(File
under : Pit-fuelling pissed off thrash madness)
http://www.victoryrecords.com Victory Records
(File
under : Extremism in metal at it’s best)
Thank you Victory records, you just make me
know who’s my new favourite band… Between The Buried And Me are ex-members of the
awesome Prayer For Cleansing and prove that they kept the torch high form that
much-missed band. Having no clue what the first CD of the band sounds like, the
surprise I got when I was listening to this record for the first time is
impossible to communicate. I thought this was a new emo band and when I saw on
the press release the comparison to Opeth and Dillinger Escape Plan, I put that
CD on the player and shat on my pants. The aural brutality level is so intense.
Musically they play a very fierce kind of fierce technical death/grind with a
mid-90’s metal-core grove intensified that can make us thinking of these evil
Belgian bands but with a manic technical attitude and this though is doubled by
the fact that their debut CD was released on Lifeforce. Another positive fact
in the band is the use of keyboard everywhere in the songs. Keyboard in
hardcore? Keyboard not like a black metal/goth dumbass but like a mayhem
duplicator. A weird point is the two more space rock songs in the middle of the
album, sounding like recent Cave-In or the Smashing Pumpkin, sounds weird but
not bad. But that’s just an intermission between two slab of brutality. Well I
loved that album and it figure on my favourite list and all my friends were
stunned and all bought the album when it came out. If I say better than
Dillinger Escape Plan will you trust me? And let me let you know that I like
Dillinger Escape Plan. Better because this is more melodic and more insane…
Between The Buried And Me, you’re my fave new band now…
http://www.betweentheburiedandme.com Between The Buried And Me
http://www.victoryrecords.com Victory
Records
(File
under : Harsh fun party punk rock)
http://www.njcatch22.com Catch
22
(Chondritic
Sound; 4 tracks; 3” CDR (limited to 43 copies); 16 minutes 19 seconds)
(File
under : Superior harsh noise for good ears)
Here’s a very fine 3” from Arizona’s wise noise
magician. This release is at first sight very different from all I’ve heard
from him. Consisting of two different parts of two tracks, this is a very short
in time release (turning around sixteen minutes.) The first track is much more
ambient than the rest but yet very direct and high. Like in the second track
the attack is very direct, that mean every noise purist will smile as their
ears will cries. So the first track of the second part is a deep more ambient
song and the second part is also more noisy, so maybe here’s the concept
between the creation of both parts (one called Home and the other called Visitation.)
I guess the project is more and more in a big recognition in the noise world
and this tiny document will keep in the good reputation of the project. As
every other Chondritic release, the presentation is near-perfect, the CDR comes
in a small 3” jewel case and that case is in a slipcase with beautiful
colourful artwork. Another very beautiful cover from the always perfect
Michigan label. Here’s the problem with the release. The record is limited to
43 copies, so act fast or you’ll have to check other releases…
http://noise.sinkhole.net Chondritic Sounds
http://www.catharticprocess.com/ Clew Of Theseus’ own label Cathartic
Process
(Nuclear
Blast, 11 tracks; 35 minutes 11 seconds)
(File
under : look at the bold part of the review…)
I was impatient on the release of this record since the day I catch Misery Index live in Jonquière last may. Since then I was abusing the split with Commit Suicide hopelessly while waiting to get it. And so, as the day I drive this gentle to my CD player, I knew the wait worth. Sincerely, how can you hate a band composed of half of the classic Dying Fetus personnel (maybe my all-time fave death band with Gorguts and Cryptopsy) and if they clearly announced their studies of the classic grindcore catalogue as inspiration (covering classic Disrupt, Terrorizer and Brutal Truth proves it, when do you’ll cover World Eater?) Maybe you’re not in my planet if you don’t want this record… So this is even better than what I expected. Every emotion a violent band can give you is comprised in this little bomb: violent blastbeat, crusty guitar, heavy mosh part, very deep vocals, brilliant musicianship and not dumb lyrics. So the day I got the CD I played it 94365 times and that week the CD played 8754267 times and seems to not showing relenting sings. So this is the metal album of the year, point à la ligne. The only problem is that the label who released it, Nuclear Blast is a dumb bunch of assholes (or maybe that’s just the Canadian distributor) and the CD cost the kind of price that make a lot of people getting it on the net, that’s pretty sad since the presentation is beautiful and that’s a band that worth to be encouraged because they works hard and sounds great. Soi please Nuclear Blast think of your price policy, maybe at least in Canada, since they are very pricey and personally it’s just because it’s Misery Index that I paid 30$can for it, because, I don’t remember the last time I paid for Nuclear Blast releases. But get this one because it’s a fucking awesome band both live and on CD.
http://www.miseryindex.com Misery Index
(I.N.K.
Records, 7 tracks; CDR (limited to 50 copies); 50 minutes 25 seconds)
(File
under : Genuine intelligent noisextravaganza)
This is the very second release of this brilliant noisecrafter from Las Vegas. PCG is maybe one of the most intelligent yet interesting project I heard in my life. Last year’s CDR debut Entombed is in my sight one of the most solid release in 2002 in noise and this one is still at the high quality of the first one. Puking Concrete Gardens plays in the very fierce and violent instalment of analogue noise in a very talented way. I guess every tracks on this one is a small kingdom in his own genre. That’s great to see that the project don’t release the same kind of noise after all release. Sorry if I can’t say more, but I guess you should pick this one at any cost, because the release of this project are not legions and they are nice and this one is great…
http://www.geocities.com/pukingconcretegardens/ Puking
Concrete Gardens
http://inkrecordings.noise433.com/ I.N.K. Recordings
(Victory;
12 tacks (+ multi media part); 38 minutes 48 seconds)
Snapcase in
my sight deserve to be more known. I really don’t know why the didn’t catch the
boat when some years ago bands like At The Drive-In and Refused got the cult
status and this band don’t since they are a killer live band, a very energetic
band and an original band. I always liked the fact that this band carries a
more intellectual approach to their sound and attitude. Nobody can reproach
that to them, they are honest and different. I missed out last year’s End
Transmission since I, well I really don’t know why I didn’t take a listen
to this album… This record is a collection of unreleased track, cover song and
remix. And the first thing that of remarkable is the lack of aesthetical
quality of the artwork in comparison of their other releases. Well maybe because
this is not a full-length album. At first sight I was disappointed because the
first track that is a remix is really bad but the rest is way superior. The
second track got a squary sounds that reminds me a lot of Helmet and life makes
you happy when the third track is a Helmet cover. As tracks goes on and on I
figure that Snapcase is really an underestimated band. The other remix on the
album is a way superior and the Jane’s Addiction is okay too. The compositions
are somewhat more dirty than the old sound but strangely more accessible. And
after making me happy with an Helmet cover (it was about time that this band
was covered and that people affirms their influence of this band) they got me
more with two (yeah two) cover of Devo. Strangely, Snapcase never sounds more
punk than on these cover. Wow! I don’t know if people really want a Snapcase
collection of unreleased, remix and covers, but I may say that this makes me
happy and I put End Transmission on my next records to buy list… There’s
also a multimedia part on the CD with the cover flashing in red, at least
that’s the only thing I saw… So, I put it back on the music player… Go over the
prejudice you got toward that kind of release and the ugly cover and figure out
that this is a pretty awesome record. I guess Snapcase should get the attention
they deserve because they are awesome.
http://www.victoryrecords.com Victory Records
http://www.snapcase.com Snapcase
(Chondritic
Sound; 4 tracks; 3” CDR (limited to 60 copies); 20 minutes 08 seconds)
Texas
people are crazy and every noise project I discover scare me to shit. And can
it be more scary than this release? One thing that makes Steel Hook
Prostheses way interesting as a lot of Texas noise units are is that this is
not just a one man project. That makes the project very productive and they
should scare the shit live too. And this records interested me since it’s on
the always awesome Chondritic Sound and was described as droning
hospital waste soundscrapes, power electronics and death industrial colliding
in a gruesome outlook on perceived sterility and safety of medicine. I’m not
sure but if after that reading you didn’t already order this you’re dumb since
it’s probably out of print now. This small 21 minutes record is a dark journey
through paranoia in an hospital with a dark medical waste scent. Dark drones,
haunting vocals and terrifying white noises. I mean what can you figure a dark
record should be made with? A very great release from a great label and one of
my future plan is to check out more releases from this noise band and there’s a
collab CDR with Goat coming out, so you know now what is one of your next
record to own…
http://noise.sinkhole.net Chondritic Sounds
http://www.geocities.com/steelhookprostheses/
Steel Hook Prostheses
(Indica/Enrage
prod.; 13 tracks; 43 minutes 24 seconds)
(file
under : Political fast moshcore from Northern France)
Tagada Jones is in my sight the most fierce and powerful and direct style form of hardcore to ever come from France (or francophone country in general) within the last years. The fact that they sing in French put them in the zenith in the world of francophone punk, a world that is comprised of very mediocre bands, lousy bands and it is very limited due to the formal temptation of singing in English to get a wider audience. Anyway the original records from TG are more in a direct form of thrash with very harsh screaming vocals and politically oriented lyrics. The last album, Manipulé, saw the band taking a more groovy path. While they kept their sounds very heavy and violent, the tempo ceased to be 100% thrashy while the insertion of second singer Gus maintain a new addition in violence, the groove path make them passed to be a very different band that sounds like a Lofofora (another very awesome groove-metal-core from France) copycats. We’re in 2003 and they are back with another records. My hope was a return to a more direct form of thrash like their early opus, but they kept on the groove path. But first let’s say that they didn’t sounds as the other album (that I really hate) sounds. The sounds is more polished and there’s more intelligent insertion of dual vocals and electronics. The guitar sounds on this sometimes reminds me of that genuine hardcore band Wolfpack (now Wolfbrigade) but still maintains me on the tribal mosh envy. The proof : I catch them recently in my town and yet I was very sad that their new bassist can’t play the older material, I saw myself moshing my infamous spinning moves I never did for years in the pit. Mission réussie, Tagada Jones a récupéré un fan perdu. For non francophone fans (if they have some) the lyrics are more into the actual socio-political activism, ecology, racism, anti-capitalism and corruption. The lyrics are maybe not the best ever written, but sure they are from deep in the heart. That’s maybe the low point I ever saw in Tagada Jones, their lyrics are always around good topics, but I guess they don’t find the right word to say them, but their topics and ideas are intact and very honest. So even though you’re not francophone, try to get this one, listening to another way to do your favourite kind of music won’t kill you… Nice sound, direct grooves and aggression, good topics in the lyrics and very heavy vocals, what more do you need ? Bravo mes amis Bretons.
http://www.tagadajones.com Tagada
Jones
http://www.enrageprod.com Enrage
Production
http://www.indica-records.com Indica
Records