Split Level Housing: Chadhel/Assiduous Assault Split 10 Inch Review

"There was a mighty eddying and foaming in the noisome brine, and as the steam mounted higher and higher the brave Norwegian drove his vessel head on against the pursuing jelly which rose above the unclean froth like the stern of a daemon galleon. The awful squid-head with writhing feelers came nearly up to the bowsprit of the sturdy yacht, but Johansen drove on relentlessly. There was a bursting as of an exploding bladder, a slushy nastiness as of a cloven sunfish, a stench as of a thousand opened graves, and a sound that the chronicler would not put on paper."

-H.P. Lovecraft 

The Call of the Cthulhu

I.

The Horror in Wax

    My knowledge of Chadhel began in the winter of 2018 when I fell upon the discovery of their split release with KickxAssxViolence entitled The Daily Grind. This was followed by Controversial Echoes of Nihilism in 2019. And again with their newest split with Assiduous Assault in 2020, that only latterly finds its physical release on vinyl. It was Chadhel's efforts on the 2018 split which impressed me enough to win my fevered interest. The cephalopodic possessed grind quartet have inhabited their misanthropic, occultist methodology since their first set of demos produced from 2014 through 2016; yet didn't fully solidify their true form until the band's split with KickxAssxViolence. That being of a high concoction of blasting grindcore with metallic-hardcore reliefs. Chadhel's latest entry serves as a reduction of both their 2018 and 2019 releases. The Daily Grind split brought forth a leaner, brighter, modern grind. While Controversial Echoes of Nihilism wallowed in the darker murky, low-ended depths. What has been summoned forth from that evolution is a sharp hulking mass capable of angular speed and resonance with the ability to wield it with a mountainous domination. One could best describe the band's current sound as being the perfect marriage of Pig Destroyer and Rotten Sound. Retaining the strengths of each, while consisting of the deficiencies of neither. Chadhel proves itself as a heavy hitting force in the genre. 

II.

The Tale of Grinders de Québécois

    The cultish horde of Quebecers carry in tow some mighty cruelty in the way of some really enthralling death-grind. Foremost among them is drummer Frédo Tremblay, a subtle yet distinguished percussionist. His incisional blasting impel the songs with the force of an earthquake-born tempest. The acute tonal impact of the snare is aurally intoxicating as it is hideously blistering. Frédo's understated skills are the undercurrent of the tribal beatings during the intros of "Blood of the Hybrids" and "Living Warfare of Pure Intensity." As well as in many of the the trough-like breakdowns that inevitably crest into successions of double bass pedal sculling that churns the oily waters into pulpy brine before reentering into the maelstrom.

    Chadhel's braying and bellowing come forth from the void in dual stock: Lead vocalist Jean-Philippe Dion's language of shrieking and immemorial lunacy takes its form in a hardcore-styling that still has the resemblance of human characteristics. In contrast, guitarist G.T. carries the call from the abyss with a roaring howl that rumbles cold and low, sometimes in legion with bassist Jean-René Cloutier-Ménard and Dion.

    Guitarist G.T.'s tribute is much more blatant of an offering as his slinky discordant riffs pitch in dizzying rides that permeate every song and recall to mind the technical prowess of Pig Destroyer's Scott Hull. G.T.'s weighty riffing ebbs and flows just as the vocals. Existing in both the states of heavy distortion and brightly strung squelches. His tentacled guitar work and squirming harmonic peels speak as the true subconscious voice of Chadhel.

    Jean-René Cloutier-Ménard's bass is not too openly revealed in the mix, but can be heard oozing through the lows of the tracks with the right ear. The writhing tendrils slopping against the vivid guitar shrills and psychic claws pulsing in consensus with the drums help push the immense beast.

III.

Mastering the Studio

    Chadhel's members present here an awesome feat of musicianship and production. Documented here with grave perfection by engineer Remy Verreault from Studio Danger. This is the best the band has sounded since inception. G.T.'s tone encapsulates the harmonious balance of clean and dirty. Frédo's drumming is clear and coherent. Even his bell work in "Cult of the Rope" is visible and rightfully valued. Very little is needed in the way of alterations in these recordings, spare possibly the bass' proportioning. Chadhel presents us with their history's finest incantations. Followers of the grind gods of old and champions of modernization alike should all find relish here. 

    San Diego's Assiduous Assault answers the call of Chadhel and appear opposite of this split with a generous thirteen tracks. This seems to be the band's first and only release and looks as if they have been working on these songs since at least late 2019 based on the single song demo postings on their Bandcamp page. Assiduous Assault plays a scanty style of grindcore that combines spastic technical death metal and low-fi raw grindcore with power violence erraticism. I applaud them on their "no bullshit, just blast" approach. 

    Assiduous Assault is made up of members from fellow San Diego death-grinders, Orphic Eye via vocalist Jason Fitz and guitarist Elijah Wells. Orphic Eye plays a similar style of technical death-grind that also includes hints of metalcore, but the overlapping style from Wells is evident. His guitar work in both bands is filled with twangy riffing, Skwisgaar-esque sweeps and technical noodling which seems to only be compounded here by second guitarist Heath O'Conner. Despite some jazzy runs, this is still straight blasting. Not much meandering. 

    Vocalist Jason Fitz is a bit of a wildcard. Assuming he does all the vocals, he cycles through low gutturals, shrieking highs, gnarled sneers and something that can only be described as a "blarg!" These vocalizations twist and turn without warning from song to song making structure unpredictable. This on top of the the band's grittier takes reminds me very much of Unholy Grave. 

    Couple that with drummer Bryan, who does a great job blasting through songs in a matter that sounds like he's on the edge of losing it and spinning out only to have each song end in unison. I'm reminded of bands like Self Deconstruction. The band definitely has that raw, improvisational Japanese grindcore influence in its sound. 

    The line-up lists two guitarist en lieu of a bassist which means the songs are going to lean more into the higher treble end of the spectrum by definition. Yet given this fact, the mixing still has some anomalies. Especially track three, "Berzerker." Which seems to have a more heavy bottomed bass tone that isn't present in the songs before or after. In fact, the overall "sound" seems to change throughout the release. A minor predicament and might not be noticed by everyone, but it does come across as peculiar since this was also mixed and mastered by Remy Verreault from Studio Danger. Perhaps the difference being that the band recorded the tracks themselves. Regardless, Assiduous Assault is playing some unique and rabid garage-grind that fits within the world of this split. The songs are enjoyably written with that "in-and-out" attitude that keeps things from getting boring. Most songs on the album are interwoven with sound clips from stand-up comedians, like David Cross, and expresses the band's tongue-in-cheek cynicism. Whether the production is intentional or budgetary, it certainly doesn't hold up to what the luster of what Chadhel is offering on the reverse side. But this shouldn't dissuade listeners. After all, who cares? This is grindcore. Get fucking dirty. 

FFO: Maruta, Pig Destroyer, Rotten Sound, Orphic Eye, Unholy Grave

Chainsaw Grindcore Massacre: Barren - "Demo 2021" Review

    Blink and you'll miss this release either due to it's brevity or the logo font which, at a glance, looks almost identical to that of Sweden's Entombed. Perhaps in reverence to the passing of Entombed frontman Lars-Göran Petrov earlier this year or as an homage to the "Entombed sound." Entombed were known for their heavy, "buzzsaw" guitar tone. A tone that Belgium newcomers, Barren, have used as the foundation for their three song demo promoted under the moniker of "chainsaw grind." Referring to their use of the legendary Boss Heavy Metal HM-2 distortion pedal and it's classic "buzzsaw/chainsaw" sound. A point of pride that the band is more than happy to publicize. It's a credit to the band's refined taste as well as a certain amount of good old fashion gear worship. It's fun to see the collector culture and tech biases behind the scenes. Pedal fetishism aside, clearly Barren has spent the time refining their sound because this demo rips.

    This "chainsaw grind' sound seems to be due in large part to the contributions of guitarist Matias Dupont, formerly of Aborted and Agathocles fame. Two major bands in the genre, so we can trust that he knows what he's doing. His guitar tone is on point in respects to that Left Hand Path 

sound. Except that Barren modernizes Entombed's signature low-ended guitar tone and in return gives us a dense and cavernous roar that can start and stop on a dime. There's no thin sounding chords or time wasted on irritating guitar solos. Just a whirlwind of distortion. It's simple yet highly effective and has a nice well rounded sound especially when mixed with bassist Tom Swinnen's tension wire-esque bass lines.

    Matias and Tom are joined by drummer Llano Bergman and dual vocalists Cliff Feyen and Jimmy Schippers. All three coming from technical deathcore band, Everyone Dies Alone. Both Cliff and Jimmy share vocal duties in a tandem style, à la Extreme Noise Terror. They offer up the standard grindcore high/low contrast. The former having what I like to call "Crudos" vocals; with the latter sounding more along the lines of Napalm Death's Barney Greenway, but with the slightest tickle of a goregrind gurgle. 

    It's not only Matias' gear specifics, but also his hands-on in the studio that I think contributes to the tonality of this demo. Recording his own as well as his bandmate's guitar, bass and vocal performances and taking part in producing alongside engineer Lander Cluyse. Lander also handled mixing and mastering over at Belgium's Hearse Studios. Barren's sound was actually a bit surprising to me given the background of several members' work in Everyone Dies Alone. A band that I mentioned before was more deathcore/slam metal in its style. Combine this with Matias' tenure with Aborted and Tom's assorted death metal past, I was expecting a techy, overly polished, triggered sort of deathgrind. Thankfully I found myself with a very natural and fluid sounding style of grindcore. A mixture of old school and new school that has an air of darkness.  

    Generally speaking, all the songs we've been given thus far are pummeling and speedy: blast beats, D-beats, stop/starts, aggressive riffs, etc. All three songs feature a heavy, plodding breakdown or outro that are testaments to the band's beatdown and slam metal roots. These slower passages don't derail the songs, but add some nice depth and diversity to them while keeping the momentum intact. Each song runs just under the two minute mark making them beefy, but not bloated. The track "Rain" follows the aforementioned standards except for its introduction of a melodic ending that combines melancholy guitar work with the brutishness of the band's vocal delivery and the vigorous drum work.

    Barren's "demo" is probably one the best sounding demo I've ever heard. With this level of musicianship and production, the addition of two or three more tracks could have easily made this an EP ready for the pressing plant. I'm very eager to hear what else Barren has to offer in the way of future releases. As of this review the band is currently working on recording more material and should have another release out by the Summer. If they can keep up with the quality of songwriting that they've established here it's safe to say that whatever EP or full-length comes along will be mandatory listening. I'm a fan.

FFO: Napalm Death, Catheter, Wormrot, Phobia

Retro-Tech Glitch-Core: Zmajevdah - "Zmajevdah v.0" Review

 

    It's Friday night, 1990. Your homework is done. There's no school tomorrow. Bedtime is nonexistent. You pick up the Nintendo controller in one hand and rummage through the pile of games on the floor with the other. You grab one and jam it into the cartridge tray, slam the lid closed and hit the power button. The start up menu flickers on and immediately crunches to a halt. The screen fractures into a scramble of pixels and the music falters into an metronomic stutter. Your heart drops. You quickly hit the power button and flick open the lid to the cartridge tray. After ejecting the game from the console you start blowing vertical passes into the bottom slot of the cartridge. You replace the game, hit power and Double Dragon begins as normal. 

   Much like the excavation of Atari 2600's E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial video game from a landfill in 2014, Zmajevdah's Zmajevdah v.0  has recently been unearthed from the pay-to-play download purgatory that is now Jay Randall's Grindcore Karaoke Bandcamp page. The former "free-net" grindcore label is now a subscription service after starting up again last year having previously been on hiatus since 2014. This makes free listening of the GK back catalog impossible and finding the bands involved nearly as hard. Not wanting their material lost and believing grindcore should be free for people and posterity, Zmajevdah have taken matters into their own hands and created a Bandcamp page compiling the band's own discography. Thus, insuring free listening to those who would be so inclined.

    Originally meant as one half of a split and later released alone, Zmajevdah v.0 appeared on GK in 2012 and was one of many digital-only releases that padded the label's numbers. Zmajevdah is an E-grind/cyber-grind/grindcore band from Croatia and is the one man solo-project of the human entity known as Zmaj; the influential engineer behind the highly respected webzine Cephalochromoscope and is author to several releases and collaborations. As a band, Zmajevdah is an assemblage of many influences and the band's future material would go on to expand further from there. Foremost among those influences are dissonant grind bands Discordance Axis and Gridlink as they are cited many times and the sound is very evident. The latter of the two bands is even covered on this album. But not to merely be cast off as a Chang/Matsubara homage band, Zmajevdah v.0 stands on its own with competent songs and a distinct identity.

    Right away my favorite song "Tachikoma" starts off Zmajevdah v.0 with a quick dust up of notes and blasts that abruptly stop right before some hyper palm-muting that would make Ministry's "TV II" turn its head and take notice. Then it's full tilt into some rapid fire tremolo picking and CPU programed blast beats that set precedent for things to come. The frantic and frenetic guitar work churns over on itself endlessly from song to song. Conflicting chords beget tremolo riffs that beget legato scales that speed away through solos that spin out into needling sirens and guitar dive bombs that crash land into the occasional melodic spell. Noise, chaos and raw skill are shot to pieces by ceaseless blast beats. Our only reprieve is the track "Search." The noise track is a quiet slow burn that pulses with heavy breath. Slowly huffing its way out of the darkness like the stirring of some 8-bit wyvern that then crescendos into a buzzing static fire. But, honestly, flowery writing aside, it sounds like Bowser from Super Mario Bros. for the NES, breathing fire throughout the castle levels. And the staticky bulk reminds me of portions of Konami's Top Gun for the same system. (If you're too young to know what I'm talking about, there's Youtube.) But that's the thing, Zmajevdah v.0 is very much of the retro-tech sound. The distortion and tone of the guitar can quickly shift from Takafumi Matsubara inspired speed riffs to MIDI sounding synth melodies that are definitely throwbacks to old school gaming and Japanese chiptunes. Tablature for the album might as well be "up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right, B, A, START." It definitely puts you in a vibe. A vibe not totally out of the blue in cyber-grind, but the difference here being that Zmajevdah is more analog sounding than most bands in the subgenre, at least on this release.

    Zmajevdah v.0 definitely wears its influences on its sleeve: obsolete dead-tech gaming, Japanese Anime culture, Gridlink, Discordance Axis, Hayaino Daisuki, etc. Vocals on the album can also be drawn back to Jon Chang adoration and his ultrasonic screams. But Zmaj offers up his own blown out, battery acid scarred version of them. Not to mention that they fluctuate from foreground to background in the mix depending on the song. Very much like the mixing of Psudoku vocals, although not as distant and never as spacey. The cover of Gridlink's "The Jenova" is the culmination of Zmajevdah's tribute paid proper. The musicianship is matched pretty well, byte for byte. This time featuring drum contributions by Twitch Savant, as programmer I'm assuming. Which puts fans into a John Henry ballad-type scenario. Forcing us to listen as Bryan Fajardo defends his blast beat chops against "the machine's." It's very good and very entertaining. 

    In addition to the digital reissue of Zmajevdah v.0, earlier this year Zmajevdah's Bandcamp released IDIOThetic for the first time. IDIOThetic is a combination of two recording session from 2010 and 2011 and marks the band's full entrance into avant-grind. The guitar playing is not as amateurish as heard on Zmajevdah v.0 and there's a bunch of experimentation. These batches of recordings have songs doubling in length and borrowing styles from outside of grindcore. Flavors of jazz, pop-punk, emo, alternative rock, world music, Swarrrm, Sigur Ros, Yoshi's Story, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, even The Misfits to name a few, all make appearances. Think of it as the Nintendo 64 next generation console version to Zmajevdah v.0's original 8 to 16 bit platform. This might not be every grind fan's cup of tea and Zmaj will be the first to tell you that, but the noise and blast beats still have their moments. These latest rounds of recordings show Zmajevdah's longest reach into its repertoire and the alchemy can be polarizing. But I have it from the highest authority that new material is on its way and shall be a return to the grindier sounds that Zmajevdah v.0 brought us yet still experimenting with new ideas.

     Zmaj has a couple other projects as mentioned before. He is one third of the "sketchgrind" band

Kikurachiyo, consisting of the international efforts of members from Croatia, Japan and Canada. As well as being active brain trust member and writer at the Cephalochromoscope blog/webzine. Which has been reviewing and sharing grind/noise related releases since 2008.

    The Zmajevdah discography offers up a varied mix of music depending on the release. But always tends to lean towards the extreme side of things and might have a little something for everyone. Especially for those who aren't afraid of synthetic music or getting a little weird. But for an audience looking for a more traditional, admittedly noisy, grindcore experience, Zmajevdah v.0 is your best bet. 

Cephalochromoscope: https://cephalochromoscope.blogspot.com/ 

Zmajevdah: https://zmajevdah.bandcamp.com/music

Kikurachiyo: https://kikurachiyo.bandcamp.com/

FFO: Psudoku, Sete Star Sept, Gridlink, Hayaino Daisuki