot, seven inch, brick shithouse frame was the stuff of legend. Steele's reluctance to be in the spotlight and live the "rockstar" lifestyle led to years of depression and drug use that manifested in the band's later songs. Peter Steele tragically died in 2010 which ended Type O Negative's twenty-one year tenure. The band's influence can be heard in goth, industrial and metal genres over the last three decades.  

    Now when I think of Type O Negative, I think of the faceless hesher kid in the halls of my junior high school who wore the band's t-shirt and it's seared into my memory as the most 90's thing ever. I think of my time served in a recent horror-punk band in which half the band was obsessed with Type O Negative and I had to fake a smile and feign interest when they would play Type O Negative songs in the rehearsal room. The appeal was entirely lost on me. I think of my deeply toxic relationship with my ex-girlfriend immediately after high school. October Rust was the soundtrack to her torrid, white trash, scummy spooky girl exploits. Like, she thought the song "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-all)" was about her. Yet, it would turn out that "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity" was closer to the truth. 

    So obviously I am not the biggest Type O Negative fan. I've never liked Peter Steele's ASMR, seductive spoken word monologues over droning doom tracks. Not to mention, the distortion tone on the bass and guitar makes my skin crawl.

    Well, I don't exactly know where or how to start, so I suppose I will start with my initial observations. Type O Negative songs are lengthy. Some are up to ten or fifteen minutes long. That's an entire EP where I come from. Henceforth, a lot of these songs on Blast No. 1: Blastbeat Tribute To Type O Negative are over the three minute mark, even when sped up. A couple are even seven or eight minutes. Type O Negative's dragging tempo and inability to end a song are contributing factors to their albums' lengths. The juxtaposition of tempos between Type O Negative's haunting sensual sludge and our version of grindcore could lead to a nice powerviolence-style or sludge-grind interplay of fast and slow, and in some cases, that's exactly what happened. 

    As far as what routes the bands took in orchestrating their covers, all avenues were utilized in my opinion. Some bands made the songs their own and I think these were the most successful when accomplishing the principals of the assignment. These bands I felt kept the grindcore in focus. Blast No. 1: Blastbeat Tribute To Type O Negative opens strongly with a few of these bands—Kannibal Kris's version of "Are You Afraid" and Task Force Beer's "Prelude To Agony." The latter of which uses that nice balance of sludge and grindcore. Thankfully, most bands on this record find some kind of balance like this.  

    There are also some bands that took the path of playing the songs relatively straight. Will Cope's "Some Stupid Tomorrow" plays it half level, half blasting grindcore. They straddle both sides expertly in a way I didn't think I would enjoy as much as I did. Speaking of which, Plague Bearer's interpretation of "Creepy Green Light" is perhaps the most "as is" song on the record. It has a grind-metal luster on it, but it manages to keep the mid-tempo pace, stay heavy and still encapsulate the eerie gothic mood of the original. It shines a green gelled spotlight on the talent and musicianship of both Plague Bearer and Type O Negative.  

    Lastly, there are the parodies. Much like how a lot of The Misfits covers—not to mention the entire horror-punk genre—feature a Glenn Danzig vocal caricature, I surely expected a Peter Steele imitation and there were a few. The best impersonation was from Assur on their version of "Christian Woman." I thought this would be kind of cheesy and infuriating, but Assur followed it up with some of the best blasting on the album. There are a few other bands with vocal mimicries, but Emissaries Of Syn turn their style of parody into a whole Weird Al mannered rewrite. Their cover of Type O Negative's most famous song, "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-all)," ditches the original lyrics for new lyrics. About what, Guinness? I rarely feel comfortable in calling out a band on its faults, but this just seems like the biggest missed opportunity given the popularity of the song and the title of the album. Altogether, it is a weak performance. 

    Overall, as unlikely of a concept as a grindcore tribute to Type O Negative might seem, this album plays fairly well. Some of the bands you will recognize and some of them you won't. Some of the songs work and some don't. Not all the tracks are winners, but this could be due to the manners of the songs and maybe not so much to the bands, although some of it is definitely the bands. The artists that knew how to wrangle-in the gloomy melody and blast through the monotony definitely are the ones who came out on top. Some songs play more like black metal, while others do their job as moody death-grind cantatas. I think 783punx did a great job on the album as a whole. The production and mastering is consistent and well mixed. Tracks don't waver in quality like a lot of compilations. The packaging obviously had some money behind it as the album had a big roll out with deluxe gatefold screened vinyl, cassette tapes, CD's, t-shirts, stickers, box sets, et cetera. It's clear a lot of time and love went into this.

    I would say that this release is, in truth, dedicated to the niche of the niche. The grindcore and Type O Negative fans that exist in the tiniest of slivers of the Venn diagram. For grindcore fans and metalheads with varied palettes, this might be just the release that is missing from your collection, as it most definitely fills a certain hollow in the spectrum of all things grind. As for goth kids with a propensity for the extreme, Blast No. 1: Blastbeat Tribute To Type O Negative could be your gateway into grindcore and other associated extreme genres.

    Well, that's about it. That's all I have. I hope it wasn't too disappointing. I will see you in the next blog. Until then, take it easy.

FFO: Type O Negative, Plague Bearer, Herida Profunda

Listen to the album: https://783label.bandcamp.com/album/v-a-blast-no-1-blastbeat-tribute-to-type-o-negative

Tuesday Night Fever: Travølta - "Disco Violence Up Yours!" LP Review

     I first came across Travølta via To Live A Lie Records after noticing that their 2017 split LP with Marxbros made for a memorable album cover. That album art not only grabbed your attention, but told you everything about what that record was going to sound like: a punk as fuck political farce of the cheekiest kind. The same thing happened again a couple of years later when I once more stumbled upon the band's brilliantly packaged, In Tinnitus We Crust LP. The angelic black metal pseudo-sacrilegious celebrity parody printed in gold on the jacket with matching gold vinyl is the thing physical media was made for. I was beginning to see a pattern emerging that would require that I finally give this band some real mindful attention. So when Travølta's Disco Violence Up Yours! came out in 2023 and Give Praise Records asked me to take a look at it, it seemed like a long time coming. 

        Travølta got their start in Belgium blending elements of D-beat crust punk, hardcore, powerviolence and grindcore into an uneasy fusion of their own brand of Urban Cowboy fastcore. Soon the band released a trilogy of splits in 2016 and 2017 with the likes of Days Of Desolation, Gewoon Fucking Raggen and the aforementioned Marxbros. 2018 saw the band release another split with Boom followed by that Chains of Gold full-length—In Tinnitus We Crust in 2019.

    Much like many of the bands in the world during the Covid pandemic, Travølta found themselves at a pivotal crossroads in their musical careers and some reevaluations and decisiveness were necessary. After a lineup change and some socially distanced songwriting, Disco Violence Up Yours! was delivered and would be the band's second original full-length record. The album would serve as a back to basics homage to the band's roots. Whereas In Tinnitus We Crust seemed a darker, speedier sounding exercise in grindcore/fastcore, Disco Violence Up Yours! is a deluge into punk rock and hardcore. 

    Disco Violence Up Yours! is a political satire lampooning capitalism, bigotry and the greed filled hatred that has been systematically institutionalized in the western world. Disco Violence Up Yours! is the not-so-subtle voice of dissent in our half forced, half self-induced toxic modern culture. Surely I need not have to overly decipher the symbology of the communist propaganda-esque album cover of a proletarian hand, raised in opposition, wielding a medieval morning star fashioned from a disco ball? That imagery once again sums up so much about the band, both ideologically and musically. 

    Like I stated previously, Disco Violence Up Yours! and Travølta as a band are a mix of several subgenres, finely triturated into an indivisible bag of grindcore cremains. I usually pride myself on categorizing bands and placing them where I feel they fit best. Travølta is one of those bands that I find personally frustrating when it comes to writing and defining. (If this review comes out late I think it's safe to blame the band recommendations appendix stumping me.) [Editor's note: This review did in fact come out late.] Travølta made it a point to classify themselves as powerviolence, even going as far as titling the album after a Saturday Night Fever powerviolence pun. And, sure, powerviolence is an essential ingredient, but that isn't a genre that I would immediately jot down as a prominent identifier. At least not in the traditional sense of that Californian, 90's urbanized powerviolence that comes to mind for a lot of us. But then again, the powerviolence elements we see in many "grindviolence" bands can be a bit of a reach, as well. Clearly powerviolence is a major influence on the members personally and is a part of the band's musical mulch. I find it very fortuitous that the band included a cover of Dropdead's "You Have A Voice." Dropdead being one of those bands that bridged the gap between hardcore and powerviolence and is well accepted within several adjacent musical scenes. 

    Likewise, the same could be said about Travølta being just straight up punk rock. The structuring of the songs and the use of choruses and gang vocals certainly lends to the punk/hardcore punk feel. Not to mention, Travølta are heavy on the melody, especially on this latest LP. An attribute you will be hard pressed to find in much of any grindcore releases in general. Several bands came to mind while listening to Disco Violence Up Yours!, namely, the East London band The Restarts. Probably for no other reason than a shared belief in genre blending and sharp political sarcasm.

    Yet still, in tandem with all of that, the aggressive, political nature of the music and the brashness of the vocals alone could be enough for this record to cut the mustard with any crust punker. Despite lacking that boring metal element of most crust and D-beat bands, Travølta's speed, lyrics and overall grindcore presence would allow them to shoehorn in just fine. 

    While I might personally label Travølta as a fastcore band, or maybe just a grindcore band, it's just simply not that simple. Disco Violence Up Yours! isn't necessarily a blast-a-thon—maybe even less so when compared to past records like In Tinnitus We Crust—but I have listened to fastcore releases that didn't blast at all. Maybe the real lesson here is that labels are contrived and it's possible for a band to coalesce all their influences together seamlessly and produce a true, unprejudiced embodiment of them all. Or maybe I just talked myself out of a job. [Editor's note: Cut that last bit.] 

    Whether the band is powerviolence, fastcore, grindcore or some kind of halfsies, it's all under the grindcore umbrella, assuredly here in this House of Grindcore. But then, vocally, Travølta differs from your atypical grindcore act. Absent are the customary deep gutturals or the high/low shrieks back-and-forth. Travølta's lead vocalist Nico is surprisingly decipherable in his powerful hardcore punk barking. His vocals are so distinctive I had to scour my mental Rolodex of music to find something vaguely reminiscent. Filed under the early 2000's during my high school street punk years, I landed on Germany's Die Oi!gens and Italy's Rotten Bois. For sure deep cuts, but they're what came up. Travølta's vocal presence is obviously more powerful and pronounced than two short-lived European street punk bands, nevertheless, it could give credence to the band's paradoxical shrine of subgenre influences, if nothing else. I also noticed a repetitiveness in the lyrical structures of the songs in which Nico emphasized the same lyrics over and over again and the choruses are filled with similar chants. I immediately thought of 80's UK bands like Discharge and their looped lyrical styles. 

    As distinctive as Nico's taunting snarls, Kevin's bass playing is just as uncustomary in the genre; or rather his tone is. His punchy skate punk sounding bass is slinky and front line for the entirety of the album's mix. It's a very uncommon sound for grindcore bassists. The white hot brightness and cleaner tone en lieu of heavy distortion is a great way to infuse both a vibrancy and energy into the songs. The same could be said for the guitar, played here on Disco Violence Up Yours! by band newcomer, Jonas. The guitar is obviously distorted, yet not overly detuned. The lighter weight in the riffs provides a nice gain filled crunch and clarity while allowing the songs to stay agile and springy. The guitar and bass are dialed in to that unbridled punk rock energy and Travølta are focusing it like a laser towards their activist viewpoints. 

    If you had any doubts on whether Disco Violence Up Yours! was anything but a grindcore album, drummer Rik is here to dispel any of those rumors. There are a lot of fast punk beats throughout the release, but there are even more, even faster blast beats. Rik is pushing the punk rock riffs and hardcore vocals into overdrive. He has no problem turning the Travølta Kalashnikov from semi-automatic to fully automatic and back again on a dime. From the skipping blasts of "Modern Day Witch Hunt" to the hardcore poundings of "Bruin Rotte Zweer" to the slow plods of "Jesus Crost Soccer Punch" to the nonstop blasts of opening track "Shake Your Ass," Rik does it all with extreme control and ease.

    It's pretty late and I think I'm rambling, so suffice to say, Travølta is an exceptional band that not only blends and bends genres, but has perhaps indeed created their own—Disco-fucking-violence! Thankfully, it's a genre that does not contain disco at all, rather it has plenty of punk, crust, hardcore, fastcore, powerviolence and grindcore. That's all of the good ones, mind you! Travølta are the perfect grind band for those of us that came into the genre via punk rock instead of metal. They are a bit of a mix bag, but nevertheless, they are a rock solid band of flawless musicians with a cynical wit and a radical agenda. 

    [Editor's note: Disco Violence Up Yours! is available from Give Praise Records here in the States and is just the latest record in the band's immaculate discography. And speaking of record labels, I didn't even get around to discussing Rik and Nico's amazing label, Loner Cult Records, and the amazing roster that they have over there.] 

FFO: Extortion, Hetze, Lovgun, Raw Peace    

Listen to the album: https://travoltakvlt.bandcamp.com/album/discoviolence-up-yours

or Give Praise Records: https://givepraiserecords.bandcamp.com/album/disco-violence-up-yours

Salt The Wound: Woundflower - "Misery" Cassette Tape Review

    Before I can tell you the story of Woundflower and their debut full-length, Misery, we will have to first talk about the band Bled To Submission. Blog alumns and friends to The House of Grindcore, Nashville's Bled To Submission released their third and final major release, Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You, on Nerve Altar Records back in 2021. After a musical career spanning some five years, the band ultimately chose to bury themselves in the grave that they dug by calling it quits soon after the release of that last EP. The band's sludgey mix of power violence, hardcore, grindcore and harsh noise coalesced into a darkly textured and atmospheric record. (The particulars of that release can be found here.) But as prophetically titled as that final EP was, the members of Bled To Submission would ultimately claw their way out of that acidic grave dirt—well, some of them, anyways.

     Nashville's Woundflower are the metaphorical and literal successor to Bled To Submission and their noise fueled metallic grind-violence. Like their predecessor, Woundflower are cultivating that same rich atmospheric form of grindcore. Their malevolent, sour-electric take on the genre isn't wholly new, but I think both Bled To Submission and Woundflower offer a powerful and sophisticated take on the genre. Woundflower operate within that same technological hellscape that Bled To Submission did, yet Woundflower are not as meticulous in the circuitry that they are sewing. They are less Tetsuo: The Iron Man and more Tetsuo Shima of tech-dystopian anime, Akira. And of course those are deep cuts that are completely convoluted and are very much a Japanese comparison of apples and oranges; but suffice to say, I feel Woundflower are first and foremost focused on obliterative grindcore. Songs on Misery play out about as you would think with their own ghostly aura. If anything, I feel Woundflower are the haunted house within that industrial-noise-grind post-apocalyptic, overdeveloped cyber-cacotopia. Misery has a bitter and calculating anger to it that I feel is from fermenting deep someplace in an eldritch sort of darkness.  

    From my first listen of Misery, I was immediately struck by the album's heavy low-end. The bass and drums are massive in the mix. Not only is it nice to hear the rotundity of the band, but it also gives a live performance feel to the album. If you have ever been to a show at a venue that was proportionally generous with the subwoofers and you could feel the bass in your chest, imagine something like that. The bass guitar, floor tom and kick drum, in particular, rumble with a thunderous weight. 

    Misery's basswork is provided by one J. Weilburg, who seems to have also taken over bass duties from Bled to Submission's Patrick Quinn after Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You, if I'm not mistaken. His return here in Woundflower is emphatically underscored by the aforementioned mix. Opening track, "Worthless," begins with a slow and foreboding bassline against a backdrop of pouring white noise. It plays like a Wound Man track only deformed and darkened by its time in the abyss. Instead of the bass waning when other instruments enter or the tempo increases, it remains audible and forefront; especially in the slower dirges. The bass can also turn those dirges into confrontational and sneering power violence pawings like in tracks, "Parasite Unsurpassed" and "Hopeless." Misery's mixing and mastering by Kevin Bernsten at Developing Nations Studios and Dan Emery at Black Matter Mastering, have turned this record into a real love letter to grindcore bassists and bass enthusiasts. While the basslines might not be overly flashy, their mere prominence is enough to get me completely pumped. 

    J. Weilburg is working closely with drummer Ross Winchel. Winchel is a careening and shifting torrent of blast beats and slow groove based power violence themed sludges. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of blast beats in Misery. The album could have very easily put the grindcore on the back-burner in favor of artistic experimentation. Instead, Winchel is providing the proverbial two scoops of blasts. He is riding a line between precision and unhinged impetuosity; stepping in and out of tempos as need be, but never missing a beat or distracting from the composition. I really enjoyed his relentless blasting in "I Am Regret." A little more than half way through the song he turns the snare drum into a pulse pounding two-step that proves that sometimes raw power can be just as propelling as blast beats. 

    

    One of the more notable differences between the Bled To Submission's v1.0 and Woundflower's v2.0 is the guitarwork from Isaiah Rodriguez. One of two guitarists in Bled To Submission, Rodriguez is now sole guitarist and has really evolved. His former contributions in Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You were a flaming, stannic writhing. Misery has a heavy dissonance that I didn't remember in past releases. The style is reminiscent of bands like Cognizant or Chadhel. Rodriguez's playing style is a whipping and aggressive string of fanged distortion torn with peels of feedback. It's a lot smoother and more modern than what I have heard from him before. While almost every song features dissonance, "Rusted Flesh" is a good example specifically of Rodriguez's guitar prowess. Not to mention a summative descriptor for the band itself. 

    I hate to keep drawing comparisons to the band members' past musical endeavors, but the comparisons between Woundflower and Bled To Submission can't be ignored when it comes to the harsh noise elements of the two bands. Although, while not as enamel dissolving as the noise elements on Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You, Misery contains some very similar and very shrill noise tracks. This isn't surprising given the noise orchestrations are once again handled by Isaiah Rodriguez and J. Weilburg. Weilburg, himself, is known in the Nashville post-industrial noise scene and is the founder of Trance//Furnace, an electronic and noise art collective.

    However, Misery is less of that screeching sizzle and more of a haunting air. "Cultivating Misery" has an old horror vibe. The song sounds like a 1950's science fiction B-movie mixed with someone pouring a cup of nails onto sheet metal. I feel the band's noise elements, as well as the malign nature of the album overall, have a horror tinged influence. Maybe that's just where my mind naturally goes or maybe it's the eeriness of the encroaching autumn season. Who knows? This might also be the reason why I couldn't help but hear an Earth A.D. riff on this album. Likewise, the song "The Bottom Feeder" plays like an ominous ambient synth score to some A24 or Neon Films arthouse fright feature. 

    In addition to their noise, guitar and bass contributions, Isaiah Rodriguez and J. Weilburg have taken the reins as far as the vocal duties. What we get here is the standard high/low contrast dual vocal combination. The lows have that tone of the throaty crusty, metallic hardcore ilk. The highs, of course, are the scathing and decorticating vocals that boil your eardrums out like a hot liquid metal. Sometimes I think I even hear a combination of the two. 

    Overall, Woundflower's Misery is not only what I expected from this group of young men, but it's what I was hoping for. Their noise charred industrial wired grindcore—emphasis on the "grindcore"—is some of the best out there. It's aggressive, abrasive, fast and brutal. While the band takes its time laying out the bleak and moody noisescapes, they know when to speed things up. Like I said, the similarities to Bled To Submission are inescapable and I saw that Austin Strobel, former guitarist and vocalist in Bled To Submission, has a writing credit on Misery. Perhaps this entire thing was meant to be a Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You follow-up, but things and lineups changed for whatever reason. Maybe the decision to start something new out of respect for a departing member and an ending an era resulted in Woundflower. I've been there. 

    Regardless, and with all due respect, I find myself digging Woundflower a tad more. (Another apples and oranges comparison at this point.) Misery is a little more straightforward and to the point. There is less of that black metal drip and more of a grindcore focus. Not to mention the mix is great for those who like a little more boom in their blast. I did this review from a digital download so I don't know how all that bass will translate on a cassette tape. Yet, this album is a must for anyone who has a penchant for noisy or file corrupted grindcore.  

 FFO: Bled to Submission, Knoll, Manipulator, Full Of Hell

Listen to album: https://woundflower.bandcamp.com/album/misery

Groin-core And Groin-violence: Groin - "Greatest Hits To The Groin" Discography CD Review

 

"Arrrggh! My groin!"

-George C. Scott, in 'Man Getting Hit by Football'

The Simpsons, 1995

    After an extraordinarily taxing and toilsome summer, time has been tight and money even tighter. My small family's eagerly anticipated meager beach vacation was truncated by the first tropical storm of the year. The money pit that is my car has grown vast and cavernous. Then there are the trials and tribulations of finally trying to produce and monetize my art by selling them at local markets and bazaars, only to barely cover the overhead. Yet, for some reason, not soon to be revealed to me, the air conditioning system in my house has decided to fail us. It was explained to me by the sweaty, mournful faced repairman that the unit was old, out of date and no longer complied with current EPA standards. The cost for gutting, remodeling and replacing is starkly and wholly devastating, to say the least. The financial hit is unexpected and crippling. And with the Texas temperatures tipping over a hundred degrees this entire week, it's safe to say that air conditioning is a mandatory necessity. Despite doing so several times in my life, you never quite get used to sleeping in a ninety degree, stagnantly dead house. 

    However, since I have been given the time to sit here in my sweating, wilting home and watch the men walk back and forth with pieces of what was once my attic, I think about how things could be worse. (Catastrophizing is probably the thing I do best in this life.) I can't help but think of places like Arizona. Arizona's current weekend forecast places their summertime highs at one hundred thirteen degrees. They also have had claims back in 2018 of car tail lights melting and polypropylene trash bins liquefying in 2021. Both of which turned out to be unfounded social media rumors. Nevertheless, Arizona is hot. While not being officially ranked as hotter than Texas, Arizona is plenty hot and currently hotter than the Lone Star State this week. For the sake of my kid who still insists that she needs a hoodie and a blanket right now, I'm at least glad we don't live in Arizona. 

    That sweet heat of the Arizona desert is home to a flamed kissed creature in the form of a grind-violence band named Groin. Groin is, relatively speaking, a newer band, dropping their first release entitled Greatest Hits via Bandcamp in 2020. But the nine song debut EP was as scorching as the Sonoran Desert. The mix of hardcore and chugging grind riffs over beat downs and blast beats give the band a heavy edge over the more straightforward power violence bands. The EP combined the brooding death-violence elements of bands like Weekend Nachos with the ballistics of Shitbrains. 

    In 2022 the band released their second EP, a thirteen track self-titled seven-inch. This release runs along the same lines as Greatest Hits with its blistering blast beats and trash can melting high pitched screams saddled next to caveman barked grunt-fueled power violence. There is of course the usual improvement in songwriting and production, as these sorts of things chronologically go.  

    

    Like the last episode of this blog, the good people of Inglorious Moshers Records have not only combined these two EP's into a twenty-two track discography CD that was subsequently released in 2023, but also afforded me with a copy for review consideration. Like probably many of you, I saw that highly recognizable art of a mustachioed, Walter White-esque gentleman, bleached out in high contrast white with the logo G-R-O-I-N stamped across his bald forehead. But even still, I slept on the whole thing. I wasn't so much oblivious to the band's existence, but I didn't really listen to them until this review. The downside of reviewing releases non-stop is not always having time to listen to multiple new releases; choosing to instead remain hyperfocused on the review at hand. 

    Inglorious Moshers Records' Groin discography, entitled Greatest Hits To The Groin—a title that might cause confusion given the clever name of Groin's first release—compiles each of the band's first two releases. Starting with the more recent self-titled EP. 

    

    Vocalist Lois Ferre is an amazing vocalist that proves that his vocal performance is just as scathing as the Arizona asphalt. Compared to Greatest Hits, Groin has less of the high/low juxtaposition and more of a gradient array of shaded vocals. The power violence barks, screeching highs, searing roars and a fiery mix of all the above are all up for grabs. I really like the sustainability and fluidity of Ferre's vocals. Groin's lyrics seem to range from the political to the despondent to the absurd. So there's a lot of rage and a lot of fun being had. 

    Like I said, there's noticeable improvements in sound, but Groin is definitely more riff focused and more aggressive. Guitarist Austin Kelly—who also fills in on bass during recording sessions, keeping the band's lineup chiefly a three piece through the years—is the reigning songwriter. His playing style is a feedback seeped, drilling squall of low-fi distortion that tears through hardcore thrashings and breaks down into power violence sludged stomps. 

    Kelly's writing accomplice is drummer Josh Goodwin. Goodwin is the grind-violence tempo keeper and displays the assorted beats you might imagine a grindcore or power violence band might have. Goodwin's speed and smoothness when blasting is what really solidifies the grindcore elements. The power violence aspects are your standard-fare of slow plotting beats, hardcore mid tempo beats and two-step bounces that—given the band's particular brutality—are maybe part mince, part hardcore. Groin champion speed and intensity over everything.

    Groin is my favorite type of band—a torrid and searing grind-violence act with speedy blast beats, face melting vocals and blaring guitars. This only compounds my guilt over the fact that I slept on this band for so long. As a band, Groin can draw plenty of comparisons to bands such as Endless Swarm, ACxDC, Weekend Nachos, The Afternoon Gentlemen, Beg, Gets Worse, Magrudergrind and so forth. Yet, Groin have made their niche in the genre by releasing great songs almost from the start, cultivating a great sound and doing it well. I appreciate the band's speed on the snare, the scathing vocals and their mix of grindcore and power violence. I realize the redundancy of all of that, but I just love what Groin is doing here. 

        While not included in the discography, this summer Groin released their first full-length album, Paid In Flesh. The new twenty track record is a further piece of evidence of the band's growth and ferocity. Paid In Flesh has even more meat on its bones when compared to Groin. The bulkier mix and punctuated snare tone makes for quite an exceptional release. I hear big similarities to Magrudergrind, specifically Magrudergrind's 2009 self-titled LP. The guitar and vocal tones are very comparable. Completionists be sure to grab Paid In Flesh and Greatest Hits To The Groin to cement your grindcore collection

    

    Inglorious Moshers Records is doing a great job of packaging up early releases of up-and-coming bands, that might be on hard to find cassette tapes or just available as Bandcamp downloads, and making them more accessible on compact disc. I remember how stoked I was to find the Lycanthrophy discography CD back in the day. Now I'm stoked to find Groin and their Arizona flame grilled grind-violence. 

FFO: Magrudergrind, The Afternoon Gentlemen, Endless Swarm

Listen to the album: https://ingloriousmoshers.bandcamp.com/album/greatest-hits-in-the-groin

Shots Fired: Active Shooter - "Discography 2016-2021" CD Review

    On the wall of the warehouse where I work hangs a weathered, spiral-bound, laminated booklet with the words "EMERGENCY PROCEDURE GUIDE" printed across the top. Below that is a rainbow colored array of segregated tabs that read things like: "EVACUATION," "TORNADO," "EARTHQUAKE," "FIRE," et cetera. On the very last tab, the steel blue colored one, it reads in bold white letters—"ACTIVE SHOOTER." As banal and ordinary as something like this emergency manual might seem—especially in the beigeness of a workplace setting—this bottom tab always catches my eye.

    Before active shooter was just another media buzzword for an epidemic of mass murder and long before Columbine changed the fabric of American culture, active shooter was a term only tossed around by competitive gun enthusiasts and firearm advocates. The only thing more terrifying than an active shooter situation is the frequency and prevalence that would necessitate an "ACTIVE SHOOTER" tab in a public or business environment. I'm old enough to remember when that tab was not always there and its addition holds my attention. 

  

    As active shooter turns from informed gun safety vernacular to terroristic gun violence headlines, a group of hardcore speed freaks from the sticky streets of Houston, Texas are turning active shooter into a name that elicits something more entertaining and show-worthy; yet just as blasting. Active Shooter, the band, are yet again another band carving their names into the Bayou City of Syrup's famed roster of grindcore elites. Bands like Insect Warfare, PLF, Cryptic Void and more recently, blog alums and fellow hoodrats, Cocaine Titans, all call this Space City home. This Texas coastal city is something of hallowed grindcore grounds and it's no mistake that Houston has had several mentions in the House of Grindcore. 

    Active Shooter debuted to the larger grindcore community in 2016 with their first demo in the form of a three piece—a lineup demographic that would remain a semi-permanent fixture throughout the band's tenure. Their 2016 demo was followed up with the EAR​.​2​.​THA​.​STREET EP released the same year, and then later by the band's self-titled EP released the following year in 2017. It might be safe to say that Active Shooter didn't arrive on my radar until around maybe 2019 or 2020, after I either could not attend the local show or my then band had to turn down the local show. Although, I might be mistaken. Pre-Covid life is a blur now. But it did introduce me to the band for the first time as well as 2019's Sign of The Times; a release that was gathering a lot of attention through Bandcamp at the time. The band's latest release came in 2021 with the cassette tape, Life Stands Still. A release recorded by Dallas engineer and founding member of both Cognizant and Trucido, Irving Lopez. 

    All of this to say that Active Shooter is overdue for a new release. However, in the meantime, Italian grindcore compendium collector, Inglorious Moshers Records, has taken it upon themselves to release a discography CD in 2022 compiling all of Active Shooter's previous releases listed above. Between the years of 2016 and 2021 the band released some forty-six tracks totalling thirty minutes. Optimal grind time ratio for any worthwhile release. 

    As a contemporary version of the band, Active Shooter give off big Insect Warfare vibes, only not as long-winded, if that is possible. They basically waste no time and dish out some very tasty, very heavy metallic riffs and some powerful hyper-blasting drumwork in mere seconds. The vocals are a high-low contrast that mostly relies on a guttural monotone that is reminiscent of the mighty Rahi Geramifar. 

    Now, reviewing a discography compilation album is a little complicated because there are too many variables to review it as a whole, but reviewing each release individually is a bit extravagant. I haven't chosen which way to go about it yet, so bear with me. 

    

    For spanning five years, multiple lineup changes and differing production and recording engineers, the CD plays reasonably consistently. The tracklisting is in reverse chronological order, so the newer, Life Stands Still starts the record and the 2016 demo wraps it up. Understandably, the style and production levels go down from start to finish. The only true constant is guitarist Erik Gomez and drummer Seth Wilson. The two are powerhouse pillars of grindcore annihilation and the two are responsible for crafting the contents of this entire discography. The vocal duties on the demo, EAR​.​2​.​THA​.​STREET EP and the self-titled EP were handled by Wes Mason before being replaced by Dan Silva for the later Sign of The Times and Life Stands Still. 

    The opening of Life Stands Still tracks have a dark, stout, brown production quality. The guitar is a metal distorted Texas tornado that is rich with riffage and a chronic use of a Dimebag style whammy bar. Starting track, "Intro," is a Slayer-esque thrash dipped instrumental that sets a deathy-grind tone to the record. The drumming is a stampeding whirlwind of blast beats and double bass gallops that come at you from every angle. The hyper-blasting, high-pitched snare tone rises above the cacophony to emphasize what truly matters most—which is the hyper-blasting, high-pitched snare tone. It's very much in line with other snare heavy grindcore bands like Sulfuric Cautery. Silva's vocals are low, grating barks that run deeper and more metal than Mason's more power violence styled vocals. 

    Sign of The Times plays similar to Life Stands Still only with a sharper, cleaner production. The guitar riffs run clearer and keener. Things don't really become noticeably different until the self-titled EP. Mason's vocals being the biggest deviation. The music seems a little less mature than later releases, but still very solid. The rest of the releases go on like that, diminishing accordingly down the line. Two of the recordings—EAR​.​2​.​THA​.​STREET and Sign of The Times—feature the band as a four piece with a bass player, while all the others have the band as a trio. 

    

    Active Shooter are probably Texas' best kept grindcore secret as I don't hear their name as much as I feel I should. That might be due to the popularity of the band's namesake in the news and media, making a Google search somewhat complicated. However, I did finally catch-up with the band last year at the Haltom City Theater playing a show with Deterioration, Trucido and Noisy Neighbors. "A bulldozing beast of brutality" is the initial descriptive phrasing that came to mind. Active Shooter are three big burly built dudes with a big burly sound to match. They put on a great set and definitely stood out in an already hellaciously stacked lineup. 

    I've seen the band categorized as hardcore, power violence and grindcore; all of which are applicable and all of which the band has embraced. Depending on the release you could get one or the other or all the above. This discography is a good document of a band's evolution and growth. From a power violence/grind-violence beginning to a beefier grindcore tank, Active Shooter has risen through the Houston City grindcore ranks. I feel the later albums have the band hitting their stride and finding their sound—a brutal sound that it is.

    In 2022, the year that Inglorious Moshers Records issued this CD, there were six hundred forty-four mass shootings in America. In 2023 there were six hundred fifty-five mass shootings. This year the United States Surgeon General declared gun violence a public health crisis. As the active shooter trend appears to be becoming more en vogue, I know of one Active Shooter that I want to see a lot more of. (To be clear, it's the band I'm reviewing and not the white nationalist terrorist incels of the world.)

 FFO: Insect Warfare, Noisy Neighbors, PLF 

Listen to the album: https://ingloriousmoshers.bandcamp.com/album/discography-2016-2021