Wretch- The Senseless Violence EP

"To love a murderer. To love to commit a crime in cahoots with the young half-breed pictured on the cover of the torn book. I want to sing murder, for I love murderers. To sing it plainly. Without pretending, for example, that I want to be redeemed through it, though I do yearn for redemption. I would like to kill." - Jean Genet, Our Lady of the Flowers (1943)

Grindcore does not mean the same thing to everyone. When meeting new people, in the real world or online, a discussion of taste expected to yield a high degree of common ground can quickly find you at angles with your discussion partner on what grindcore should sound like, what makes it great, and even what it fundamentally is and is not. This shouldn't suggest a clear one-up, one-down, right-or-wrong situation; rather, it’s a question of experiential data, and, like more aspects of music than most critics care to admit, largely a matter of personal tastes.

Take this Wretch EP, for example.

Fundamentally, it scans as some amalgam of death metal and grindcore. However, someone with a more or less exclusive interest in high-speed grindcore could have a tendency to read it as death metal or goregrind, while a metal fan with a casual interest in Pig Destroyer and Nasum might find it exactly in keeping with their definition of grindcore.

The death metal and grindcore signifiers in Wretch’s sound share a fairly equal amount of weight in their vocals. Their pitch is for the most part binary and split between low and high patterns. Low vocals are a guts deep (but not pitch-shifted) marriage of death metal’s growl and gore music’s gurgle, while the highs are spat out in a raw, violent manner that values emotion over sheer height (vocalists: to translate that criticspeak, “emotion” means that it’s going to hurt—a lot).

Lyrics on The Senseless Violence EP haunt classically gore territory, with hatred, violence and grotesquery dominating the subject matter. The taboo and disturbing are common fodder here, and songs like “(Dis)located,” with its focus on sexual violence, might warn off some potential listeners outright.

Guitar tone and recording fidelity both rest around the midpoint between 80s extreme music demo-trading and the height of major label metal in the 90s. Mid-fast death metal is roughly the band’s cruising speed, and blasting grindcore serves as a counterpoint to that principal tendency.

The first of 6 gore-soaked tracks, “Purveyors of Senseless Violence” splits open the EP in fitting fashion. A sample from Australian Nazi skinhead flick Romper Stomper sets a violent tone that is matched deftly by a fast, metallic intro riff, the call of which the rest of the instruments rush to answer. An energy builds around their playing for a few seconds until Joel, the band’s vocalist, brings that energy to a head in a long, hate-filled high scream that serves as one of the track’s high water marks. The rest of the song rolls along at a deathgrind churn, and later sections lock into some especially head-nodding death metal grooves.

Death-thrash grinder “Shit Shovel” performs some gut-level satisfying maneuvers and is one of the faster numbers on The Senseless Violence EP. It’s a track with the most chocolate-and-peanut-butter moments of any found here, and a good one to play to a mixed room of death fans and grinders. With both an intro that recalls a schlock-horror foggy graveyard and an energetic later half, it’s a pretty good example of where the band’s interests extend musically.

The material’s overall metallic proclivity means that, as expected, Wretch is stocked with a talented cast of players. However, talent without savvy editing can lead to flaws in song structure, as found most notably on “Gorging.” A destructive drum fill transitions into a tasty groove that buoys the song, until that groove becomes mired in an errant breakdown that sees the song slowly collapse onto itself, dissolving into a disoriented pause/count-off that briefly restores order before an unfocused dual guitar exercise leads the song to a somewhat puzzling, abrupt end.

Wretch will especially appeal to the listener who identifies first as a metal fan and a grindcore fan second. Fans who tend to be hardline toward either metal or grindcore might tend to focus more on the musical notions that they’re unfamiliar with than the ones with which they are, but someone whose graph meets somewhere in the middle of that continuum will be right at home here.

You can purchase/download The Senseless Violence EP from Wretch’s Bandcamp page, either as a name-your-price download or as a physical cd.

[Note: The band sent me a digital copy for review.]

Blast Eats: Rape Revenge Vegan Fudge

Samantha, vocalist of the powerviolent Canadian feminists in Rape Revenge, brings us the sort of vegan treat that even the most snobbish carnivore can't deny: good, old-fashioned fudge. No matter your diet or culinary philosphy, blast Rape Revenge's newest 7" Paper Cage, whip up a batch of this goodness, and while it's cooling, destroy something oppressive in your neighborhood. (And don't forget to respect those around you). Then dig in.

My favorite recipe is for vegan fudge, it goes like this:

1 cup peanut butter (or any other nut butter, almond works well too)

1/2 C Carob powder or chips

3/4 C Cocoa powder

2 C Agave Nectar

1/3 C non-dairy milk (almond is awesome)

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Combine everything in a pot on the stove over low/medium heat, stirring regularly.  Once it thickens, remove from heat and put in greased pan and throw in the freezer.  Let cool for an hour or more.

Syntax- Syntax 2012

I never know how to feel when listening to a new band’s demo material. It’s not the fact that demos are never perfect; demos are cool for what they promise as much as what they deliver. My reservation toward demos lies exactly in that promise. Just like I’m never sure if a band I love is going to follow up on a great LP, I’m never sure if a demo band I like will make it to one decent LP before they break up or change so drastically that I’ll wish that they had.

California's Syntax is the perfect band to speak on this occurrence about. Their Demo from 2009 was quite promising, if derivative of Discordance Axis, and the fact that I liked it worried me as much as it excited me, for fear that whatever they filled in the blanks with once they discarded their grind hero worship would make me wish that they’d just remade The Inalienable Dreamless.

Syntax’s 2012 material is feedback-scarred, destructive stuff, and a definite step up from the 2009 Demo. Gone is the overwhelmingly Discordance Axis-lite aesthetic, along with the thin, clean guitar tone and the Damage Digital trashcan drums of the first outing. In its place is a looser, more mature set of songs that pack a lot of noise while still retaining the angular, tech-flecked style that made them an exciting find a year ago. This Syntax has more in common at first glance with a band like Cellgraft than Discordance Axis or Assück, and as back-handed as that sounds from a pedigree standpoint, it’s meant as high praise.

The science fiction aesthetic of the demo is still present, though this record  trades the thin, cerebral quality of something like Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot for a dirty, intense and visceral tone reminiscent of Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon or William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

From a vocals standpoint, it’s hard for me to not love this band. Vocalist David’s main approach is a high, gasping shriek that sounds like he’s putting every ounce of himself into the performance. That trick is hardly the only one at his disposal, however, and this release finds David hitting gut-churning lows more often and deeper than found on the last one.

Never is the sonic shift from 2009’s Demo to Syntax 2012 more noticeable than in the opening of first track “To Forget.” The shrill feedback and bashing drums of this song are firmly grounded in earthly pursuits, and the airiness of the early demo is barely a distant memory. “To Forget” is an immediate, snarling cocktail that shouts “This the new shit!” at you like an ad-lib on a rap single and then blasts into the ether.                                                                                                                                               

A slow, emotive, eyes-downcast riff floats through the feedback that opens “Glitch,” gaining intensity until it chugs itself into full-fledged blasting halfway through. The guitar and drums toy with several riffs, stop-starts and tempos over its run, a technique that assures that the song stays exciting while never getting tangled in the convoluted vines of math metal.

“Shape Shifter,” the definite “single” if grindcore had or needed such a thing, resurrects the Discordance Axis staple of half-time riffs over blasting drum patterns. Guitars stab and flail around seismic, rolling drums, screams emerging from every direction; the three players ride shifting cyclical patterns around one another, three interlocking cogs in the same grinding piece of machinery. Some moments find them perfectly at pace with one another, while others find them at angles with each other in ways that only seem asynchronous until you look at them twice.

This is the sound of a band coming into its own. It’s the point where you can stop saying, “This is really cool because it sounds like:” and start saying, “This is really cool.” Now is the time to start hoping for a Syntax LP, because the band that I’m hearing on Syntax 2012 has the chops and direction to actually pull one off.


You can download Syntax 2012 from Grindcore Karaoke. You can also find the 2009 Demo there in a version that's oddly missing two tracks, or grab the full version from Karlo at Cephalochromoscope.

Blast Eats: The Oily Menace TEN FUCKING SKULLS Hot Sauce

The Oily Menace's Kevin has kindly offered this weapons-grade habanero-based hot sauce recipe for your tastebud-eradicating pleasure, along with what is bar-none the funniest recipe I've received thus far. Even if you're a complete wimp and don't eat anything "spicier than ketchup" (I actually have a friend who defines her spice limit this exact way), read this recipe, because it rules. Also, please note: If you're preparing this recipe, DON'T FORGET A PAIR OF GLOVES. Never underestimate the habanero's power to permeate EVERY ORIFICE IN YOUR BODY.

Hardware:  Blender, pot or pan.

Software:

1-10 habaneros, depending on heat level (1 pepper for ONE FUCKING

SKULL, ten peppers for TEN FUCKING SKULLS). Stems removed and cut in half.  Leave the meat inside the pepper, it's got a lot of flavor that only posers throw away.  These are the same people who wave a 7a drumstick over a snare to dust it off and call that a blast beat. Sorry, even Rich Hoak can’t get away with that any more.

Cumin seeds (anywhere from 1 tsp to infinity, but start small).

Hopefully raw because we want to toast these.  If you’re using ground

cumin, consider getting  a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle

because fresh seeds are cheaper and have a lot more flavor.  Anyway,

start at ½ tsp with ground.

1 medium onion, chopped.  I like a red onion, but some may prefer a

large shallot.

1-2 stalks of celery, chopped.

1-1½  cups of carrots, ripped to shreds.  More carrots for a slightly

sweeter result

A whole head of real garlic.  Hard neck garlic.  Real garlic from the

farmer’s market that has some purple or red on it.  Strong garlic.

Garlic that doesn’t use triggers.  Peel ‘em all and coarsely chop.

Juice of 3 small or 2 medium limes.  You can roll the limes under the

palm of your hand before you cut them to soften them up.  It's okay if

some lime pulp gets into the recipe too.

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.  White vinegar is NOT THE SAME,

just like the reformed Terrorizer.

One tablespoon of salt.  This is a lot of salt for this sauce, so you

don’t have to use it all, but don’t use more than this.

Oil, about a tablespoon

Water, about 3 cups.

Start with a dry pot or pan that is big enough to hold everything.

Turn the heat up to med-high and once the pan is hot drop the cumin

seeds in.  As soon as one or two of them pop, or you smell them

toasting then turn off the heat, and dump them into your grinder or

mortar…and grind. They should be done toasting by the time you get

through the long version of Metal Attitude Sucks by Larm, or

Starvation by Siege.  If you’re using powered cumin skip this

altogether but you should still listen to Larm.

Next place a small amount of oil in the pan, return to medium heat.

Once the oil is hot place in the onions, celery, and carrots.  Do you

know what a sweat is?  You probably do after this insanely hot summer

we have had, but in this case it means to soften the vegetables and

concentrate flavor.  Do this with a pinch of the salt to help draw out

moisture.  Kitchen veterans might note that is a mirepoix, but with a

bit less celery.  This will take longer than the Thin Lizzy song Cold

Sweat, but should be done in a Whiskey in the Jar, or a Remembering pt 2.  If it starts to brown, it's too hot.

Next add the habaneros and ½ of the garlic.  If you happen to have

started Defeatist’s last LP when you added the peppers, they will

probably be done somewhere near the start of Choking the Light, or

Lament.  If you don’t have that LP…get it.

http://defeatist.bandcamp.com/album/tyranny-of-decay

Okay, let's blend.  Put the lime juice, vinegar, and remaining raw

garlic in the blender and spin ‘til it's smooth.  Then add the hot

stuff and blend ‘til it's super smooth.  If you need to learn about

smooth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkizL1oyYQc

Once the sauce is thick and smooth, you can thin it out to the desired consistency with some water.  I usually add about a cup, but some people want a much thinner sauce.  This will only thicken a small

amount when cooled.

Add salt to taste, and bottle!  If you use a canning jar it's usually hot enough to make a seal.  Once opened it keeps for about a month.

Acid Shark- Bombs Away Demo 2012

Genre conventions are a funny animal. We, as music fans, will at one time or another all complain (to anyone willing to listen) about the strictures of genre and how its stifles creativity. Yet skew one element in a way we’re not expecting, and we balk instantly.

Enter my introduction to Acid Shark. Drummer Lee sent me the standard e-mail asking if I’d like to review the record, along with the equally standard links to some contextual info. After browsing their bio and finding a comfortingly familiar blend that included Repulsion, Terrorizer, 324 and Napalm Death, I mentally agreed, deciding to hit YouTube before answering back only to make sure that they weren’t some cleverly camouflaged bedroom e-grind band.

I decided upon one of the three demo tracks (“Anger,” I believe), and the instrumental racket that first met my ears was of a similarly familiar and comforting nature. Around 30 seconds into the track, I was prepared to find some variation on a screamed vocal. However, rather than this genre standard, I met with something quite different.

Acid Shark’s vocals take the form of a shout-speak snarl so well-enunciated that practically all of the lyrics are discernible without reading them.  While this approach would sound common enough on a crust-punk record, its presence on something touted as grindcore was enough to give me pause before responding to Lee in the affirmative.

Some reference for former vocalist Matteo’s surprisingly clear bark can be found in 324’s Masao, an obvious influence. Other similarities can be found in Mick Harris’ vocals for Unseen Terror, minus the blurring speed-rap delivery found on some UT material. Still, even compared to these, the degree of clarity in the vocals is arresting; Matteo lacks the gruffness of Masao or the aforementioned speed of Mick Harris, so when lyrics fall flat, as the average grindcore lyrics are wont to do, that fact becomes painfully clear to all but the most unobservant listeners.

Firmly anchored in the old school, Acid Shark’s guitar work recalls the consummation of the 80's teenage gropings between punk and metal that would eventually beget grindcore.  The band packs tone and riffage so middle-grounded between the two that I had to scrap a potential lead for this paragraph because I simply couldn’t choose which genre signifier to pin on it. Their grind stays militantly planted in the linearity of something like Terrorizer’s World Downfall; out of the many early grind touchstones that inspired the songs on this demo, I can say with a degree of certainty that Sore Throat’s Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid and Unhindered by Talent probably aren’t two that feature prominently.

Title track “Bombs Away” opens the set, and while it’s the shortest to be found here at 1:37, it doesn’t bring the blistering speed expected in most shortest-song grind tracks. Instead, it introduces another unexpected twist along with Acid Shark’s grindcore: choruses. While all three tracks follow a verse/chorus structure, “Bombs Away” (with its chorus consisting only of the words “Bombs away!” repeated six times) comes up short on ideas (if long on energy) and winds up a bit repetitive.

“Anger,” the 3^rd and final track on the demo, comes off as the most successful cut of the bunch. The track opens with a headbanging, old-school groove that it rides until a half-second jolt of silence ushers Matteo in. At that moment, the whole band surges forward, the vocals taking on a thrash-indebted urgency  thanks to the song’s longer line structures and wordier (in a good way) lyrics. Besides containing some of the demo’s fastest playing, the song also contains its most complex chorus, meaning that you don’t mind hearing it repeated 3 times. This is the song to hope future AS efforts sound like, and it’s the best indication that they’ve got something exciting to offer on their next releases.

Convention will probably keep most fans of modern grind at arm’s length, but crust-lovers and open-minded modernists will discover a skillfully-delivered demo outing that forecasts good things if the band continues to refine the blueprint laid out on these tracks.

The Bombs Away Demo 2012 is available here for download and streaming.

As touched upon within the review, vocalist Matteo has split amicably with the band, and they are currently seeking a replacement.  Any interested parties can record a demo over this karaoke version of “Anger” and send it to band@acidshark.co.uk for consideration. It's probably a good idea to be in the UK if you actually want to be considered, but either way, send 'em a demo, 'cause extreme music karaoke rules.

While Delaware isn’t anywhere close to being in the UK, I couldn’t resist recording my own vocal demo, so if you’d like, check it out here. 

[Note: The band sent me a digital copy for review.]

Blast Eats: thedowngoing Nachos

This is the first post I'm writing from my new apartment in Delaware, so I hope that there won't be too much lag between this post and the next one. The Aussie grinders in thedowngoing just released their newest full length ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS last month, and it turns out that grind isn't the only thing that they do extreme. Drummer Muzz (who Mathias tells me is a huge fan of insane food shows like Man v. Food and Epic Meal Time) brings us a killer plate of nachos perfect for your next party (or to dare your friends to finish in one sitting).

Muzz Makes Nachos

Ingredients: Ground Beef/Mince meat ~500g =$5

             Mozzarella cheese (shredded) ~500g =$5

             Seasoning mix ~30g =$1

             Corn chips ~200g =$3

             Sour cream ~300ml =$2

             1 Spanish/red onion

             1 Capsicum/pepper

             1 shallot/spring onion =$2

Nachos are the undisputed champions of taste. If you do this right it will offer you a temporary state of contentment which is all too rare to find these days. First get ~$20 and go shopping (Sydney prices here, I assume its cheaper everywhere else) There's potential to feed an army so either go all out (party)or save some leftovers. Cook up the meat, and season in a fry pan, Add some Tabasco? for spice. Get a baking dish (or 2) and stack Corn chips, then meat, then cheese. 2 layers is optimal. Cook that shit in the oven, should take about 15 min. While this is happening dice up the veggies into a pile. Pull out your Nachos when golden, top with chopped veggies and sour cream.

So that's pretty much it. I recommend consumption while listening to thedowngoing's new CD ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS, and your favourite bottle of beer or cola. Respect each other and enjoy.

Blast Eats: Wretch Slow Roast Pork Belly with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

I knew I'd find people in bands that loved to cook as much I do when I started this feature. I just wasn't prepared for how good they'd be at it. For this installment, Duncan from Australia's Wretch brings us this wretchedly fantastic-sounding recipe for roasted pork belly that I'm dying to give a go as soon as I can scrape up the cash. (Also—truffle oil in scrambled eggs? I might shell out the arm and a leg for truffle oil too, just so I can test-drive that concept for myself.) 

You’ll need:

·         Pork belly (I’ve been using pieces around ½ kilo – 1 kilo in size, but it’s easy to adjust cooking times to suit)

·         Mushrooms (a cup or two)

·         Truffle oil (not strictly necessary, but is completely awesome if you can get it –a splash in scrambled eggs is fucking fantastic)

·         Garlic (a clove or two of the fresh stuff, or some of that minced stuff in jar)

·         Cream

·         Butter, one knob (tee hee)

·         Olive oil

·         Salt

·         Sage (ground)

Cooking the pork belly

Preheat your oven to 240° Celsius (which is 460° Farenheit or about 513 Kelvin).

Using a sharp knife score the pork belly skin and fat in a crisscross pattern (lines an inch or two apart).

Dry the skin with paper towel or a tea towel, and rub olive oil (about half a cup) and salt (a couple of tablespoons) into the skin. This makes the crackling awesome.

Put the pork belly skin-side up in a roasting pan (if you have one, put the meat on a roasting rack and put a cup or two of water in the bottom of the pan to keep the meat moist; this isn’t necessary, but it’s a nice touch).

Cook at this temperature (240° Celsius / 460° Farenheit) for 15 minutes. This high heat gets the crackling started nicely before we turn down the temperature to slow-cook the meat and render the fat.

Turn down the heat on the over to 160° Celsius (320° Farenheit) and cook for one hour. If you have a larger piece of pork belly, adjust the cooking time to suit. I’d cook 2 kg of pork belly for 2½ – 3 hours. The cooking temperature is very low, so you can afford to be imprecise and not worry about ruining the meat too much.

Take the meat out of the pan and fry it skin-side down on a high-heat BBQ, griddle or frypan with a good thick coating of olive oil until the crackling is good and crispy (takes about 10 minutes – if the crackling starts burning, turn down the heat a bit).

Allow the meat to rest while you cook the sauce.

Cooking the sauce

Heat up a saucepan (medium-high heat) and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Fry up a cup or two of mushrooms (sliced thick or thin, whatever you prefer) along with some garlic (a clove or two of the fresh stuff, or a teaspoon or so of the minced stuff that comes in a jar) and add a few tablespoons of water if the pan starts getting too dry.

When the mushrooms are cooked, turn the heat to low and chuck in a teaspoon or two of ground sage, a knob of butter (about a tablespoon), a good splash of cream, and (if you have it) a dash of truffle oil. If you don’t have truffle oil and want to give the sauce a bit of zing, you can use a teaspoon or two of mustard.

Cook the sauce down a bit (you can thicken it quickly by mixing a teaspoon of plain flour with a small amount of water and gradually adding this to sauce) before serving.

Best served with roast potatoes, a stack of vegetables, beer and wine … then some scotch, maybe a scoob.