Heil - Demo II (2012)

The term "blackened" is thrown around far too often these days ( God knows, I have used it myself on occasion ) and its applied to pretty much all forms of extreme music to describe the influence of black metal in a bands sound. Usually its pretty far off the mark and applied to any band that uses lo-fi recording and ultra hissy distortion to create their sound.

Heil certainly have that element present in their noisy take on punk. Its a superbly over blown guitar sound and rancid, rasping vocal that make up the majority of this demo. The drums occasionally pick up pace but for the majority of this record work best when banging along at a stomping pace. You know "Nothing Left Inside" by the almighty Black Flag? Well imagine Darkthrone having a crack at that and your pretty close to Heil's sound. Its pretty sweet.

Heil - Demo II

Wives Of Seth - Demo (2003)

Wives Of Seth a.k.a. Ray Reardon Youth. Snooker violence. A short lived blast of noisy, aggro hardcore from Bloody Kev ( Hard To Swallow, Raging Speedhorn, Regimes and far too many others to mention) and various London folk. We played with them at a very drunken, very sweaty gig in 2004 at a Jamaican pub called The Swan. Dancehall playing in one room and a load of sweaty kids smashing up the other room to loud punk rock. It was superb.
Here's the 2003, Sexy beast sampling demo...............

Wives Of Seth - Demo 2003

You can learn all about this band and nearly everything else Kev has been involved in over at his blog Keep It In The Family.

Fuckmorgue - Down Forever (2004)

 Once again. Another Canadian band that went completely under the radar first time around, alongside the awesome Association Area ( that is to come soon). Another band that shows those Cannucks skill at producing quality noise. I mean just look at the list...legends like Crypotopsy, Gorguts, Cursed ( and its own family tree) Grade, Acrid, No Warning, Fucked up.....and so forth. Pure quality. Anyway, I digress.
Fuckmorgue are a lo-fi amalgamation of hints of black metal, crust, hardcore, Gothic rock, punk all overlaid with spooky keyboards and some very desperate sounding female vocals that all adds up to create a really interesting and unusual listen. I couldn't think of any bracket to put them in. Despite the added influence of the crust and black metal on each others worlds Fuckmorgue easily sidestep that. The only way I can describe this is to imagine west coast art rockers get lost and kidnapped in the cold, harsh winter. Forced into slavery and witness to brutality, murder and the futility of life. They escape and make a bid for Canada. Along the way they are forced to eat one of there party and kill animals to survive.........

Fuckmorgue - Down Forever

.....this is what all that would have sounded like. Down forever. on a related note, some of this lot did go onto play in the sweet Kursk and Wolbachia as well. Another couple of bands worth checking out.

Rob Nabbe interview - HSML - S/T (2004)

This one has been sat on my shelf for ages. Just waiting for the right time to be posted. feeling like shit and hungover, this morning seems to be the right time.
I first met Nabbe when my then band played Trashfest in Holland many many years ago, having previously toured with his old band Insult. Spent all weekend hanging out with people, drinking and playing noisy fast music.Nabbe has been responsible for being involved in some pretty sweet bands. Insult, Jason obsessed gore metal with Bile and today's offering.
HSML where a band he followed Insult up with. The album never really got distributed that well, which is a shame because its certainly better than most stuff mining a similar vein in sludgy hardcore.
But who better to explain it all to you than the man himself.......Rob Nabbe, and his thoughts on a few things.....

HSML........

HSML stands for Hot 'n Steamy Monkeylove and started out in the early '00s after the demise of Fastcore pimps Insult. The idea was to create Sludge/Punkmetal influenced by the likes of Iron monkey, Buzzov*en and Entombed amongst others. As a band we never really got picked up since our style wasn't hip or happening at the time. We didn't have the right tattoos, shitty facial piercings, haircuts, dance moves or social skills to fit in with the herd. The fact that our debut LP/CD was poorly distributed and promoted didn't really help either. HSML was heading for the shallow mass grave of obscure and forgotten bands. Sure we played shows with a bunch of well known bands such as Tragedy, Gadget and Cursed amongst others, but whatever. It was painfully obvious the scene wasn't ready for sexy riffs and sexy beasts. To this day I stand behind our record 100% and now that you've uploaded the thing here, all the nerds, wimps and posers can pretend they like us.

Current trends and the lack of any sort of backbone to modern music............

The backbone of modern music is snapped like a twig.
Or was it a spineless worm to begin with? It seems pretty trendy to play weak and lame music that is easy accessible and your girlfriend can mosh to while you hold her purse, Lucy.
There is no substance, no power, no violence. There is nothing good about modern music.

The point of creating/being involved in music.............

The only reason you need to be involved in creating music should be the fact that it's interesting and exciting to yourself and your bandmates. Music aside, it's the drinks, the laughs and the bullshit that makes it worthwhile. As long as you enjoy the music you create, that's all that counts. Who the fuck care's about the internet rumour mill, flavour of the week or how many idiots "like" you on facebook? If I can sit in my car, crank up one of my own records and feel like driving off a fucking cliff out of sheer adrenalin or aggression, that's all that matters.

Current musical highlights..........

My personal musical highlights at the moment involve this project/band I'm doing with a couple of dudes from Ghent, Belgium. The band is called Blind to Faith and is all about malice, violence and distortion. Dwid Hellion (Integrity) picked us up and released our debut LP through his Holy terror records. Recently we've released a split 7" with Gehenna through A389 records and we've only played a few shows so far. We don't wanna play every shithole and will do everything on our own terms for a change. We play whenever we want and that's that. If this means 5, 50 or 500 shows? Time will tell. So far, we've shared the stage with Eyehategod, Voorhees, Geriatric unit and a few others and will be playing with Buzzov*en in April. We're currently in the process of writing a new album and fans of heavy, raw and violent tunes should keep an eye out. Since nerds are to lame to pick up an album or visit a show they can download our debut LP through the Holy terror records website. Google "lazy" or "easy" you cunt.

Friday 13th...........

Daryl Kahan from Citizens arrest played a little part in one of the Friday the 13th movies. I will not spill the beans on which movie it is or if he's getting killed, maimed or mutilated or not.
Bring out the pizza's and beers and good luck.

What stuff you doing musically these days..........

Besides Blind to Faith I'm currently active in Skullhog and Mutank. Skullhog is working on new material that is basically filthy, moronic and utterly barbaric. Like Autopsy and Hellhammer's retard offspring. Mutank is a new Sludge band that focuses on crushing skulls and crumbling buildings and cities through low frequency obliteration. 

Straight from the mouth of the jacket destroying madman himself. This is HSML.............

HSML - S/T

AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO

AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO

Armour Of God - 3 Tracks (2000)

There really isn't much more that can be said that hasn't already about the overwhelming loss of Johnny Morrow back in 2002. You cannot deny the power of Iron Monkey and you would have to be blind to not be aware of its influence still to this day. Armour Of God was a project that involved JPM and his ex-Monkey band mates Jim Rushby and Justin Greaves alongside Sean and Marvin from The Varukers. The best way to describe the sound would be Infest pumped up on steroids while throwing in huge Boston style mosh riffs. Completely untrendy, no frills, aggro hardcore with those vocals raging over the top.
These three tracks saw light of day as a split with 3rd Stone on the Threefold label back in 2000. I have only included the Armour Of God tracks as I don't like the 3rd Stone side. The above picture is courtesy of the jacket destroying madman known as Nabbe.

 Armour Of God - 3 Tracks

As far as I know, these are the only recorded evidence of Armour of God. I have heard things over the years but nothing has ever really come up. If anyone knows different then seriously, swing us a line.

No Comment - Downsided 7" (1992)

The definitive example of west coast hardcore/Slap-A-Ham power violence. I was always aware of the name but only really got round to getting hold of this a couple of years ago. Pretty shonky I know, Considering. I couldn't believe how intense this was and how musically accomplished the whole band was.. You just need to listen to Raul's drumming to understand. Allegedly they used to give him speed before gigs so he could keep up.

No Comment - Downsided

A raging classic.

Hard To Swallow - Protected By The Ejaculation Of Serpents (1998)

Long gone but well missed by folk. Hard To Swallow where responsible for so much influence in UKHC. But only to people who knew about them. I came across this back in 1999 when buying some stuff from the Household Name distro. Got this album and the t-shirt because I heard it was some guys from Iron Monkey. Of course it sounded nothing like Iron Monkey and took me a few weeks of tentative listening before it clicked and I realised how awesome this band was. I listened non stop for months. Absorbing all the ideas and every twist and turn. As you do when young and when you discover something that grabs your interest.
Yes, it is hardcore. Its hardcore that veers towards power violence bug time. But never quite becomes it. HTS was this crazy, mangled beast of twisted riffs, dual screaming and some immense, inventive drumming. 
Basically this album became my constant companion on journeys to work and college and years later I ended up in a band with one of them.
Seriously, I urge anyone with a passing interest in hardcore, grind, power violence whatever to give this album a listen. It comprises of all the various 7" splits and comp tracks they put out as well as 11 new tracks written for this release. 25 tracks in total including some hidden live stuff.

Hard To Swallow - Protected By The Ejaculation Of Serpents

Once again its a mighty list of bands that have spawned from the remnants of this band. I really can't list them all so instead head over to HTS vocalist Bloody Kev's blog Keep It In The Family! He has pretty much everything he has ever done available there as well as links to the HTS family tree.

Triac - Splits Comp ( 2003 - 2005 )

Once again the archives have been raided. This was the haul. Some fine, fine grinding from Baltimore courtesy of Triac.
I came into possession of this CD when my old band toured with Pig Destroyer. They had a merch guy called Blake, who at the time was the vocalist in Triac ( and, coincidently enough now plays in PD doing noise and electronics). We would talk each night, sat behind the merch table while we tried to sell our wares about music and stuff. This usually boiled down to talking about Conan The Barbarian, Mad Max and old Carcass. Blake surprised me one night by handing me this CD and telling me it was his grind band. He had made a small number of them, compromising of tracks from the 7" splits they had with Medic and The Karma Payment Plan, to hand out to folk in the UK. So when I got home it was the first thing I listened to and it blew me away.
Triac are a very dynamic and chaotic take on grind influenced hardcore. I know for a fact the wide ranging influences they pull from and they do manage to fit them all in here somewhere. They swing from frenzied blasting ( check the opening track The Worm That Gnaws ) to slug slow discordance and into thrashin fastcore effortlessly. Turning-on-a-penny dynamics and vocal acrobatics abound. Plus, any band that references Mad Max is fine with me.

Triac - Splits Comp

I do believe they have had some line up changes since this. They followed it up with an album called Dead House Dreaming which is pretty good. Give them a go.

Swarrrm - Nise Kyûseishu Domo (2003)

Digging through the archives the other day i came across this. Having not listened to it for ages it got thrown on the stereo and once again I was immersed in the surreal and chaotic world of Japan's Swarrrm, trust the Japanese to do it.
You see, while they fall under the genre title of grind, they are really left-field within its confines. I first came across them when my old band Narcosis, did a split 7" with them.They only had 2 songs on it but there was no denying there power and scope. This was the next thing I got by them and it further widened my appreciation for these far east nutters.
What other grind band starts a album with a mandolin playing something that sounds like The Godfather theme tune? Then proceeds to use that melody in the same song? Swarrrm that's who. Coupled with some immensely crazy guitar playing and an all over the shop rhythm section you pretty much have the Swarrrm sound. But to top it all off, and this is the best thing about them, is the vocal performance.
They always changed vocalists. It seemed like it was a part of there sound. Every release up until Black Bong had a different vocalist. They had no lyrics either. You get the idea that it was a case of turning up and doing whatever came out. Thus you get insane high pitched squealing and gutteral grunts but delivered with something that could only be described as "melodramatic". It sounds pretty naff on paper but you need to hear this to fully understand the description.

Swarrrm - Nise Kyuseishu Domo

Wolvhammer - Dawn Of The 4th (2010)

YES! Hellhammer worshipping, crusty, Black Metal inspired dirty hardcore played by punks. Wolvhammer have captured my attention with there sound. So so good. Here is there latest recording which they are giving away free. Sorta like Breach if they grew up on Celtic Frost and BM.

Wolvhammer - Dawn Of The 4th

John Holmes - Everything Went Blacker (2003)

Here we have the final recording of the legendary John Holmes. As important to people as Iron monkey where in my opinion, to people that knew them. Maybe without the media popularity, but the various members histories and presence amongst the Northern UK music scene speaks volumes. True fact : The reason Narcosis started pulling faces was as a mick take of JH bassist Gords. It then obviously took on a life of its own after that. But that is where it comes from.
This album is a lot more stripped back than previous effort El Louso Sauvo. It has a more punk rock approach. When it first came out it took me ages to get into it. I didn't think it was any where near as good as previous efforts but I was very wrong. Give it a whirl.

John Holmes - Everything Went Blacker

Since they split in 2006, Dr Gords has been venting in Geriatric Unit and Dale has been busy with Goatspeed who I supsect also feature Bri.

Canvas - S/T (1999)

Long forgotten about except for people in the know at the time. Canvas where the black sheep of UKHC back at the turn of the millennium. Based on Household Name Records ( back before they jettisoned the whole metal/hardcore angle and pursued easier listening avenues) and possessing a sound far harsher and ear shredding than any of there peers, Canvas progressed from the early Unborn, Slayer and Catharsis influenced screeching metalcore to something altogether different. But more of that later.
For now is the first full release they ever did. Released back in 1998, this self-titled release collects together the first 2 years of the bands adventures in recording land. Culled from demos, splits and releases that never got um...released. Its rough in places but I still love this album. Canvas took metallic hardcore and combined that with death metal, black metal, noise and power electronic influences and threw the results onto tape. It didn't always work but when it did it was pretty forceful and gave you a hint at what was to come.

Canvas - S/T

More to come soon.

Filthy filthy Filthpact.

Once upon a time. I was in a band that played quite a lot of gigs and travelled around annoying folk with our racket. We used to play Scotland every so often and one of the best bands we played with while up there was Aberdeen's Filthpact. One time it was a club that was shutting down, Filthpact kindly fed us, put us up for the night and introduced us to the delights of Buckfast. They have split now, but in there short existence they toured Europe and the UK and did quite a few recordings. This is the only one I have. 6 tracks of aggro, crusty hardcore with some little metal touches. Nothing new I know but they did it so well.

Filthpact - The Watering Down of Hardcore EP

A few of the Filthpact boys have been sighted since playing noisy grind in Ablach and Uncalm. Go have a listen and that.