Pig Destroyer's first album in five years has routinely been the most anticipated grind record of the year for about the past three years as it continually kept getting pushed back and postponed. But when the band finally put Book Burner in our hands we were left with ... this. I've never before checked my watch in boredom waiting for a Pig Destroyer album to be over. Ever. That just happened with Book Burner. While I was certainly disappointed, I'm surprised at how quickly the consensus seems to have emerged that Book Burner kinda sucks. I'm just now emerging from my self-imposed media blackout on this (still haven't bothered to watch more than 5 seconds of that awful monkey video). So I've been cocooned for weeks so my impressions wouldn't be tainted by the conventional wisdom. But given the emotions I've invested in Pig Destroyer over the years, I'm still trying to discern exactly how the disappointment happened. I know that I don't like it, but I'm still trying to discern the why. So I'm opening the floor to theories both here and [shameless plug following] G&P's new Facebook page (where you can be subjected to even more grind-related ramblings that don't even rate blogging)[/shameless plug]. So it's time to play (psycho)pathologist...what went wrong and how does Pig Destroyer get themselves back on track? The floor is yours.
If you haven't availed yourself already, Blastbeat Mailmurder Records (aka Panos Agoros of Dephosphorus fame) is up with the first volume of the Monomaniac 7-inch series. The concept is Panos rounded up a handful of kickass bands and gave them one minute each to do what thou wilt. Volume one features forehead crushing contributions from 10 bangers including Cloud Rat, Sete Star Sept, Detroit, Body Hammer, Head Cleaner and three(!!!) contributions from Australian dervishes thedowngoing in 60 seconds or less. Panos has done a fabulous job putting this package together and I'm already drooling at the thought of volume two. I played a small role hooking Panos up with a few of the participants, so I won't be giving it a full review (but seriously, it kicks all kinds of ass). However, I just wanted to shove this one under your noses if you haven't checked it out already. The 7-inch is gorgeously done, but you can also check it out as a pay-what-you-want download at Blastbeat Mailmurder's Bandcamp page. Do yourself a favor and give this one a listen.
If you're a fan of short songs like myself and Mr. Biafra, you're going to be in luck this summer. Blastbeat Mailmurder proprietor Panos Agoros (a.k.a. the Dephosphorus/Straighthate vocalist) just announced the first iteration of his new Monomaniac series of 7-inchers, collecting 25 bands of various metallic stripes each spitting out a single minute of their trademark noise.
The first volume is expected sometime this summer with (hopefully) more to follow. I mention this because I (humbly) played a middle man role by running through my grindcore Rolodex and hooking Panos up with a handful of bands I thought would jibe with his vibe. Given my participation, I won't be giving this one a full review when it comes out, but I'm definitely excited by the roster he's pulled together. Click on over to the Monomaniac link to stream first track "Traitors Gallow" by New Zealand black/death metal band Diocletian to get a sense of the kind of mind numbing monstrosities in the offing. If that's enough to tease your palette, here's a complete list of participants.
* DIOCLETIAN — bestial black/death apotheosis — New Zealand * NECROMANTIA — black metal cult — Greece * ROBOCOP and/or BODY HAMMER — grindcore — U.S.A. * END — black metal — Greece * THE ONE — unorthodox black metal — UK * CONAN — doom/sludge — U.K. * BILL KOULIGAS — electronics/noise — Greece/Germany * SETE STAR SEPT — avantgarde grinding noise — Japan * MUTANT SUPREMACY — death metal — USA * RAVENCULT — black thrashing metal — Greece * WAKE — grinding hardcore — Canada * PRIAPUS — grindcore — USA * DETROIT — powerviolence — Canada * AMNIS NIHILI — harsh & mesmerizing metal — Greece * THEDOWNGOING — grindcore — Australia * CLOUD RAT — hardcore/grind — USA * HEAD CLEANER — death/grind — Greece * THE COMMUNION — blood metal slut grind — USA * HAPPOJA — blackened metal/hardcore — Finland * THE SENSELESS (ex-The Berzerker, ex-Mithras) — progressive grind, heavy mental — Australia * THE OILY MENACE — grindcore — USA * GRIPE — grindcore — USA * BURIAL HORDES — violent black metal — Greece * ATAVISM — brutal death/grind — Greece * PROGRESS OF INHUMANITY — grindcore — Greece
Remember that time I joked about writing a grindcore novel? Yeah... About that... See, it's not so much a novel, per se, as it is the longest single piece of journalism I've ever written in either my professional or recreational wordsmithing career. Let me explain. Shortly after he gave me an exclusive sneak peak at Orphan, Jon Chang approached me with an idea. He wanted to tell as completely and comprehensively as possible the story of The Inalienable Dreamless. He envisioned it as the grindcore equivalent of the 33 1/3 series of books about great records. Having never bothered to read any of them, I just nodded and smiled and went ahead and wrote the story I wanted to tell in my own way. Six months and a dozen interviews later, the result is Compiling Autumn: Making Discordance Axis' The Inalienable Dreamless, available for order at Create Space and Amazon. So I need to publicly thank the guys for asking me to do this. It's probably my proudest moment as a blogger. Compiling Autumn is a loving 13,000 word encomium to my all-time favorite record by my all-time favorite band. (For comparison's sake, the longest interview/think piece I've ever written for the blog was a runty 1,300 words.) It represents half a year out of my life and includes interviews with every single member of Discordance Axis as well as The Inalienable Dreamless' engineer and Hydra Head's ownership. For additional context, I also sought out musicians who were influenced by the record and cultural tastemakers who could place the grindcore masterpiece in the proper context. However, I will tell you straight up I do feel a bit conflicted charging $8 for this (which kinda goes against my intentions as a blogger). Especially since the final version is only about 36 pages (think of this is a bound version of one of those self-absorbed, navel gazing douchebag articles in some magazine like New Yorker only with blastbeats). Part of the reason it's so short is because the publisher just couldn't handle some of the bonus materials we gathered (but don't worry, we'll get to that start next week). If it helps, though we're selling the book, neither Jon nor I will see a dollar from this. I thought this would just be a series of blog posts, but Jon graciously offered to pay for the printing costs and he's pledged all the proceeds to the Japanese Red Cross for the ongoing earthquake relief efforts. So while it may be expensive for something you could probably read in a single sitting, the money is going to a good cause. We will not be absconding and spending it on sexroids or something. But as a show of good faith (and like the intellectual crack pusher that I am), I want to give you the first taste free.
Compiling Autumn begins as Discordance Axis return from their Japanese tour in support of second album Jouhou. Guitarist Rob Marton had abruptly quit the band before the tour, precipitating a two-year hiatus that nearly derailed the band permanently. Itching to grind, drummer Dave Witte managed to corral and reconcile Marton with vocalist Jon Chang, but the working dynamic in the band had shifted in the intervening time. As they prepared to record The Inalienable Dreamless, Discordance Axis had to develop a new working relationship between the three members that would ultimately make the album what it was.
The Inalienable Dreamless is the sound of three strong personalities — the uncompromising visionary, the quiet technician, the speed demon —pulling together for a common goal in ways Discordance Axis had not been able to achieve previously. In many ways, it’s the sound of a band truly becoming a united force for the first time. Where previously “Sgt. Chang” had been the band’s taskmaster and arbiter, deciding how the songs should go, dictating the lyrical and artistic direction and handling their releases – often without any input from his bandmates – The Inalienable Dreamless represents the fullest expression of Marton and Witte’s musical vision for the band. For the guitarist and drummer, it was no longer “Jon Chang’s Discordance Axis.” “The earlier stuff, when we first started Discordance Axis, it was Jon Chang’s Discordance Axis," Marton said. "We never had a problem with that. It was his project. He kind of directed the whole thing. We were cool with that. We were there to have fun. But at some point it took over.” Marton and Witte's new confidence meant Chang no longer dictated song structures or arrangement via spliced together bits of tapes from rehearsals. For much of Discordance Axis’ existence, Chang would direct the band’s sound by chopping up cassette recordings of rehearsals, piecing together riffs until he had songs that satisfied his criteria. As Witte and Marton grew as a musical unit, Chang was willing to relinquish some of the control, confident his bandmates had bought into the vision he had for what The Inalienable Dreamless would ultimately be. “When we started the band it was my drive and my money and my contacts and everything was me pushing that thing forward,” Chang said. “When Rob said it was my project, he was right. It was literally me ordering things. It was me saying, ‘I demand this. We need to play this fast. We need to have this structure.’ And being really tyrannical about it, honestly. I did that because I had a vision of what we could be. We weren’t going to get there unless we went through a lot of things to be there. By the time Jouhou was done, I felt we were there. Whatever was going to come next, I trusted the guys to understand it and accept the vision. It was a common goal of everybody to make music like this. I pushed everybody in Discordance and it was one of the reasons it was a stressful band. That stuff hasn’t changed.” The Inalienable Dreamless, Chang said, demonstrated a band pushing for and achieving that desperate need for perfection. “After we wrote that record I felt like I was a different person,” he said. “It really was what I was trying to get with for a lot of years.” The songs that would become The Inalienable Dreamless were hashed out by Marton, who had been writing throughout the band’s hiatus, and Witte during weekend rehearsals. The two musicians would refine the songs for two or three hours before Chang joined them for the final hour of practice to offer his thoughts. “I think he let us create more and there wasn’t any splicing," Marton said. "There was ‘maybe we could lengthen this part and maybe put this part before this part’ instead of just him splicing a tape. The whole process was different. That sort of thing just really wasn’t necessary at that point. There was a bit of ‘I’m going to do what I think sounds good’ and it’s going make it or not. Before we were writing fast, we were having fun, but it was more of a ‘Jon will like this, so let’s do this.’ We wanted to write grind. We wanted to be fast. We wanted to be in your face. We were trying to find out how to do it.”
If there’s a plodding, miserable yang to my normally up tempo grinding yin, it would be my love for painfully slow doom of the most miserable variety. Which is kinda odd considering how even tempered and phlegmatic I am in general. I love good doom – something heavy and with some heart, none of that weepy red wine and roses bullshit – because it usually evokes a nice emotional reaction. I may not be a miserable bastard, but I can appreciate music that can conjure that kind of bleakness. A man cannot live on blastbeats alone. About a year ago I commemorated my 300th mental fart with the most retardedly short mixtape I could compile. Loath to repeat myself having hit the semi-millennial post mark, instead I’ll indulge my oft-ignored penchant for sitcom-sized tunes. The 300 mixtape featured 3 second songs. This one features 30 minute songs (and one fat, hazy bastard weighing in at an hour-plus). This is my way of saying thanks to all of you have stuck around for 500 freaking posts (For fuck’s sake why? Don’t you have lives?) . With several hours of suicidal music in the offing, don’t say I didn’t give you your money’s worth this time. In fact, it’s so fucking large (thanks, Sleep), I’ve had to upload it as two separate files.
Part 1: Sleep – “Dopesmoker” Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine – “He Who Accepts All That is Offered (The Feel Bad Hit of the Winter)” Thorr’s Hammer – “Norge” Eyes of Fire – “The End Result of Falling…” 5ive – “The Hemophiliac Dream” Corrupted – “Bloodscape/[Japanese]” Burmese – “Preyer” Earth – “Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine” Cathedral – “Ebony Tears” Unearthly Trance – “In the Red” Black Hell – “Zero (Deuce)” Grief – “Earthworm”
Part 2: Mindrot – “Incandescence” Khanate – “Under Rotting Sky” Halo – “20,000 Tonnes of Machinery to Smash Matter” Disembowelment – “A Burial at Ornans” Winter – “Destiny” Electric Wizard – “Son of Nothing” Boris – “Vomitself” Sunn 0))) – “Cry for the Weeper” Floor – “I Remember Nothing” Burning Witch – “Sea Hag” Wellington – “Friend, Son” Toadliquor – “Nails” Acid Bath – “Venus Blue” Warhorse – “Scrape” Gallhammer – “SLOG”
This post is about to get false in a hurry, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. If I may quote the Chairman of the Board: Fairy tales can come true, it could happen to you if you’re young at heart. Happy third birthday, G&Pers. It seems like only yesterday my little blog was mewling and puking on itself, trying to figure out what it wanted to be and where it was going and now look at it all grown up. The very fact that it’s a largely grindcore-focused blog is actually an accident. I wanted to call it Notes from Underground, after the Dostoevsky short story, and make it more generally metal oriented, but that name had been taken several times over. So I turned to Crime and Punishment for inspiration and… voila… the world’s crappiest blog name was born. It’s probably the smartest accident I’ve ever had and I've come to accept it for what it is. Working within self-imposed limits can often be beneficial, even liberating. That quirk of naming has allowed me to really zone in on what I continue to love about grindcore at the expense of pretty much every other genre in my growing musical collection. And so thank you to all of you for tagging along for the ride, sharing this with me and contributing. Without your participation this wouldn’t nearly be as much fun. (Even those of you who still dispute Sayyadina is the best Swedish grind band working today.) So indulge me while I take a quick moment, in the words of Sinatra, to appreciate the fairy tales that have come true for me. Never in the first 18 months or so of blogging that it took me to really find my voice would I have ever dreamed of the remarkable things that have happened to me through G&P. I’ve met some amazingly kind and knowledgeable people and interviewed some truly fascinating artists. As for personal milestones in the last year or so, I got a shout out in a Parlamentarisk Sodomi thank you list, inadvertently helped my favorite new band get signed and even got namechecked on Wikipedia (twice, actually!) and in Decibel. All that still blows my mind when I think about it. Ok, so it doesn’t quite rank with changing jobs, getting married and buying a house during pretty much the same period, but the young at heart me, the part that still thinks I’m 16, is totally fucking jealous. Facing the blog's fourth year of existence, it’s time to take stock. Weigh in on what works well, what can be improved, things you’d like to see more or less. I’m trying to figure out what to try next, so whatever feedback you have would be appreciated.
I love zombies. [See Fig. 1] Fig. 1: My wife actually lets me leave the house dressed like this. In fact, next to grindcore, Dostoevsky or a good gangster/heist film, zombie films are a genuine passion for me. Because the only thing better than a good zombie movie is a really, really bad one, I harassed my associate and fellow zombie connoisseur Rob into starting up a zomblog with me: Nightlife of the Living Dead. Given the demographic crossover between grind aficionados and zombie fiends is as old and entrenched as Horrified, I thought I’d invite all of you, should you be so inclined, to join us over there as we delve into the best – and oh yes, the worst – zombiedom has to offer. If that’s not your thing, that’s cool too. G&P will remain my primary outlet so don’t worry that my affections will wander. I now return you to your regularly scheduled grindcore.
This is probably an occupational hazard given my day job involves the asking of questions, collecting of facts, disseminating of information and the other folderol that generally falls under the rubric of “professional journalism,” but I feel compelled to call Decibel on a glaring journalistic lapse in their August issue. Now Decibel is easily the best metal magazine on the newsstands by a country mile and a couple furlongs on Sundays for good measure. That’s why I was absolutely floored to see the sort of parasitical asshole they give credence in an otherwise spot on interview with G&P faves Wormrot. See for yourself:Who in their right fucking mind would for one minute give that shameless, typo-ridden hack’s masturbatory internet dribblings the most fleeting of glances, let along the dignity of being mentioned in such an otherwise laudable publication? Now, far be it from me to advocate any form of censorship, but taste and respectability should dictate some reasonable limits. I will, of course, be composing a letter to one Mr. Mudrian posthaste expressing my absolute disgust at his momentary lapse in judgment.
Honestly, I can only give Cosmo Lee at Invisible Oranges sincere appreciation for the opportunity to spread the holy word of grindcore, in general, and Wormrot, in particular. And thanks to Atanamar for the heads up on the Decibel article. This ranks right up there with being mentioned in the thank you list of a Parlamentarisk Sodomi album as a beyond-my-wildest-dreams triumph for the blog.
