The Ghost Cult album round-up is back in town, for your vulgar delectation…Continue reading
Tag Archives: Housecore
Bill & Phil – Songs of Darkness and Despair
If you find yourself seeking a soundtrack to a belligerent, drug fuelled weekend look no further than Songs of Darkness and Despair (Housecore Records), the new collaboration between the iconic Phil Anselmo and horror movie mainstay Bill Moseley.Continue reading
Audio: Superjoint Releases Sociopathic Herd Delusion From Caught Up In the Gears of Application
The wait is over! Superjoint revealed earlier this year that their new album, Caught Up In the Gears of Application, would be coming to us on November 11th via Housecore Records, and we finally have our first taste of the new material!Continue reading
King Parrot – Dead Set
King Parrot do not fuck around. A quick drum fill, a few stabbed guitar chords of an intro and we are into the full-on no fucks given, no quarter asked nor given, modern crossover thrash violence of minute and a half like opening track ‘Anthem of the Advanced Sinner’, a song with a mid-section chug that recalls the classic head-snap of ‘Raining Blood’.
Mention thrash and people think of a creatively limited genre, mention crossover and people think of retro, mention a combination of the two and we tend to think we’ve heard it before. King Parrot couldn’t give a shit what you think you’ve heard before; born with more than enough middle fingers and ‘tood in fucking truckloads, they parade and stamp jagged anthems like broken glass into your ugly face. This is no quickstep of obvious moves, ‘Need No Saviour’ could be Exodus covering Morbid Angel, before lurching into The Great Southern Trendkill (EastWest) silt and swamp stomp, while ‘Reject’ swills punk around their mouth, before spraying out venom.
Thrash and hardcore are, to this King, to coin a phrase, just the beginning.
Matthew Young spits and tantrums all over the album, like a wound-up “Blitz” Ellsworth having been given a cheeky slap while three sheets to the wind and denied the chance to exact revenge, stomping around destroying the bar while mosh anthem after fight song barrel from the speakers.
Don’t think, though, this is an uneducated rageathon. Dead Set (Housecore) is focused and scripted, Ari White and Andrew Livingstone-Squires ripping choice cuts of classic Death Metal Massacre and Schuldiner riffs and thrashing them up, with Young switching up his yelp with a kidney-punch growl in the grinding menace of ‘Home Is Where The Gutter Is’, while ‘Sick In The Head’ is Bay Area at its most feral meets Sick Of It All.
Ultimately success in this type of arena still relies on songwriting, riffs people want to hear again and an X-Factor of energy and conviction, all of which the Parrot deliver in spades. There is defined Hannemann/King influence in the spiky riffing, but King Parrot bring their own grime to leave their own indelible mark over one of the most refreshing, visceral, unhinged-yet-concentrated and memorable hits from the underground and below this year.
8.5/10
STEVE TOVEY
EyeHateGod – EyeHateGod
It’s hard to believe that it has been 14 long years since New Orleans’ sludge monstrosity Eyehategod last released a record. In that time although they have hardly complete touring nomads but they have certainly not been resting on their laurels, whilst in some way shape or form their name and presence has always been on peoples’ radar.
The time between albums has been very turbulent to say the least; with tales of addiction, natural disaster at the hands of Hurricane Katrina and even personal loss with drummer Joey LaCaze’s death. No wonder then that this self-titled album (Housecore/Century Media) sounds so pissed off. Front man Mike IX Williams especially sounds almost rejuvenated with rage and an energy that just about surpasses anything he has previously recorded.
Eyehategod were never going to completely shift their sound and the self-titled firmly continues with their trademark hardcore sludge style on a foundation of bone shattering riffs and punk pace and fury. The production sounds huge and gives these songs a lot more bite without taking away that raw vibe that the band have become stalwarts for.
It has been such a long time away from the studio and with a lot of roadblocks and tribulations in their way, but there should never have been any doubt on how this one turned out. Eyehategod continue to age like a good whiskey, seeming to improve as time goes by, but by no means losing their sting.
9/10
CHRIS TIPPELL