The year 2009 through a cephalochromoscope (Part 2/3)

CEPHALOCHROMOGRIND

1. These irresistibly lovable four releases / five bands are my grind-favorites as they certainly hold some of that "Tetsuooo! Kanedaaaaaaa!" magic.

Wormrot - Abuse
Wormrot fucking ate 2009 in grind. Look for it here.

Parlamentarisk Sodomi - De Anarkistiske An(n)aler
Parlamentarisk Sodomi is the new 324! Scroll down for the rest.

Attack of the Mad Axeman - Scumdogs of the Forest
Attack of the Mad Axeman scared all the birds and bunnies out of the forest with slick death-grind chops of a kind that no one pursued as nicely since Matsubara-san of GridLink and Otake-san of Gate. I mean, these are somewhat grown men in animal costumes refreshing the shit & vomit-stained genre. Reel around the fountain, smack me on the patio, play fast or don't, but I'll have a piece of that Schwarzwald grind any time. And to think that I didn't get to see 'em live 'cause one of the guys caught the swine flu! Karma, what the fuck are you doing? Download / buy LP on RSR, CD on Scrotum Jus.

Magnicide / Half Gorilla - Split
Magnicide from Singapore is much too monstrous to stay in Wormrot's shadow for much longer. They released their debut this year, too - sadly, I didn't get to clutch it restlessly yet. Look, here's one absolutely killer grind band with three 2009 releases. This year they also did a split with Toxic Revolution which holds a song titled quite adorably the "Catcher in the Eye".
Half Gorilla is a surgically removed half of a gorilla operating around a crusty Discordance Axis somehow. They had the guts to cover DxAx - End of Rebirth, thereby giving birth to a weird gorilla-half somewhere on my body. Yup, the cover is fairly nice. Have a banana, boys.


2. While those were my purely subjective favorites. I also wanted to try and do an expansive year-in-grind overview sort of thing and hope it doesn't turn out too bad. Why? 'Cause I ordered you to conduct an investigation. I never said skip the paperwork and act like vigilantes. I certainly don't recall ordering you to barge into any Yakuza office.

Afgrund - Vid Helvetets Grindar
Afgrund is a great band from Sweden, playing great Swedish grind, Nasum and all. Those are things that I could never appreciate like the rest of the world, apparently. I mean, I do like it, but the excessive metallization always gets to me. It IS a great Swedish grind album. My loss. If you say so. I guess. I do like it better than the debut. Actually, I like it in general. Bah, have a sensible review.

Antigama - Warning
Antigama - one of the forerrunners of the excitingly growing Polish grind scene (see Suffering Mind) - leaves a trail of thick, heavy, technical blasting. Andrew-san says that he never understood why they got such praise before Warning came along, but I don't find myself agreeing as much as usually. Antigama has been a somewhat innovative, solid proponent of modern grind not only on this one, but for a while now, although I tend to dislike certain overproduced aspects of their music.

Black Hole of Calcutta / Wojczech - Split
Black Hole of Calcutta appears on several 2009 split releases (w/ Bloody Phoenix & Lycantrophy), and I'd say that this one grew the most on me. Damn solid punk as fuck grind on this one, but my favorite track of theirs is actually "The Daily Grind," a bloody reminiscence of 324 which I have only heard on their myspace.
Wojczech is like a weird, sloppy grind cousin of some mid-90s attempt at progressive death metal. They remind me of some band, but I can't quite pinpoint what. Disharmonic Orchestra? Nah.

Cellgraft - S/T Demo
Cellgraft, like Wormrot, contain some of that magic Insect Warfare dust. They also put their stuff up for free on their blog, so I'd watch this band, young grindhoppers.

Graf Orlock - Destination Time Today
Graf Orlock is just about the best cinemagrind you can get post-DxAx film influenced songs. Destination Time Today is graced by the same spastic thrashings and sometimes downright epic blast-riffs that we all got to love on their first two offerings, although they took chances and stretched the songwriting to Neverland. Take Days Of High Adventure for example: a track of crushing trumpet-thrash. But "I don't think you understand. These boys killed my dog."

Insect Warfare - Noise Grind Power Death
Insect Warfare is gone with the wind of stop-start noisegrind chaos on one-sided vinyls (1100 of them) and an UK tour that apparently sucked ass. The guys remain a band of legend anyway, and what better way to make an exit than loudly, noisily, and obnoxiously?

Joe Pesci - At Our Expense!
Joe Pesci channels Pesci's thoughts and personality, although perhaps not at his best. Screaming and blasting and swinging at nothing and everything, this debut could have been so much more had the production job been handled accordingly. I still believe in you, guys.

Magrudergrind - S/T
Magrudergrind. I am angry with you, Magrudergrind. You were always a thrashin' beauty, but now you're just an ugly grind fan. Truth be told, the album is fucking awesome. The problem, the grudge that I hold lies in the band's history - I feel like they lost a bit of themselves when they decided to follow the Willowtip way rather than thrash till death, yet here I am with a burning need to stress how good the album is. Read an excellent debunking of the S/T on Chainsaw Justice, and an answer to the post on No Funeral.

Nashgul - El Dia Despues Al Fin De La Humanidad
Nashgul rips with the same approach over and over again, headbanging 'gainst the wall, but you gotta give them grind-credit for being so determined. And who called it a bad approach, anyway?

Parlamentarisk Sodomi - Regnskog, Fred og Vegetarmat EP
Parlamentarisk Sodomi in touch with his crusty side. Well, arguably. But man, does Papirmøllen do some frankly excellent vocal exhibitions here or what? 1.16 track per vinyl inch enclosing love thrash as lovely as it comes.

Rehumanize - Resident Apostasy
Rehumanize offers - at best - above average grindcore and a lot of preaching, but they're still the best Christian grind band that I've ever heard. I mean, really. Although I probably wouldn't have heard them had it not been for G&P.

Squash Bowels - Grindvirus
Squash Bowels spread an endemically catchy and groovy grind virus. A too good production job, bangin' riffs, goddamn spot-on drumming, and that's about it.

Suffering Mind - At War With Mankind
Suffering Mind suffers for the grind-enthusiast's enjoyment - a both manly and womanly dual vocal blast from Poland. Musically, that is, grind-wise, there aren't much other novelties. But it's ace grind, man. Brothers and sisters growlin', screamin', grindin'! Life's good.

Super Fun Happy Slide - The Undislodgable Nugget Scenario
Super Fun Happy Slide would freak the shit out of the average five-year old, I reckon. It'd be like sliding down a gigantic fiery throat, raspy two meter long tongue and all. I have to admit, The Undislodgable Nugget Scenario is an exceptionally fun piece of gory, shit-stained grind.

White Eyes - Beastmode
White Eyes is an amazing DxAx-influenced grind band from Germany. But see, the problem is, I didn't get a hold of Beastmode yet. Why did I include them then, anyway? Well, only and only on the basis of tracks on their myspace. It was, just, like, you know, love on first riff. If we had two ends to DxAx, we'd have the Ulterioresquely clean, technical, slick like a glass skyscraper Asterisk on one end, and on the other this noisy, electronic, speed-demonic White Eyes violence. (Throw in Agents of Abhorrence somewhere in the middle.) I'm fairly certain that Beastmode would have been near - or at - the very top had I managed to listen in time. On a side note, the Blastasfuk promotional description is hilarious. I'll quote the ending sentence: "Just imagine Discordance Axis on speed!" I mean, how do you NOT imagine Discordance Axis on speed?


POWERVIOLENT ME

1. Pow!

xbrainiax - Hail Fastcore
xbrainiax just goes faster and faster and bleaaauurghhh! Fuck your punk rock, you disgraces to the to the corpse of Eric Wood. I love you.

Hatred Surge - Deconstruct
Hatred Surge blasts the sound of massive sludge, like a slow motion explosion. Admittedly, I miss the "Funeral" and "Old and Tired" and "Farce" sort of grind chugga; that aside - fuckin' A.

Hummingbird of Death - Show Us the Meaning of Haste
Hummingbird of Death carry the burden of an awesome bandname. They have the appeal and charisma of 80s thrash metal with all the new inventions in the field of drumming speed (e.g. the blastbeat). One thrash as fuck band.

Iron Lung, Walls, Pig Heart Transplant - Public Humiliation
Iron Lung, Walls, Pig Heart Transplant don't do a split, but a live superstar collaboration of the three bands. Enervating sludge-noise feat. Jensen Ward smacking the snare like he's in marching band. Fresh powerviolencetravaganza!

2. Er...

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
Agoraphobic Nosebleed's drum machine now sounds like a real drummer guy which is subjectivelly positive / negative. Like all apocalypses, the Agorapocalypse enjoys great popularity among grind/pv fans alike, but all I can do is utter a "sure, it's alright, but ...meh" due to Scott Hull really bringing nothing new to the table except for Kat, the girl vocalist. And not even that, it's like he actually got rid of (un)certain aspects that made me like ANb. You know, some rooms just ain't all that exciting without that sweet multi-colored lava lamp. Agorapocalypse is a good album in the same way that today's thrash metal revival bands create good albums. Sometimes it drives me nuts, but at other times I can enjoy it all the way. Go ahead and read some positive reviews just about anywhere.

Weekend Nachos - Unforgivable
Weekend Nachos feel like weekend nachos, even if I never really eat nachos, especially not on weekends. It's pretty good, there's no denying it, but I can't say that the record succeeded in climbing to the top over my face, which is the only way. So dub me unforgiven by the Nachos, 'cause they left me pretty indifferent. Right now I've got enough sludge stuffing my nose, anyway.