Back in 2023 this young (not so young), innocent (well, pretty corrupted actually) writer had the pleasure of attending Berlin Deathfest—two days of Death Metal, Slam and Grind. For the pummelling rhythms, churning riffs, turbo-charged energy and just gleeful silliness it’s hard to pick a bigger high point than Dutch, Goregrind four-piece Rectal Smegma. Continue reading
In a world full of two-faced people, misleading information and strings attached to practically everything, Goregrind is the breath of fresh air society needs. Simply put: what you see is what you get.Continue reading
Picking up where the previous record Death Atlas left off, Terrasite (Metal Blade), the tenth album from deathgrind legends Cattle Decapitation finds new life evolving from the charred and blackened carcass of the Earth. Emerging from its human cocoon, the titular beastie – much like the band itself – awakens to continue on its path towards total planetary devastation.
Over thirty years ago, England’s own Carcass came to the scene and shared their glorification of grind and gore. The unhinged and manic sound they conjured found an audience and quickly gained popularity, along with their contemporaries Napalm Death and Godflesh. The surge of the extreme had its time in the sun, but after their 10 year hiatus, Carcass came back in a slightly different mood. In 2013, the group took their well-known viciousness and molded it in with more melody on their sixth full-length, Surgical Steel (Nuclear Blast). They married Grindcore and Melodic Death Metal on that record which got a lot of attention and reminded everyone why these guys are such an original act. After seven years, the band is back again with their EP, Despicable (Nuclear Blast). In just four songs, Carcass takes their significant union of sounds and exemplifies them with new levels of pandemonium. Continue reading
Ghost Cult’s Keefy caught up with Death Metal legend Sven “Svencho” De Caulwe of long-running band Aborted recently for an interview. Sven detailed Aborted’s new EP La Grande Mascarade released from Century Media Records on April 17th, 2020. We chatted about the impact of the coronavirus on the music industry, the new EP, the excellent current lineup of the band, how Sven manages his work as a designer outside of the music business, his other side-hustles, how he has been spending some downtime during the quarantine including music, gaming, horror movies, and more. Pre-order the new album La Grande Mascarade here.Continue reading
Carcass didn’t invent death metal, but they helped perfect it. The didn’t ascend to the pantheon of the death and goregrind genres overnight either. Their earlier work, especially their debut Reek of Putrefaction, Symphonies of Sickness, and Tools of The Trade and a few EP’s were all growers. The band had a penchant of shifting genres and styles within songs and albums, owing to their talent, but displeasing some of the more ardent fans. They likely didn’t think about this or even discuss it, just musically going wherever the evil spirits guided at the time. This kept their growing fan base agitated, but interested to see what the band would do next in the burgeoning underground scene. So when Heartwork was unleashed on the world (Earache) in 1993, it seemed like all of these elements coalesced. Continue reading
It’s becoming painfully aware that 2017 is a smashing year for Death Metal. We’ve had an embarrassment of riches in the form of stellar releases from Obituary, Hour of Penance and Suffocation and there’s more coming down the pike from the likes of Dying Fetus, Origin and (gasp) The Faceless. Not to be left out of this guttural gold rush, Chicago’s gore institution Broken Hope have thrown their hat in the ring with Mutilated and Assimilated (Century Media).Continue reading
Three days of the best grindcore and death metal North America will see the rest of 2015 takes place as Obscene Extreme America gets underway from August 20-23 in Montreal, Canada. The fest as released the final line-up and running times. The three clubs that make up the home base for the weekend Trh Bar, Théâtre Telus, and Katacombes. Tickets are available at their website: http://www.obscene-extreme.com/en/tickets
Thursday:
19:00 – 19:25 – Tba
19:40 – 20:05 – Purgatoire
20:20 – 20:50 – Who Cares?
21:05 – 21:35- Obsolete Mankind
21:50 – 22:20 – Homewrecker
22:35 – 23:05 – P.L.F.
23:20 – 00:00 – Putrid File
00:15 – 01:00 – Noisem
Friday:
12:00 – 12:20 – Talk Sick
12:30 – 12:50 – G.O.D.
13:00 – 13:20 – Homolka
13:30 – 13:55 – The Drip
14:05 – 14:30 – Corrupt Leaders
14:40 -15:05 – Soil of Ignorance
15:15 -15:40 – Power Of Cup
15:50 – 16:15- Hard Charger
16:25 – 16:50 – Archagathus
17:00 – 17:30 – Aggression
17:40 – 18:10 – P.L.F.
18:20 – 18:50 – Fuck The Facts
19:00 – 19:40 – Putrid Pile
19:50 – 20:30 – Morpheus Descends
20:40 – 21:25 – Jig-Ai
21:25 – 22:20 – Agathocles
22:30 – 23:30 – Gruesome
23:45 – 00:45 – Schirenc Plays Pungent Stench
00:55 – 01:25 – Abdicate
Saturday
11:00 – 11:20 – Crosstitution
11:30 – 11:50 – Goemagot
12:00 – 12:20 – Biological Monstrosity
12:30 – 12:55 – Mother Brain
13:05 – 13:30 – Putrescence
13:40 – 14:05 – Mesrine
14:15 – 14:40 – Department Of Correction
14:50 – 15:15 – Rumplestiltskin Grinder
15:25 – 15:50 – Full Of Hell
16:00 – 16:30 – Psycho
16:40 – 17:10 – Total Fucking Destruction
17:20 – 17:50 – Soothsayer
18:00 – 18:40 – Inhumate
18:50 – 19:35 – Malignancy
19:45 – 20:30 – Magrudergrind
20:40 – 21:30 – Broken Hope
21:40 – 22:30 – Trap Them
22:45 – 23:35 – Dropdead
23:50 – 00:50 – Immolation
01:00 – 01:30 – Saccage
01:40 – 02:00 – Deche-Charge
Sunday
15:00 – Bbq / Meet & Greet
16:40 – 17:05 – Deboned
17:20 – 17:45 – Holy Cost
18:00 – 18:30 – !!!TENTACLES!!!
18:45 – 19:15 – Napalm Raid
19:30 – 20:00 – Dysentery
20:15 – 21:00 – System Shit
21:15 – 22:00 – Jig-Ai
22:00 – 01:00 – End Metal Dj
Facebook Event for Obscene Extreme North America
Obscene Extreme America on Facebook
Grindcore is not a genre renowned for embracing diversity. Sure, there are degrees of complexity, sub-sub genres (the much reviled Goregrind and unbelievably-somehow-even-worse Pornogrind being tragic examples) and bands who’ve found their own sound, but the basic template laid down by Siege, Deep Wound and the original Napalm Death The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit) is as relevant to the genre now as it ever was.
Which makes Cloud Rat both extremely important and extremely difficult to describe, because their thoughtful, reflective Grind manages to capture musical territory that is both recognisably Grindcore and recognisably different. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how they accomplish this – they slow down quite a lot, but that’s hardly a new thing; sure, they use spoken word sections and Dark Ambient elements, but again Grind’s involvement with Noise is hardly new. It’s more the way these elements are used, not to crush or destroy but to create a sense of distance and space, which is then contrasted with the more genre-conventional violence and blasting to heighten the impact of both. “Contemplative” is not a word you might ever have expected to read in a Grindcore review, but for Cloud Rat it honestly fits.
Their third full-length album (fifth if you count odds-and-sods collection Fever Dreams and Blind River) since 2010, Qliphoth (all Halo of Flies/IFB) is a snapshot of a ferociously dedicated and hardworking band continuing to carve out their own unique sense of what Grindcore can be. It’s a varied collection, its songs as meandering and reflective as my raiding-the-thesaurus-for-words-that-mean-thoughtful would have you expect, while still as savage and devastating as a Grind album should be. Anyone just seeking wall-to-wall blast beats and mosh breakdowns will be disappointed, but it’s not like those are exactly hard to find. Cloud Rat have offered something both more rare and more interesting, and have made themselves genuinely the best new Grindcore band in years in the process.
8.0/10
Cloud Rat on Bandcamp
RICHIE HR
If musical genres could be anthropomorphized as people, goregrind would be the ‘special’ cousin who eats road kill and is a little bit too friendly with local farm animals. The four members of False Pregnancy, four self-confessed idiots with alcohol problems would seem to confirm that those who tune extra low and like to grunt like pigs won’t be joining Mensa anytime soon. Having said that, they sure can have fun, as the seventeen minutes of Dance Your Meat Off!!! (Nailjar Records) emphatically proves.
This is quite frankly one of the dumbest records ever recorded; each song only lasts around 90 seconds and features the same low-end, down-tuned chords, indecipherable pig squeals and grunts and absurd, juvenile song titles such as ‘Soft and Juicy Angelina Jolie’s Pussylips’ and ‘Spermnavigator.’ In case things weren’t stupid and offensive enough they throw in an Anal Cunt cover (‘Flower Shop Guy’) complete with falsetto vocals. If the more PC grind bands heard this they would not be pleased. But you know what, all these flaws work to the band’s advantage, for while the riffs may be generic, they are catchy as hell, the atmosphere is like one big party, and the short song lengths ensure it’s impossible to get bored.
The band clearly aren’t taking anything seriously, as indicated by occasional snippets of folk, Euro trance and Volksmusik, that will have you checking they haven’t entered into some bizarre business deal with Spotify. But the truth is they just want to have fun, and it’s likely that if they get offered a mid-afternoon slot at Obscene Extreme with plenty of stage divers on hand, the scale of their ambition will be met. Like Rotten Sound with a lobotomy, False Pregnancy is a prime example of dumbing down and they couldn’t be more welcome.
7.0/10
JAMES CONWAY