Khill 'Em All: Michael Khill - "Infierire Sul Malessere" CD Review

 

    Michael Hill was a Florida man, who in 1998, had the extreme misfortune of answering a knock at the front door of his sister's home while he was visiting and ended up getting the business end of an eight inch survival knife buried up to the hilt into his skull. Turns out a feuding neighbor of Hill's sister—whom Hill didn't even know—was the knife-wielding would-be assassin. But the story of why is not what makes this incident as interesting as it is. Against all odds and to the surprise of paramedics and doctors, Hill was completely conscious after the event and through a successful surgery ended up surviving with only some memory loss and limb mobility limitations on his left side. His x-ray is the stuff of Google Image legend and makes great fodder for show flyers and album covers. Hill went down in the pages of Guinness for having the world record for the largest foreign body removed from a human brain that didn't result in death. His is a story of chance, survival and triumph. 

    The story of Michael Hill reminded me of that of Phineas Gage—a railroad foreman who historically had a metal pipe explode through his face and out of the top of his head in an 1848 railway accident that occurred while clearing rock. Like Hill, Gage remarkably survived and made a quick recovery to the shock and disbelief of physicians at the time. But unlike Hill, Gage would not suffer any memory loss or major physical disabilities. What Gage would suffer from would be a personality shift caused by frontal lobe damage. The former mild-tempered and dependable worker became irritable, unreliable and profane. Phineas Gage went down in neurological and psychological texts books as a medical anomaly. His skull and the iron rod that pierced it now sit in the Warren Anatomical Museum located in the Harvard University campus.

    The Michael Khill that are the subject of this text are not a victim of massive brain trauma, but instead are an Italian metalcore band formed in 2019 and are looking to cause some cerebral abuse of their own, albeit aurally. 

    Now, the descriptor of "metalcore" can certainly be polarizing and invoke thoughts of some cringe-worthy acts from the early 2000's, while the more creditable term of "metallic hardcore" should put you at ease with the perception of bands that you might find on the rosters of labels such as A389 Records or Southern Lord Records. Michael Khill should be thought of as being in the latter—bands like All Pigs Must Die or Trap Them that flirt with the borders of hardcore punk and metal, as well powerviolence and grindcore. That being said, Michael Khill's 2023 eight song debut CDEP, Infierire Sul Malessere, is obviously not going to be a blast-fest. Instead, the band uses blast beats to emphasize their calculated song structure and textured sound, just barely qualifying for entry into this blog. Yet, technically qualifying should definitely not be confused with something disparaging. 

    Michael Khill's thick and heavy guitarwork is integral to Infierire Sul Malessere. The driving hardcore riffs that make up a majority of the songs are straightforward and effective. Their simplicity is deceptive because they are the motivator of the catchy grooves within the songs as well as the basis for the interweaving of the other genres. Songs like "Torcicrollo" rely on that typical metalcore talent of chuggy palm mute alternations and pinch harmonics, while "Perizia Asettica" is a tornado of thrash riffing that is only amplified by its third act consisting of the classic pairing of cymbal catches and speed picking. The combination of catchiness and versatility make for some truly dynamic songwriting. Unfortunately, the bass guitar is merely a shadow of the guitar and is largely inaudible with the exception of a twelve second solitary intro on closing track, "Crepe". It seems the band has more grindcore attributes than just blast beats. 

    Working in tandem with the guitar talent, the drums are the power behind the band's mosh pit inducing metalcore. The drumming might easily be looked over as subtle, but the percussive ability is highly effective. Hardcore beats and skank beats flaunt those thrash influences, and even though the blasting is mainly kept to the double bass pedals, tracks "Bisogno", "Torcicollo", "Frecce"  and "Coscienza Del Malehave" have enough blast beats to keep the band's "grindcore" tag honest. The tight rolls and thunderous tom work are just the icing on the cake that make you rethink that aforementioned "subtle" remark. The overall polished production allows the drumming to be deeply impactful and clean. You can hear every snare hit and each cymbal strike crisp and clear. This being of little surprise as the band recorded at the studio of Luca Incerti—drummer of Italian pop-punk band, Why Everyone Left—whom I'm assuming also produced.

    Michael Khill's vocalist(s) are packing a short stable of oral accents that typically side on the more intelligible yelling style. Their strangled low yells occasionally drop down to a more grindcore roaring guttural that are then contrasted by strained higher vocals that tip the scales in the other direction. There are also some Tom Araya style mid-ranged shouts that, yet again, nod to the band's thrash leanings, especially when it's held and sustained in that classic Big Four fashion.

    While Michael Khill is not what I would traditionally recommend as a grindcore band, they are definitely within the realm. If you are looking for all-out speed and obliteration, I suggest you traverse elsewhere, but the band have released an extremely solid metallic hardcore record with grind-like tendencies in Infierire Sul Malessere. Through crushing and fast-paced metal guitarwork, stampeding hardcore drums and an array of scouring vocals wrapped in an especially professional package, Michael Khill earn their ground in each of the genres they take influence from. Each and every one of the band's elements are firing on all cylinders. Infierire Sul Malessere is a stout mix of heavy hardcore, chucky metal and dynamic songwriting with an elevated production quality that doesn't hide behind harsh noise or distorted effects, which in return, makes for a powerful first release.

FFO: Complete Failure, All Pigs Must Die, Cripple Bastards, Baptists

Listen to the album:

https://michaelkhill.bandcamp.com/album/infierire-sul-malessere

Split Level Housing: Social Chaos/Bestial Vomit - "In Chaos We Vomit" Split 10 Inch Review

    In Chaos We Vomit—probably the most utilitarian version of the "in something we something" puns I've seen—is a 2022 10 inch split record between noise-grind and crust-grind bands, Bestial Vomit and Social Chaos, put out by an international consortium of some fifteen punk and grindcore labels, namely our friends at Everydayhate Records.

    Social Chaos hail from São Paulo, Brazil and are genre veterans with over twenty years experience under their belts and almost more than two dozen releases in their discography plus several compilation album contributions. In short, these guys are no light-weights and know what they're doing. Social Chaos play a form of grindcore that is equal parts grind, thrash metal, and old school crust. Right from the start the band opens the split with a Slayer-esque riff intro leading into probably the band's catchiest song, "Seeds Of Hate." This opening death-grind banger is a heavy paced blitz that showcases both the band's grindcore and more mid-tempo metallic crustcore influences. Influences that are an amalgam of bands such as Slayer, Napalm Death, Disrupt, Brutal Truth and Bolt Thrower—or as we call them in Texas, War Master. But Social Chaos' crust roots run very deep within their sound, regardless of the genre mix. Track "Fabrica De Destruição" is an almost straight blistering grind number, while their next song, "Manipulated Life," could easily be a late era Warcollapse jam.

    Before we go further, I think it's important to note the not entirely unheard of, but pretty unorthodox track listing and the split arrangement amongst the bands. In Chaos We Vomit has a somewhat Petrarchan (ABBA) style track split. Meaning track one is Social Chaos and tracks two and three are Bestial Vomit, trading back and forth in this manner—one-two-one-two-one. Repeated almost similarly on the reverse side. Again, this is not foreign for split releases and I've played and seen live split sets that saw bands trading songs for songs. This could arguably be considered a truer version of a split or the most evenly compromised considering the disproportionate number of song contributions from each band, but as a reviewer, it initially made for a difficult critique before eventually differentiating who's who. Social Chaos' five total tracks are more pronounced in the track listing with their comparatively well-rounded and warmer sound in regard to Bestial Vomit's rough and strident eight blastings. This record is both sides of Napalm Death's Scum LP mixed together.

    Bestial Vomit—surprisingly a deceptively common band name—are a noise-grind unit based out of Italy since 2003. I don't know too much about them other than they have over a dozen releases including splits with some heavy hitters such as Proletar, Archagathus and Agathocles. The band plays a noisy, wild-eyed and raw version of grindcore. I think the noise identifier comes mainly from some of the band's past releases that contained more of a harsh and grating form of distortion and feedback. On this split the noise is mainly in respects to the very lo-fi production quality, although their last two songs venture into being more, unraveled. Their tracks sound like grindcore played through a clock radio. The guitar is shrill and staticky, the bass guitar is nonexistent and the drums are distant and seem to come and go depending on the song's tempo. For instance, the snare drum can be overshadowed by the hi-hats, especially during the blast beats. Think all treble and no bass. And I'm almost certain that this is an absolutely artistic choice as the rest of the band's discography is similar to varying degrees. They take the creed of "noise not music" to the nth degree and throw it in your face. Posers need not apply.

FFO: Napalm Death, Ratos de Porão, Brutal Truth, Misanthropic Noise 

Listen to the bands: https://everydayhate.bandcamp.com/album/in-chaos-we-vomit

Open House: An Interview with Chadhel

    Québec's Chadhel are a two-time House of Grindcore alumni with their 2021 split, Welcome To Your Doom and 2022's Failure//Downfall both being previously reviewed on the blog. In their tenure the band has established themselves as a Great North grindcore powerhouse. Presently, Chadhel have several irons in the fire and are very busy writing for future releases and rehearsing for upcoming shows. Fortunately for all of us, the band was kind enough to answer some questions for the House of Grindcore's inaugural Open House interview segment.

Hey guys! Thank you for the interview and your time. This is my first ever interview of any band so my apologies beforehand for the generic and unremarkable questions. I guess we'll start with a basic introduction. Can you introduce us to the band—who is who and who does what in Chadhel?

    We are Chadhel a grindcore band from Saguenay, Québec. We are four guys in the band. JR plays bass/vocals, Fredo is the drummer, YaN is our new singer (JP took a break for school and other personal things but he’s still a member of the ChadHeL family and will always be. Maybe he’ll comeback someday to sing with YaN... or not. Let time surprise us) and GT play guitar/vocals.

How did each of you get into grindcore and how did that lead to the formation of Chadhel?

    We all get into grindcore, death metal and hardcore at a pretty young age. We were introduced to grindcore either by friends, because of our curiosity, or by going to shows. We all started listening to metal music at a very young age, either through older cousins or by inheriting old albums from our uncles and parents who found it too extreme for them. In the 90’s there was no internet, not in the way we know it today, so the best way to find new bands was to read a zine and to check out the "thanks list" in the cassettes, vinyls or CD booklets. It was really much like a treasure hunt and it was really a fun thing to do. You had to write all these bands names on a sheet and go to the local music store to see if they had any of these titles in stock. Sometimes you bought something really bad and other times you could find a classic that would stay in your life forever.

    That being said, it’s our passion for music and grindcore that lead to the creation of the band. We all played in a lot of different bands. Some of us even had band together before (Fredo and GT in 2003, JR and Fredo played many years together in WhoCares?). We were all really active in our local death metal, grindcore and hardcore scene even before we started the band. GT and JP started the band as a two-man studio project in 2014. After that they asked for people to join the band for one release show (a 3-way split with two other local band, Deadcold and Défaillance) but one thing lead to another and we started to all really have fun playing and creating music together so the guys decided to stay permanently. The band is active under this form since the end of 2016 and we release our first split as a band in 2017 with Inexile, a local ambient/noise project now named Twenty9Kult. I lost count since, hahaha! We work hard and fast and we don’t like to be stagnant and keep playing the same songs for too long. To write new stuff motivates us a lot, trying new things, new riffs, keep it interesting and fresh for us and hopefully for the people who listen our music. That is why we are working so well together. We always look forward, look at new projects, new adventure or new people to work with. It keeps it all alive and creatively nourishing.

What bands played the biggest influence in Chadhel's sound and style?

    A lot of band influence us on many levels. Some influenced us by their sound, others by their song writing approach or also by the way they were writing lyrics. We are as much influenced by old bands than new bands. We keep our minds open and don’t try to be, look or sound like anyone. We let our subconscious do the job and never close the door to an idea we like because it is not considered like classic grind or true to the style. We try everything that comes to our mind and if we like it we keep it. If we think it sucks, we trash it and try something else. That’s it.

    But, if we really have to drop some names, let’s say that Napalm Death, Discordance Axis, Nasum, Gridlink, Noisear, The Kill, Gadget, Pig Destroyer and Kill The Client are bands that influenced us a lot all over our life and musical evolution.

How did the Return to the House of Grindcore blog come up on your radar?

    Destiny, man! Hahaha. When we created our Instagram account we were searching other accounts related to grindcore and one of the first we found and liked was Return to the House of Grindcore. I think luck was on our side and we can’t thank you enough for all the support and the great positive stuff you wrote about us all over the years. It is always well done, smart, constructive and respectful. 

From our first conversations prior to the review of Welcome To Your Doom back in 2021, you made it clear that you identified as being from Québec and not Canada. As proud Québécois how do you feel your national and cultural identities shape Chadhel's music?

    It gave us a lot of inspiration and determination to stand out and free ourselves from an identity that is not ours. It is not a question of hatred, anger or contempt towards anyone. Our cultural heritage is very rich at the musical, literary and artistic level. People here are usually very creative; most of us were introduced to music at a very young age because it’s a deep part of our cultural identity. It motivated us to do things our way and the way we wanted to do it. Also, the fact of living so far from the big cities likes Québec and Montréal (we are from Chicoutimi, Saguenay, two hours away from Québec City. Straight north directly through the mountains of the Laurentide park) make it hard for local bands like us to get out and be recognized outside of their town even with the internet. But we can’t complain. Quebec is recognized in its history for having seen the birth within it of a great line of excellent grindcore and death metal groups. Bands like Gorguts, Cryptopsy, Dahmer, Inertia Kills, Soil of Ignorance, Deboned (rip), Neuraxis, Quo Vadis, WhoCares? and many others who paved the way for today’s bands. The grindcore/death metal scene is a very important part of all the musical movements here. There are a lot of good active bands right now working hard and producing insanely good music. Bands like Ear Maggot, Faché, Pastoral, Worms Out, Tandemoniak, Nervous Impulse, Anticrisse, Défaillance, Afterpill, Autodafé, Deadcold, Cruel Fate, Spirits of Rebellion, Senseless Strife, RGRSS, Saccage, Apes and Desecrate... I probably forgot many of them but it is a good list to begin with. 

How is the grind scene in Québec? Who and what are some of your favorite Québec bands and venues?

    Not bad, not bad at all. There are a lot of shows and a lot of bands actively playing and recording stuff so the feeling is good right now. Like almost everywhere the problem is always to find a good venue at a good price. My favorites places right now are the Plaza Bar (Ville de la Baie), the Tubro Haus in Montréal and we also like to play at the Scanner Bar in Québec city, the owner doesn’t charge anything and there is always a lot of crazy peoples. But it’s for those who love late shows.

For the readers who didn't put it together, Chadhel has a deep H.P. Lovecraft influence, especially evident on the Welcome To Your Doom EP. Thus the two House Of Grindcore Chadhel reviews were done in the style of Call Of The Cthulhu and Pickman's Model, respectively. So how did that come about? Who's the Lovecraft fan? How much Lovecraft made it into Failure//Downfall?

    GT and JP are the Lovecraft fans in the band, like huge fan. At the beginning the main theme of the songs and artworks was the myth of Cthulhu. In fact we started to leave behind that concept on the 10 inch split EP, Welcome To Your Doom. Even if the titles of the songs does not let it appear, the lyrics are more personal and based on our own experiences with illness, tragedy, depression and death. The lyrics still have these small Lovecraftian references in it because the basic inspiration is still human consciousness, the loss of control of one's mind and thoughts. We just have left the science fiction behind us in order to focus on texts more anchored in our reality and which could serve us as a catharsis. So since Welcome To Your Doom we started to write more about things we have experienced or witnessed that have affected us in some way. Our lyrics are a conduit that helps us get rid of all the rage that poisons our mind and conscience. We're actually talking about things that most people are going to experience one day or another that generally affects our lives in a pretty negative way. This transition is a need that ended up being felt over time and which imposed itself naturally. It happened one song at a time; we ended up realizing that a page in our history had been turned and that it was the start of a new chapter for us. 

When writing for Failure//Downfall what were your goals for the album? Did you have a certain sound or style of grindcore or any other genres that you were wanting to incorporate or emphasize?

    No, as usual we let our subconscious and our creativity do the work. We kept what we liked and threw overboard anything that seemed boring to us. Of course we had the desire to push the level of brutality to a whole new level while remaining unpredictable and original. The only two valid questions were, "do we like it?" and "do we have fun playing this song?"

    Many ideas and even complete songs have been thrown in the trash throughout the process. Sometimes with hindsight some ideas lose a bit of their charm. This is why it is important not to be afraid to review your creations and, if you have to, start from scratch or erase certain parts of it. The ego is a bad adviser. When you feel that something is wrong, usually it is because something is wrong.

We tried at least once all the ideas that came to mind just to be sure not to miss something great without realizing it. It often happens that what you imagine in your head doesn't sound quite the same in reality. It is often worth checking. 

    That was the state of mind of all the team during this whole operation and it was quite liberating and fun.

Chadhel seemed to have weathered the pandemic pretty well. You guys certainly took advantage of the time by recording and even appearing on the online Global Grindcore Alliance Fest. How does it feel to being playing live shows again in 2023?

    We were able to obtain an authorization from the Ministry of Public Health giving us the right to practice in our music room under certain conditions. It helped a lot and probably saved many hours of therapy for many of us. 

    This allowed us to be part of the Grindcore Alliance but also to keep the group in good shape, to record and to compose a lot of songs. Sadly, we've only done three shows since. One in Chicoutimi that was epic. One in Quebec and the last in Sherbrooke for the Halloween Murdoch fest with many other groups who were all really happy to finally be able to put on a show. On the other hand, we have a lot of shows planned all over Quebec for 2023. We are also going to play for the first time in the United States. The show is at New York City, it’s the OSU Extreme Festival presented by GCBT Media (January 22). We are really looking forward to this concert especially since we are going to play with bands that we love and respect a lot. It will be very invigorating. It's only when you're deprived of what you took for granted that you realize how much you care about it so being able to perform again is very positive and helps everyone to let go of the pressure built up during the pandemic. 

    The human condition means that we need to socialize, even the loneliest among us need to talk to someone at one time or another. To say that being able to do shows again feels good is an understatement. Playing music and being in a band is, by definition, a social activity. 

I got wind of a new Chadhel noise/sludgecore side project, Autodafé, which has a release on the horizon and I think most Chadhel listeners will be familiar with the powerviolence side project, Afterpill. What were the impetuses of these projects and how are these projects going? Are there any other projects in the works?

    Autodafé is more like a grindcore/sludge/90's meta/hardcore/electronic/noise kind of band with a drum machine. GT and Alex (Twenty9Kult) recorded all the tracks during the pandemic and now are finishing the mixing and the mastering. It sounds like a weirder version of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, this project is a really strange beast. 

    Afterpill is slowly writing new material right now. The 7 inch split with Double Me from Italy will be released on Here And Now Records this year. The band also appear on the Fats//Violence #4 tape compilation, Punchline Vol. 1 by The Hills Are Dead Records, the Hit Mania Violence #3 7 inch compilation and will have three songs on the upcoming compilations Product of Six Cents produced by Justin Abare of the legendary East Coast powerviolence band, No Comply. Let’s say some of us are really busy right now.

I really enjoyed the continuity between the Blood Of The Hybrids and the new Theory Of Obscurity music videos on your ChadhelTV YouTube channel. These are apparently the first two parts of a video trilogy. What was the inspiration for these videos? Was the entirety of the trilogy a preconceived plot? On what future release can we expect the final installment? 

    Thank you. Yes it was a preconceived plot that GT was really dreaming to do for a long time. It is based on simple concept which is death, awakening and revenge. This idea comes from an old socio-philosophical book that GT read some time ago and was also inspired by the book Necropolis: City of the Dead by Herbert Lieberman. Of course, the full idea won't really make sense until the end of the third chapter and can most certainly be interpreted differently by people who will see it. Our friend and producer Bruno Martel is the technical mastermind behind all this whole amazing project. His help and his involvement in the creation of the visual universe of the group is of an impossible value to describe in the same way as that of Remy Verreault who works magic with our music in the studio. Bruno helps us a lot and takes all his experience and ideas with him which greatly enriches the final result. We also shot another studio video like the one we did last spring to promote the release of the album Modern Methods of Aggression. This time it will be for the song "Coldcases" which will be found on the split 5 inch with the French/German group Eastwood. The song "Mindless", which will serve as the soundtrack for the third part of the trilogy which will be found on the 7 inch split with the group Faché from Trois-Rivières, Québec, which is produced by SO2 Records. 

What grindcore/powerviolence bands are you currently listening to?

    Ok let’s try to cut it short because there’s a huge amount of awesome active grindcore and powerviolence bands right now. Daggra, Chepang, Ixias, Retortion Terror, Gridlink, Hatred Surge, Expression of Pain, Gets Worse, Jack, Feastem, Massive Charge, Ear Maggot, Ape Unit, Merked, Knoll, Antigama, Warfuck, The Kill, Eastwood, Faché, Tandemoniak, Soil of Ignorance, BruceXCampbell, Gendo Ikari, Fractured, Double Me, They Live, No Comply, Mescaline Maniacs, Campana Del Terror, Hello Bastard, Herida Profunda, Throwe, Convince, Internal Rot, Human Cull, Chiens, SixBrewBantha, Pugnale, Suffering Quota, RGRSS, Sayyadina, Soiled Hate, Sidetracked, Cloud Rat, Backslidder, Cruel Fate, Naka’y, Deterioration, To Dust, World Peace, P.O.A.C, Peace Test, Manipulator, Triac, Sanctioned, Shitbrains, Harm, Suffering Mind, Entrails Massacre... and many others but we must stop at some point or it will never end. Hahaha!

What grindcore/powerviolence bands or albums would you consider essential listening?

    Interesting question. There’s the old classic nobody can avoid if they really want to know where it come from and how it evolved to become the beast it is today. Classics like Napalm Death (Scum), Repulsion (Horrified), Terrorizer (World Downfall), Heresy, No Comment, Spazz and Crossed Out. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg and not a complete historical list of the bands that created grindcore and powerviolence. This is just in my opinion, a good starting point. The 90’s and early 2000’s saw a number of great bands emerge that helped take its two styles to another level. Pig Destroyer's Prowler in the Yard is a good example of it. Bands like Excruciating Terror, Blockheads, Discordance Axis and Rotten Sound are a good example of bands that have pushed the boundaries of this kind of music. Again this is just a list of a few names out of hundreds. The goal is not to write a complete anthropological study on grindcore but to help those who seek to understand or learn about the style. These two small lists are a very good starting point in this case. Some are more learned on the subject and could easily provide you with more concrete and historical information, but the fact remains that you have something to start learning here.

Do any of you collect vinyl or music gear? If so, how detrimental has that been to your life and standard of living? Hahaha.

    We all do. Hahaha! Yan and JP are singers so they are more into collecting records no matter in what format. Fredo, GT and JR collect both and that can be problematic at some point. Hahaha! GT is definitely the worst, having no children; his money is invested entirely in instruments, albums and his house. It's filled wall to wall with books, CD's, vinyl, cassettes, DVD’s and music equipment in his home. "Young 'til I die" style.

    But seriously, all the members of the band are all big music consumers. We are all passionate and addicted to music in all its forms and this shows in our projects, our equipment and our album collections.

What's next for Chadhel?

    We have a lot of shows and festivals schedule for 2023 and others will probably be added during the year. We also already have a 7 inch split confirmed for 2024 and are trying to find another band for another one. The idea is to release two splits in 2024 or one split and one EP. But it would be much cooler to release two splits, honestly. We are already writing new material. We don't want to slow down the pace; on the contrary, the new compositions are even faster, more brutal and more complex than ever. 

Any last words?

    Thank you very much for all the support everybody. I mean everybody. Live fast, die old. Blast beat all day, every day and fucks those who tell you otherwise. Be proud of who you are and grind. 

Thank you guys so much, again. I really appreciate you answering these questions and being patient as always. I'm looking forward to those upcoming releases, especially that Eastwood split. Everybody else, you can listen to Chadhel and grab some merch on the band's Bandcamp page:

https://chadhel.bandcamp.com/

Split Level Housing: Choke/Dopemess Split Cassette Review

 

    Oakland California's Choke might initially be well known as yet another of the several projects from Bay Area grindcore legend and powerviolence patron saint, Gregg Deadface. Deadface is of course celebrated for many of his musical endeavors in bands such as Your Enemy, Thousandswilldie, XHostageX, and AK//47 among others, as well as the face of Oakland's prestigious 510 Grind Fest. In addition to his work in Oakland's grindcore community, he also is a co-founder of Enemy Of The Goat Records alongside of Choke guitarist and Merked bassist, Fedge. But this review is not about him. 

    Choke has had a slew of releases in their five year tenure—from their introductory 2018 demo, their self-titled EP and their 2020 full-length—It's Hard To Talk Shit, With No Fucking Teeth—to their later string of splits through 2021 and 2022. Within that time the band has established a staunch attitude of anti-fascist, anti-police, pro-leftist physical violence set to a trudging concoction of powerviolence and a NYHC style of hardcore. 

    Choke's latest split cassette with Sacramento's Dopemess delivers four shots of that throat stomping, knuckle dragging hardcore/powerviolence cocktail—very shaken and not stirred. The band minces zero words about the subject matter that their lyrics are tackling and makes their feelings very known when it comes to the current political climate and present-day social issues. Each of the four tracks are prefaced with audio clips that relate to the songs specifically and are probably just as long as the songs themselves. Choke are taking the volatile issues that seemingly took precedence during American lockdown culture over the past couple of years to task. Mainly topics dealing with systemic racism, the anti-vaccination/anti-mask/Covid controversy, transphobia, homophobia and the ongoing war on women.

    The first couple of tracks tend to be on the slower heavier side, focusing on the plodding syncopation of that hardcore sound rather than excess speed. Chugging palm muted guitar riffs and toppling drum fills march songs in and out of aggressive tension building preludes. Whereas the latter two tilt more toward the traditional vein of powerviolence that moves a little quicker with pounding snare hits and galloping rolls that crescendo into blast beats.  

    Vocally, Choke are generally divided between shotgunned gang vocals and Deadface's caveman vocals. The standout exception being "Battlefield," where new addition to the band, Gage, takes the lead vocals on a tirade that reminds me very much of Detestation's legendary Saira Huff from the late 90's or modern day Body Farm's Ocean-Breeze Kudla. 

    On the cassette's flip side, the "hash" obsessed Dopemess speed things up considerably with a clamorous style of grind-violence from Sacramento California. The drum and guitar duo of Joey and Jake have been consistently releasing split and EP cassette tapes annually since 2018, including a full-length of sorts with 2021's Grief Milestones. The band's discography primarily consists of noisy and gnarled blast-tracks that come in routinely under a minute and a lot of times way under a minute. And you can bet that a good portion of those tracks are about hash and hash related paraphernalia. 

Dopemess' 2022 split tape with Choke finds the band a little less noisy, but just as vicious and just as hashed dependent, or maybe a little more so on both accounts. As with all their splits, Dopemess supplies a generous portion of tracks, with an ample nine songs here. From the start of their side, the guys immediately set the tone with the nine second snare-n-yell aggression test, "Curse Of Malang," before launching head first into a blur of skank beats, blast beats and a set of caustic and foam spattered dual vocals. They remind me of an abridged version of Eternal Death era Shitgrinder. The band generally keeps the tempo up by any means necessary. At times getting things so tumultuous that they almost sound as if they might shudder apart. Now, Dopemess can slow things down just as abruptly as they can speed things up—keeping the violence in their grind-violence—but the duo are not oppose to bringing things to a snail's pace such as with the doom metal crawl, "Life In A Fog." Although the moody track is the only one over a minute, it is fairly short lived and eventually blasts itself awake. 

    The split cassette tape between Choke and Dopemess is a quick one-two punch combination of what's happening in modern West Coast powerviolence and grindcore. Both bands together offer a miscellanea of everything that one could want from the genre. Choke with their crossbreed of West Coast powerviolence and East Coast hardcore makes for a crashing, groove-laden cave-core that is sharply modern yet wholly traditional in the spirit of the powerviolence primogenitors, Spazz. Their strict leftist moral ideals are sometimes at odds with their amiable sense of humor.

    Meanwhile, Dopemess manage to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. They are a free flowing stream of grindcore, hardcore, powerviolence, crust and black metal possessed sludge filtered through the grime of the Sacramento River and, of course, laced with the band's reverence for their beloved hash. They are gruff enough to be unquestionably brutal, but spindly enough to be plain unpredictable.

     These aren't the bands that you will see online with the multi colored limited edition vinyl pre-orders or the CD/vinyl/t-shirt tie-in bundle packs. These are your local hard-working bands that are on the Kinkos flyers stickered over on the telephone poles; put out on a DIY labor-of-love label that just wants to spread powerviolence into the world. Nuff said.

    

FFO: XHostageX, Body Farm, Apartment 213, Shitgrinder, Deterioration

Listen to the bands:

https://choke510.bandcamp.com/album/dopemess-split

https://dopemess.bandcamp.com/album/split-w-choke

Chadhel's Model: Chadhel - "Failure//Downfall" CD Review

     You needn't think I'm crazy—plenty of others have worst tastes in music than grindcore. Why don't you laugh at those black metal kids who killed each other over lo-fi fantasy club clout? If I don't like that damned metal, it's my own business; and we're here to discuss grindcore anyhow. 

     Well, if you must hear it, the last I heard from Chadhel was in April of 2021 after the split 10 inch between them and Assiduous Assault. No, I don't know what's become of Assiduous Assault. I do know that Chadhel subsequently rereleased their side of the split, entitled Welcome To Your Doom, on CD, cassette, and even a small batch of lathe cut records; sans Assiduous Assault, obviously. 

     You may recall that Chadhel's forte is a guitar heavy, well burnished form of death-grind haling from the frigid lands of south central Québec—you know Chadhel comes from old francophone stock. 

    It takes profound art and profound talent to turn out grindcore like Chadhel's. Any mincecore hack can blast around wildly and call themselves the next Mesrine, but only a great artist can make truly outstanding grindcore. Saguenay, Québec never had a greater band than les messieurs Chadhel.

    At present, Chadhel's latest opus comes in the form of their new sophomore full-length album, Failure//Downfall. An album as lustrous as it is technically proficient. As it should be, Failure//Downfall arrived as a refinement and furtherance compared to the previous year's Welcome To Your Doom. Production hereafter is very polished and punched-up, exhibiting a sharp piercing high-end and a thick heavier bottom. Much of this dense weight is due in part to the massively impactful drumming. You can feel each strike of the kick drum and the cataclysmic hacking from the blast beats. 

    As you know the drum work is a crucial component. Aside from just it's violent bulk, it's a tight mangling of blast beats and rolls between the snare and the twin toms. The death metal gnashing of the double bass pedals over the hammering snare is staunch and oppressive. While tracks like "Filling Up The Void With Nothing" subdue the pedals into head tottering trots. 

    Unfortunately, a common trait amongst grindcore kith and kin is the dithering bass guitar. With the exception of some emphasized solos and intros in songs such as "Apostle Of Hatred," "EatxBlastxDie" and "Degraded Loathsome Faith," the bass guitar on the record is subtle to scarce. The boosted bass during it's moments of significance during mastering was a smart move, but it's quite diminished otherwise; which may possibly be of no concern to some. In spite of this, the bass guitar plays an intrinsic roll in Chadhel's current thunderous production. Like the thick effluence of a dossal fog, the bass can be felt more than it can be outright heard, and when it is heard it grumbles with a dark seething convulsion which only benefits the album's heavy sound. 

     Chadhel's true charm is the guitar, of course. The guitar work is a savage flogging of piercing chords that writhe and throe over themselves like some maimed leviathan. The squealing and mewling discordant chords lurch in alarm amongst the severe and crushing palm-muted riffs. The tarantula-legged fretwork weaves a sinister web of spastic distortion and palpable gloom. 

    You recall that I had once compared Chadhel's guitar playing to that of Pig Destroyer's Scott Hull, and I still believe this to be true. Yet, I believe Chadhel to be much better as they manage to avoid getting bogged down in an oubliette of riff tedium. Chadhel's tone is that of a very modern tone, much in the vein of contemporary deathcore bands—a tearing sound that digs and bites. Failure//Downfall is much akin to that current genre's sound, even including a manufactured "bass drop" of sorts in the aptly named, "Modern Methods of Aggression."  

    Much as the guitar, the dog-thing vocals that Chadhel's lead vocalist is baying out through clenched breaths is not too dissimilar to the spattering growls of Pig Destroyer's J.R. Hayes. Yet, thankfully Chadhel offer a variety in vocals with the lower registered duel backing gutturals. This sound and structure of the riffs and vocals is very reminiscent of Pig Destroyer's Phantom Limb and Book Burner albums. Specifically, elements of "Loathsome" and "The Diplomat" come to mind. 

    Now, Failure//Downfall isn't without it's trials and tribulations. While the album is by far the band's finest work and certainly reaches the greatest depth within their caliber, my qualms are more related to my prominence in being minutely fastidious and obdurate in opinion. 

    For instance the mix—again being the band's finest—I felt it was possibly, too refined. The cleaner, more polished production, while giving us a clearer view of each instrument, distributes said clarity unfairly. The kick drum as a whole is very triggered sounding and overly high in the mix. 

    The snare, like the kick drum, has a dull triggered tone about itself that sticks out to the observant ear. The snare sounds as if the strainer release was disengaged leading to a situation in which the kick overshadows the snare during the blast beats. Now if you remember, this similar kit tone can be heard as far back as Controversial Echoes of Nihilism, and is clearly an artistic decision that hasn't been of previous concern. Only now the album's polish has given it more discernibility here. But perhaps this is more my idiosyncrasies than a folly of the studio.

    Now, I’m what the man in the street would call fairly “hard-boiled,” but I’ll confess that what I heard on a track from this album gave me a bad turn. Alas, I was disturbed from that of a song entitled, "Magnifying Prism Of Erratic Behavior." Briefly and fleetingly I heard a sound which somehow set me all in gooseflesh—clean vocals! This was wholly unexpected and never repeated elsewhere in the album. I dropped Cult Leader for this very reason some years ago. As a more puritanical man of grindcore I believe this to be the ultimate betrayal. 

    Yet, innovative art doesn't shock me, and when a band has the genius Chadhel has I feel it an honour to know them, no matter what direction their work takes.

    From it's commencement song—"Wasteland Overlord," which plays like a peace punk preamble spoken word sample over somberly strummed chords, like an echo from my youth—to it's denouement oeuvre, "Death By A Thousand Cuts," Chadhel have birthed a crushing second coming of churning ichthyic blasting despair. Brilliant and blasphemous—Failure//Downfall is a well-established horror-world of sharp, dismally aggressive and doggedly brutal death-grind—in conception and in execution. 

    And the ending, by God the ending. That obscenely licentious track with it's sordid witticism. An inappropriate, out of context quip, surely culled up by some private jesting to which we aren't privy to. Yes, that epilogue of the entire album is, as you know, well—as if the band wasn't taking things seriously at all.

FFO: Pig Destroyer, Wormrot, Discordance Axis, Cthugha, Gur'la-ya, Sheb-Teth

Listen to the album: https://chadhel.bandcamp.com/album/failure-downfall

Return to the House of Grindcore: Top 10 Favorite Releases of 2022

    First of all, I'd like to start this entry with some misplaced spite and bitterness—fuck you. Fuck all of you. 2022 turned out to be an incredible year for grindcore bands and grindcore releases. It seems like everyone had an album to drop this year and a majority of them ended up being exceptionally noteworthy. So fuck all of those bands for making the assembly of 2022's top 10 list so frustratingly difficult. And yes, I know I'm late. Fuck you. But in the spirit of critical exclusivity and the acknowledgment of the fact that nobody will likely read this anyways, I have culled together my favorite releases of 2022 and loosely arranged them into an order that I hope is merit based. As always, there is the annual disclaimer that this list is made up of my personal favorite releases of the year based solely on the releases that I have actually listened to. There are plenty of releases that I have not yet heard and some that I will never hear. And yes, there will be nepotism. 

Honorable mentions: 

Days Of Desolation - "Circles" LP I found this release slightly polarizing yet really well done. Circles is a melodic take on the band's metallic crust punk infused grindcore. Much more melodic than I remember the band being on their 2019 split with Noisear. Typically this type of grindcore would not be something that I would normally choose over your standard meat-and-potatoes grindcore, but this album is so well done and sounds so good that grind genus is inconsequential. Not to mention that this album probably has some of the best drumming on this list.

Entrails Massacre/Territion split EP A very solid split between two German grindcore bands. One of which being a grindcore institution since 1990, according to the back of my t-shirt, and the other I heard for the first time on this split. Think of a grindviolence barrage of blistering cardboard box blast beat brutality vs. some very metal very triggered death-grind that is blasting the kick drum on full-auto.

Nurser/Bleachdrinker split EP I really love this split and it was on and off of my top 10 list several times. I seemed to always have my list of favorites derailed by a last minute release and this November drop was right on cue. Nurser's beefy and ballistic death-grind plays Hardy to Bleachdrinker's wiry, powerviolence infused grindcore Laurel. (Google it.) This EP is like a Seattle Tasmanian devil barking at a screeching Swedish Cobra Commander. The only downside about this split is that the vinyl version is only available in Sweden. 

THE ETERNAL MOTHER

 10. Berated/Barren - "Chainsaw Deth Cvlt" split EP

    This split between the Denver grindviolence trio Berated and Belgium's chainsaw distorted Barren was the first release that I made a mental note to add to the "maybe" pile after my review back in June. Basically Berated sound like any band that would come to mind if you were asked to think of your favorite European grindcore bands, only they operate like a middle American grindviolence band. And if you remember the review, you remember that I was absolutely smitten with Berated's vocals. Never have I been so impressed with such range and agility. By far the best part of the split. 

    Barren, once again, bring their patented well produced and heavy blown-out form of grindcore. From their massively talented guitarwork to their rabid tandem vocals and incessant blast beats, they are pure ferociousness. Chainsaw Deth Cvlt is a fitting title for this split given the similarities in the guitar work of both bands and the unabashed fetishism of it. 

Listen: https://grandvomitproductions.bandcamp.com/album/berated-barren-chainsaw-deth-cult

THE MINOTAUR & THE NECROMANCER

9. Barren - "I" LP & Chadhel - "Failure//Downfall" LP

    A tie? A cop-out? Yes. Here's why—for the past month and a half I have simultaneously been listening to these two albums almost exclusively in preparation for the most recent review of Barren's I and the upcoming Chadhel review. Which is ironic because these might be two of the most supportive bands as far as this blog is concerned. These bands have been inexplicably linked in my mind and that was only reinforced here recently. So needless to say, objective bias has gone out the window. I am unsure on where to place them within the list as I am both deeply entrenched and also overindulged with these albums. 

    Barren, on specifically I, really broke into a higher echelon of themselves as a band. With a practically faultless mix and master, they unleashed a menacing and hefty grindcore album that is extremely compelling and a engaging. It is an accomplishment in songwriting as well as a testament to the accelerated rate of growth that a band can have in a year. 

    Very similarly, Chadhel's Failure//Downfall is also a heavier more polished production for the band compared to their back catalog. In addition, Chadhel's style on Failure//Downfall is very reminiscent of a blast heavy Phantom Limb/Book Burner era Pig Destroyer minus the winded vocals and with the inclusion of an actual sense of humor. So imagine dissonant riffs and speedy blast beats. I can't recommend these talented, Lovecraftian gentlemen from Québec enough. Both Barren and Chadhel operate in the darker realms of grindcore—one from the abyss and one from the void. 

Listen: 

https://barrenchainsawgrind.bandcamp.com/album/i 

https://chadhel.bandcamp.com/album/failure-downfall

THE GREAT SERPENT

8. No/Más - "Consume/Deny/Repent" LP

    No/Más is the only band on this list that I've shared a stage with—well, technically a floor behind a bar, but that's besides the point—but from what I witnessed that night and after trading some discussion of mutual riff adoration with the band, I expected big things from this 2022 full-length and I was not disappointed. Consume/Deny/Repent is a cataclysm of scalpel-sharp thrash metal riffs and blast beats wielded with surgical precision through a smattering of hardcore punk blitzes wrapped up into a tight death-grind whip of an album. It's the kind of record that ignites your turntable into a spontaneous circle pit. No/Más are really at their best on this release, both musically and in production. The cleaner and higher mix really allows the musicianship and songwriting to emerge at the forefront. I can see Consume/Deny/Repent having a wide appeal for genre fans within the grind, crust, metal, hardcore and crossover communities.

Listen: https://nomasgrind.bandcamp.com/album/consume-deny-repent

THE STARVED DOG

7. Deliriant Nerve - "Uncontrollable Ascension" EP

    This EP was almost on my top 10 list last year until I realized that it was merely being teased at the start of the year for an eventual February 2022 release. But after a short To Live A Lie Records promotion of what appeared to be a mistitled cassette tape on the label's website, I haven't heard much around this release since. Which is a real shame because this is probably one of the most uniquely and refreshingly composed releases of the year. Uncontrollable Ascension is as brutal as it is dynamic. Songs continuously fall apart and reassemble themselves within a matter of seconds. One moment you're blasting heavy grindcore and the next you're headbanging to the catchiest metal chugs to only find things devolving yet again. Although Deliriant Nerve are from D.C., I get big gulf coast grind vibes off this EP. Think Genocide Pact meets Insect Warfare. Secretly, this is my favorite release and I don't think this title got the hype it deserved nor is it done justice on cassette. Who misplaced the keys to this killdozer? 

Listen: https://deliriantnerve.bandcamp.com/album/uncontrollable-ascension

THE FERAL BEAST

6. Vermin Womb - "Retaliation" LP

    What can I say about Retaliation from Denver's Vermin Womb? This album is a grindcore raw nerve. Retaliation is an exhaustive, dirty troglodyte grind assault. Each side of this LP plays like a bear attack—savage and unwaveringly barbarous. The tempo is relentless throughout the album's almost 20 minute runtime in a way that sounds as if the drummer has cramped up mid blast and has begun flinging his limbs into the kit just to keep up the intensity. The primal and maniacally deranged vocals backed by the frenzied wall of noise results in Retaliation landing as a devastating and torturous masterpiece. Vermin Womb's return as a band this year resulted in utter scorched earth and this album is the definition of caustic. Hands down the best cover art as well.

Listen: https://verminwomb.bandcamp.com/album/retaliation

EL CARNICERO     

5. Trucido - "A Collection Of Self​-​Destruction" CD

    The grind community might recognize Trucido as the latest project of grindcore drumming legend, Bryan Fajardo. Yet through fortunate geographical happenstance, Trucido and the House of Grindcore are both based out of DFW Texas. So I know each member of this band personally and I can confidently say that they are all generously friendly people as well as consummate musicians. Trucido is actually a supergroup of virtuosos made up of veterans from the local Dallas punk and grind scenes. They are the kind of guys that practically live in the practice space. A Collection Of Self​-​Destruction is the band's debut full-length and is exactly what you would expect out of this camp—a wealth of riffs, laser-focused drumming, chameleon-esque vocals, and an extra large cup of blast beats that doth runneth over. This is straight down the middle Texas grindcore. I feel like A Collection Of Self​-​Destruction is a solid jumping off point for the band, but I think the best is yet to come. My only real gripe is that the lackluster cover art might get Trucido overlooked as just another forgettable Bandcamp demo group by people who aren't aware of the prestige that lies within.  

Listen: https://rflrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-collection-of-self-destruction

 

DER DOPPELÄNGER

4. Shitbrains/Controlled Existence split EP

    Like the Berated/Barren split, I knew that this split between Los Angeles' Shitbrains and Czech veterans Controlled Existence was going to be a must for my 2022 top 10 list. I love Shitbrains' ballistic stop-and-go style of backyard grindviolence. The SoCal two-piece specialize in high energy snare abuse and sport a pair of scouring dual vocals. I really enjoy the band's style of drumming with their snare and tom roll combinations and split second breaks. The Shitbrains side of this split is an absolute scorcher that I ironically find crisp and refreshing. 

    Controlled Existence return yet again for another entry into their long tenure of releases with a mature and confident recording of concussive Czech grindcore. And like Shitbrains, Controlled Existence are also playing some off and on grindcore blasts to keep in theme. The band manages to pack in as much savagery and rage into thirty second songs as some of their more prominent European grind contemporaries might in three times that length of time. While Controlled Existence's side consists of six songs in just under four minutes, the band somehow keeps each song fully thought out and individually unique. This split is a perfect example of the universal language of blast beats. 

Listen: https://wisegrindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shitbrains-controlled-existence-split

THE BLACK PRIEST

3. Knoll - "Metempiric" LP

    No surprise here. Knoll returns again in 2022 with another album of corrosive and darkly atmospheric blackened death-grind. Metempiric comes on the heel's of 2021's Interstice and seems like it might be the faster, tighter, sleeker animal. Metempiric highlights the band's standards of searingly shrill vocal torment, strident dissonant riffs over violently abundant blast beat abandon. And just like Interstice, the album was mixed and mastered by the mighty GodCity and Audiosiege Studios. The expertly curated tone makes for a dense and sonically piercing record. In addition to the discordant and ropey guitarwork and boiling blast beats, the band somehow goes down as the only grind band in history to successfully use a trumpet (I said what I said) as a nightmarish tool of ambient noise. If they can turn ending a tour by returning home in the back of a Uhaul into a win, they can sure as hell negotiate a brass horn into the mix. Knoll can seemingly do no wrong.

Listen: https://knollgrind.bandcamp.com/album/metempiric

LE CHAROGNARD

2. Whoresnation - "Dearth" LP

    France's answer to PLF, Whoresnation return with their first full-length since their 2018 masterpiece, Mephitism. And just as then, Dearth is a pressing of grindcore perfection. The album is a moody, metal flecked onslaught of blast superiority. Every song is thunderously heavy and lightening fast. The guitarwork borrows from every subgenre of grindcore and metal—from black metal tremolos to scuzz-metal dive bombs—to create a dense pool of riffs to dredge through. Whoresnation's drumming is pure aural elation. I thoroughly adore the high-speed Jiffy Pop snare sound. The snare rolls on this record give me butterflies. Now, Dearth is a little foggy in production when compared to its sister album, Mephitism, which plays a little cleaner. But that's not to say that Dearth is inferior in the slightest. The mix has a crushing low end that rumbles underneath what is arguably the faster of the two albums. Tracks like "Pajarito" are certainly attention grabbing testaments to all these elements aligning. Dearth is another predictable tour de force of grindcore domination from these elite French blasticians.

Listen: https://whoresnation.bandcamp.com/album/dearth 

THE BERZERKER

1. Triac - "Pure Joy - Numb Grief​-​stricken Animals" LP

    Finally, after six years of silence, the heavily anticipated release of Pure Joy - Numb Grief​-​stricken Animals by Baltimore's notorious Triac arrived in 2022 leaving unadulterated ruination in its wake. I recall that the anticipation of the album was so fervid that the red colored vinyl pressing sold out instantaneously with the black vinyl and CD's soon following. Pure Joy - Numb Grief​-​stricken Animals itself is a feverish melee of psychedelic powerviolence permeated grindcore that explodes on the listener with rabid eagerness. This is an immaculate sounding album. The arrangement of the instruments is clear and harmonious in the mix. Thus allowing for the tactile percussion of each instrument to resonate with vivid intensity. This is crucial for the growling bass and yo-yoing guitar smears, as well as the drum's jittery blast beats and Karen Carpenter-esque fills. Despite featuring a prominent bass guitar, the album isn't necessarily focused on being overtly heavy. Instead, the focus lies on manic speed and bouncy groove. Pure Joy - Numb Grief​-​stricken Animals is a collection of rapid-fire, caveman barked volleys that blast and reload quicker that Val Kilmer in Heat. Legend.

Listen: https://triacgrind.bandcamp.com/album/pure-joy-numb-grief-stricken-animals