Although Dying Fetus have a large role in unleashing the hordes of shitty deathcore bands at the moment, no-one hates 'Slaughter Of The Soul' for what it influenced, so why should this be hated? Dying Fetus' first two suffered from horrific production values, so this was their first album which could really stand on compositional ability alone.
Assück's second and final album is a classic of grindcore - this blends in some death metal influence as well, like Napalm Death did on 'Harmony Corruption'. It also gave Misery Index their name (obviously!).
Carcass' debut, after the 'Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment' demo, is pretty much the genesis and definition of goregrind at once. The production is a little hard to penetrate, but it is a great album from start to finish.
You couldn't be a Brum metal band in the late 80s without having some hardcore punk influence - and Bolt Thrower's shines through heavily here. Especially vocal-wise, this is more a hardcore release than a metal one, although some of the later crushery (pretend that's a word?) is still evident here. Good stuff.
The final part of this 'ere series, and I'm sure most of us are glad to see it finished, myself included (it's a lot more work than most posts). This is based on DM which takes influence from other genres (although this admittedly ended up as mainly grindcore, especially seeing as I already put Atheist in the progressive one).
By now, it seems that nearly the whole world knows what to expect from Wormrot, who, in their past two albums, ‘Abuse’ and ‘Dirge’, have given the world some of the best crusty, deathy grindcore from recent times. It is interesting then, to look at their origins – this is their second EP, released before ‘Abuse’, yet it bears the same hallmark sound, in essence, as that fantastic record.
Naturally, being self-released, the production on this is not quite as pristine as it is on their two full-length albums, yet all instruments are well mixed in, so that no one element dominates the production. At times, however, it does have a little bit too much of a ‘wall of sound’ effect that makes it difficult to discern between individual riffs. This detracts slightly, but not too much – after all, if one were to spend too long complaining about the production values on grindcore classics like ‘Scum’ or ‘Horrified’, one would be quickly assisted by many in rapidly exiting the hall.
Speaking of the riffs, they have the simplicity, yet catchiness, that would come to the fore on ‘Abuse’, and which make Wormrot’s recorded output so popular (compared to their peers, anyhow). The guitars are possibly tuned a little lower than we have come to expect from Wormrot, but that is not a criticism, simply an effect which makes this release individual among their back catalogue. At times, the tone is reminiscent of O.L.D.’s debut full length (‘Old Lady Drivers’), which ought to have grind fans practically frothing at the mouth.
The drums set the frantic pace which means that the whole EP is over in 5 minutes, and alternate between the two standard grindcore beats – the blastbeat, which here has slightly more of the cymbals than normal, and the d-beat, which is used in the slightly slower sections (the key word being ‘slightly’) to add a little more diversity to the music (although at 5 minutes long, I wouldn’t have turned my nose up at a blastathon either), which are accompanied by some nice fills to keep the patterns interesting.
Bass is not easily discernible on its own, but it is quite obvious that it is there (where it is absent on later releases), and fits in very well. From the short bass-only passage in ‘1, 2, 1, 2, 3, Gore!’, we can tell that this job is done capably, and there are no obvious flaws (like unexpected dissonance) in the rest of the work either.
With grindcore, it is not usually appropriate to look for individual songs, and this is the case here – the whole EP simply stands on its own as a cohesive piece of grind art. There are, however, several memorable, and hummable parts which can stay in the mind for days. It is apt, I think, that the release is barely available aside from as a free download from the band’s Myspace, and there is no artwork available online. A truly overlooked piece in the back catalogue (however small it may be) of the Singaporean grind freaks.
Download here.
This is Carcass' best. Although grindfreaks may prefer the filthy feel of 'Reek Of Putrefaction' and melodeath fans will plump for 'Heartwork', this is the best all-round album. Grindcore elements are still present here, but to an even greater extent than 'Symphonies Of Sickness', the focus here is death metal.
Carcass' follow up to the raw and filthy 'Reek Of Putrefaction' still has many grindy elements, although there is far more of a concentration on death metal here. It's more refined, but don't be expecting a Dream Theater album.
This lovely piece of sloppy death/grind is widely considered, along with Terrorizer's World Downfall, as one of the best US, and indeed worldwide grindcore albums. Absolutely essential in every way.
I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed by this. It's not up to the standards of 'Abuse'. That said, it's still a good album, even if it does suffer from a slightly grating vocal style and a little bit of blastathon-syndrome. You will realise as you listen to this that when they go into d-beat mode is when they are most effective.
Wormrot's debut full-length, and I won't hesitate to say that it's by far the best thing they've done. I'm wearing the t-shirt now. Features an interesting cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and beautiful Engrish like 'So Fierce For Fuck!?'.
