Link

Radio New Zealand recently aired a show called “South of Heaven” detailing the history of extreme metal in this country from it’s germination in the late 1980s through to the current day. Co-ordinated by Craig Hayes, a notable New Zealand music writer and metal aficionado, the show draws from interviews with many scene luminaries who discuss the way the scene was established, particularly with its isolated state in the pre-internet era to the present where many of our underground metal acts are beginning to gain international acclaim by the global metal underground. Expect to see a range of extreme metal sounds covered from death metal to doom and New Zealand metal notables like Demoniac, Vassafor, Malevolence, Sinistrous Diabolus, Diocletian, Skuldom, Forced to Submit, Dawn of Azazel, Ulcerate, Exordium Mors and plenty others. Link for the show and a few other interviews conducted for it at the bottom, check it out and feel the antipodean aural assault.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/south-of-heaven

Video: Removalist “Leader”

Removalist are a five-piece hardcore punk band based in Melbourne, Australia featuring ex-pat NZ members who were in bands such as God Complex and Entrails. Removalist play a darker-brand of hardcore, utilizing dissonant riffs, thick guitar tone and the like which may draw comparisons with Cursed and their ’00s dark hardcore ilk. Here’s a video for their song “Leader”. Get amongst it.

Ringworm- Hammer of the Witch

Thanks to the deluge of shit commercial bands, more concerned with cranking out by-the-numbers generic breakdowns and sickly, saccharine melodies than Slayer-worship instrumentation, metalcore has become a dirty word as of late. Luckily genre progenitors like Ringworm are around to remind us it needn’t be returning with Hammer of the Witch, an album which shows that 20 years into their career, Cleveland’s prodigal songs aren’t about to rein in their sonic marauding.

Hammer of the Witch reinstates their renowned ferocity which went somewhat amiss on predecessor Scars, which while still a good listen, blunted Ringworm’s intensity and was the closest the band will come to a misstep. True to the namesake, this album comes down on the listener like a swift hammer blow to the skull, using the tried and true formula of modern hardcore-indebted grooves married with the scathing attack of extreme metal. Vocalist, Human Furnace, continues to be living proof that years of bourbon, cigarettes and relentless touring haven’t been to the detriment of his throat (in fact quite the opposite) with a voice sounding like the Furnace is caught simultaneously between a flagellation and an exorcism, spitting vitriolic, venom-laced lines like “Razor line, you feel the cold divide/Battle cry, open the devil’s eye.” Always at the forefront of the band’s signature sound, the guitars assault with all the exactness of a surgical incision, with more lacerating solos than you can shake a blade at.”King of Blood” harkens back to the halcyon days of early ’90s death metal with riffage which could have come straight out of the Florida swamps which birthed Altars of Madness. The rhythm section is equally as lethal with drumming which is precise yet bludgeoning and deep, striding bass lines on “Bleed” and “Leave Your Skin at the Door.” It’s not all denim-donning, headbanging appreciation though with the band showing why they are still favourites for basketball singlet-wearing kids the world over with tunes such as “Die Like a Pig” which at times recalls Cleveland peers and legendary hardcore band, In Cold Blood. The mixing and mastering is refined yet with enough low-end crunch that it doesn’t contrive the rawness of the product, a problem which so many bands these days suffer from.

Taken from brooklynvegan.com

Perhaps the one shortcoming of the record is that it hardly reinvents the Ringworm wheel, with the band treading the same well-worn path they have for years (“One of Us is Going to Have to Die” sounds suspiciously like “The Cage” off of The Venomous Grand Design). But in all honesty, who really gives a fuck? Where so many bands dive off the deep-end into wanky pretension and misinformed experimentation, Ringworm stay true to a sound which doesn’t show any sign of running out of steam anytime soon. It worked for Motorhead, Ramones and Slayer (to a certain degree) so really it’s a non-issue for a band of this consistent calibre. In fact in comparison to past albums like Justice Replaced by Revenge and Venomous Grand Design I probably rate it the highest out of Ringworm’s output in the last 15 years or so, a complete powerhouse of an album sure to be a favourite for everyone this year.

Stick Hammer of the Witch in your earhole and feel the ‘worm writhe inside of you.

New Eyehategod song “Agitation! Propaganda!”

Louisiana’s greatest scumbag sludge metal group are back ready to drop a new album in 2014, their first full-length since 2000’s “Confederacy of Ruined Lives” and have released the first sneak peak of it with new song, “Agitation! Propaganda!” The years have done nothing to blunt EHG’s appeal with this song sounding as dirty and raw as a piece of smegma scraped off the tip of Mike Williams’ dick. In Eyehategod we trust.

Interview: Dom Romeo from A389 Records

Anyone who knows anything about (good) current, underground extreme music will know that A389 Records have been cranking out some of the most blisteringly good releases as of late. With so much of the contemporary metal and hardcore landscape awash with shit generic bands, A389 takes everything loud, fast, heavy and dark back to it’s raw, subterranean roots, boasting a roster which includes everything from adolescent headbangers Noisem to metallic hardcore stalwarts Integrity. Spurred on by founder and self-professed music nerd, Dom Romeo, the label has been producing quality records for the last ten years now. I had the honour of having a wee talk with Dom about such pressing matters as what he puts into running A389, the recent A389 Bash and his personal preference for posthumous partying…

So when did A389 Records start up and how did the idea for it come about? Did you have a singular vision of what ‘sound’ you wanted the label to have at first?

Not really, it first started as a vehicle to help my friends who were in bands that couldn’t really tour because of life responsibilities. Awesome hardcore bands like Everyday Dollars or Bring It On comprised of older dudes that had real jobs/families etc. Starting out I was interested in various styles of punk/hardcore but it wasn’t long before metal/ neofolk/shoegaze/whatever you can think of entered the fold. Good music is good music.

You just finished up with the A389 Bash which was a huge event. What was the organization process you followed for it? What sort of time frame did you give yourself to sort it all out?

I usually start out rolling ideas as soon as the bash is over. I’m actually on the fence on whether or not I’ll do another one since that was so perfect. But yeah now’s the time of year I start rounding up ideas. It’s pretty much the same formula every year: bands on the label, a couple must-see bands I’ve never booked, and dudes I’m friends with that I wanna hang with all weekend. That’s why you see a lot of the same bands play every year and a lot of the same people attending. It’s a great excuse for all of us to spend time together once a year now that everyone is older and free time becomes more and more sparse. By late summer it’s usually booked/locked down.

Dom getting air at the Bash. Taken from the A389 Facebook page.

The Bash had a huge lineup with all the best hardcore punk/metal has to offer right now with everything from Power Trip to Infest. What were your personal highlights of it?

Every single set was perfect. Getting to see Bloodlet for the first time in almost 20 years was pretty amazing for me. And seeing the ‘Systems Overload’ lineup of Integ was a dream come true. It was total Disney. Old friendships rekindled and the music sounding better than it ever has. I’m glad people witnessed a proper Haymaker set. And Full Of Hell / Noisem are the future lords of A389. I can seriously list every band that played. Not a single weak set.

You took the monumental task of reforming Systems Overload era Integrity. Within your own ability, what other bands would be on your hitlist to do a reunion show?

Only band I’d care to resurrect is Deadguy. Other than that I’m happy there are so many current bands both new and old that are still in this for the right reasons and making good music to back it up. I dream of having Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and Body Count play someday…or Lip Cream.

Taken from New Noise magazine.

Obviously times are hard for record labels these days, let alone one specialising in hardcore/metal. What have been some obstacles with setting up the label?

I’d say having to cater to a whole new generation of people I have trouble relating to is the biggest obstacle. When I was growing up people had a different attitude and work ethic towards getting stuff done. If bands if we wanted to tour we had to get jobs/pitch in money and buy a van. Ditto for merch and pressing our music. Nowadays the bar is set so low and people just set up a donation website and ask for handouts. People just steal/redistribute music online instead of paying for it and giving bands/labels the chance to recoup their money and create more records. Respect is out the window and disrespect is the new standard. It’s a lame way to exist. Thankfully not everyone falls into this category and the underground still continues to thrive. However I think we need more people and bands setting a good example. Work hard. Play hard. Love/Hate who and what you want but at the end of the day treat people how you want to be treated. Geez I officially sound like a grumpy old dad. I guess I may as well embrace my destiny.

You’ve been a part of some pretty fucking great hardcore bands (Pulling Teeth, Slumlords) in the past. Is there a musical project you’re currently working on again?

Thanks for the compliment. No bands at the moment, I did a stint in ILSA recently for a while but having kids, a day job and the label doesn’t leave time for much else. Hopefully someday. I miss playing.

Name 5 albums you think everyone should own.

The Beatles White Album
KISS Alive II
Integrity Systems Overload
Ringworm The Promise
Black Sabbath Master Of Reality
and Slayer Reign In Blood.
Sorry needed to make it six.

Who would you rather party with- Jeff Hanneman or Chuck Schuldiner?

Probably neither. I don’t like meeting people in bands I look up to.
Give me Tony W. Hare and a six pack any day.

Finally, What’s some bands you think are worth looking out for in 2014?

Any of the bands on A389. Even the ones that graduated to Relapse Records…
Other than our bands the only new record coming out I really care
about is Eyehategod.

Johnny and the Felcher’s “Cobblestone Killer” NEW VIDEO

Check out the new video for one of Wellington’s finest current exports, Johnny and the Felchers. The band play a brand of early ’80s-hardcore punk in the vein of Circle Jerks, Fear and JFA and this song sees them delving into the darker, brooding recesses of this style. Be sure to check them out live if you get the chance and check out the Zero Style distro blog (http://zerofuckingstyle.blogspot.co.nz/) for any upcoming releases. Felch away.

SLANDER 2014

Slander’s mastermind ponders his next fiendish move

Hello Slander readers in your abundant masses! It’s a new year which means you can expect a whole bunch of new shit pouring out like effluent waste from this site. Be on the look out for a potential zine coming out in the following months (or if that idea cans it, at least a few interviews up on here) plus some new features like mixtapes designed to coerce your weak mind into actually listening to this stuff. Reviews will be coming up as this year’s releases start flowing in and hopefully I will be posting them up a lot more regularly than last year’s output.

From the towering monolith which is the Slander headquarters- smell ya later, Glenn.

New Haymaker Song

New Haymaker song posted at http://noisey.vice.com/blog/Let-them-rot-7-inch-haymaker-may-make-you-mosh-with-a-full-pizza-in-hand, which will be from their forthcoming “Let Them Rot” 7 Inch. For anyone who doesn’t know Haymaker, they play a brand of fast, pissed-off, super aggressive hardcore with a metallic tinge to it. This new song fucking rules and suggests a much crisper, metal direction for them a la Ringworm. Get at it people.

Full of Hell- Rudiments of Mutilation (2013)

I first came across these guys a year or two ago and too readily dismissed them as another Entombed worship band because of their name, especially considering the deluge of bands playing this style lately. How wrong I was. Where other lesser grind/hardcore crossover bands follow a formulaic approach, Full of Hell, from Maryland, Pennsylvania, are sure to decimate any listener’s initial assumptions with a sound that carries identifiable traces of their sonic antecedents whilst still being hard to pigeonhole within a single genre. In a year where they have had to compete with releases from contemporaries like Noisem and Weekend Nachos, Full of Hell have stepped up with Rudiments of Mutilation, a brutal and uncompromising listen which still feels like it brings something new to the table.

Arguably Full of Hell’s number one strength is the atmosphere they conjure in their music, equal parts eerie and terrifying- it feels as if the production style was conceived in a serial killer’s basement. Claustrophobic howls and intrusive noise samples add to this effect, a central element in the album which asserts itself right from the album opener, “Dichotomy.” The vocals only evoke the horror even more through high pitched screams which could have come straight out of the wintery forests of Scandinavia, such as on “Coven of the Larynx.” The guitar work is simple and understated, working in unison with a corrosive bass tone and deadly concise drumming to create the aural equivalent of a face being bludgeoned with a blunt object, best exemplified on the track “Indigence and Guilt” featuring Weekend Nachos singer, John Hoffman. This humble approach to their instrumentation is one which benefits the band, for it is in their song structuring where the true flair of the band reveals itself. Songs blast between the ridiculously fast and the devastatingly slow with precision and unpredictability which ensure the potency of these various sections. While they play the crust-infused brand of hardcore which has become familiar in the last few years, Full of Hell take this template and smash it to smithereens, reassembling the pieces in their own twisted expression. They are masters of pace, exercising restraint and release which ensures an unsettling experience for the listener, albeit an exhilarating and fucking heavy one. There is an uncertainty as to what direction the album will go in next. Tension builds in the dirgey number “Embrace” with ominous spoken word vocals before leading into the crushing despair of “The Lord is my Light.”

The album is a noticeable evolution from their previous full-length, The Roots of the Earth Are Consuming My Home, which while being an engaging listen, is rather conventional in its execution. My only gripe with Rudiments of Mutilation its brevity, coming in at 24 minutes. Usually this isn’t a problem in hardcore punk which prides itself on cutting the shit, but Full of Hell explore such interesting areas sonically, such as in the expansive closer “In Contempt of Life,” that it would be interesting to see them delve deeper into the nuances of their sound, particularly the industrial/noise realms which are already prevalent. A true product of our Internet-era music eclecticism, this album contains something for any fan of extreme music, seamlessly mixing hardcore punk, grind, sludge, powerviolence and black metal. The band wears their diverse influences on their sleeve with a photo of the band floating around on the web showing each member with a band logo over their head- Darkthrone, Man is the Bastard, Cursed and pg. 99 respectively. The combination of these obvious influences pretty accurately sums up the unique Full of Hell sound which they have honed and refined on this record, attracting listeners who are diehard fans of these bands and their ilk but arranging the music in such a way that it doesn’t sound like a generic imitation. A recent Facebook status by A389 Records (who Full of Hell are signed to) described Rudiments of Mutilation as “the most creative, vicious and underrated LPs of 2013.” While the latter point is something which may be disproven in retrospect, the first two points are definitely applicable. Rather than being a definitive record for the band I think it suggests something more ambitious and darker lurking around the corner, marking them as a band with the potential to be in the league with genre-forerunners like Trap Them and Magrudergrind, whose success was built on their ability to breathe new life into the rancid corpse which is extreme music. Seven and a half thumbs up.  

Parents- S/T 12″ (2013)

Stalwarts on the New Zealand underground hardcore/punk scene now, Parents, come out with their first full length, a self-titled release in 12” format, which sees them taking their screamo/post-hardcore sound in the vein of bands such as Envy, Orchid and P. 99 and bringing in noticeable influences from post-punk and post-rock. Their recent live shows have been indicative of these changes, still retaining their ferocious punk energy while also exhibiting more meditative, brooding songs which build up into final, crushing crescendos. They have been able to encapsulate this diversity in their sound with amazing conciseness; sparse sonic landscapes are juxtaposed with claustrophobic, noisy freakouts…and yet most of the songs still barely touch the two-minute mark.  

 

Photo courtesy of Stacey Robertson

The album opens with “Clear Path” which begins with chiming guitars, progressing into shoegaze-like walls of sound before breaking into cathartic squalls of noise as the band return to their primordial screamo sound. There is more than a little noticeable relevance in the naming of the song as the band seems to have come into themselves with this record, exhibiting a newfound sense of direction and self-confidence. The musicianship shows an amazing level of virtuosity and interplay, with textures being crafted by the guitar playing and the intricate polyrhythms the drummer brings into the mix, two elements which are constantly working with and against each other, complimented by the abrasive, high-pitched vocals. It is an album of stark contrasts, a coupling of the chaotic with the sublime which can’t help but bring to mind comparisons with this year’s post-black metal critical darlings, Deafheaven. In “Poison Rain” melodic, appreggiated licks sit alongside dissonant, angular riffs, flitting between the two with speedy precision. They show a willingness to experiment with their sound on “Bound,” which is laced with ambient sections and intricate polyrhythms in the drumming. Finally, album closer “Insight” is an impressing, emotive track, the song continuing to swell with tension which finally comes to a head in the epic finale of the song with vocalist Simon Oswald’s repeated refrains of “I’ll never, never be like you”- sure to be a crowd favourite for sing-alongs.

It’s hard to find much fault with this album, it’s daring without being pretentious, complex without feeling too labouring. Likely to be of one of this year’s most memorable local releases, it’s definitely one of mine. Eight thumbs up.