Mimetic: Attack of the Discordance Axis Clones

If The Inalienable Dreamless were a child, it would be old enough to start high school this year.
In the nearly decade and a half since Discordance Axis gifted the world a masterpiece and then summarily retired, the New Jersey trio has gone from that band that few had heard of and even fewer liked to a significant touchstone in grindcore. A whole generation of grind musicians has grown up with Dave Witte’s tendon-testing speed, Jon Chang’s upper register screech and pop cultural fixations and particularly Rob Marton’s uniquely phrased guitar parts as part of the musical heritage they have inherited. That influence is coming to fruition as a recent of wave of Discordance Axis clones.
“I think that we identified with Discordance Axis because they're different from other grindcore bands,” said Jonathan Thompson, whose band, Vertigo Index, cribbed both their name and style from one of Jouhou’s songs. “Despite the fact that they do adhere in some sense to the sort of the grindcore blast-heavy template, they really managed to do so in a way that was forward thinking. Rather than rehashing the bands that came before them, they took their ideas and morphed them into something that was wholly their own. That is, they were able to write short fast songs that still feel like songs rather than simply bursts of aggression. Their song writing skills, specifically on The Inalienable Dreamless, are unparalleled in grindcore. While the songs are still ferocious in their own right they contain more interesting tonal characteristics than the simpler fast power chords and blast beats of their contemporaries.”
But for Discordance Axis, after years of being marginalized, seeing other bands adapt their sonic template is a bizarre reversal.
“I have always found it surreal that DA has any kind of following today given how completely people were disinterested with us when we existed,” Chang said. “It seems like the music has influenced people in the form of bands, individuals or other artists who have nothing to do with music.”
Cloning is intrinsic to musical evolution. Nobody would be grinding now if it weren’t for shamelessly ripping off Siege, Napalm Death and Repulsion. Hell, Carcass has been cloned more times than a Mandalorian bounty hunter. Indeed, Discordance Axis’ first album, Ulterior, owed a significant and obvious debt to From Enslavement to Obliteration.
“In the case of clones or cover bands, I hope those people are getting their sea legs and working to eclipse what we did. I know when we started we were very influenced by the Scum, SOB-split era of Napalm Death, SOB, Assuck and Anal Cunt, but we found our own voice in time,” Chang said.

Grind in Rewind 2012: It Takes Two to Tango

The split seems to be a lost art in the digital era. Downloading two different halves of an album from two different Bandcamp pages just doesn't quite have the same pizzazz as flipping a piece of wax on your turntable, ya know. Or I could just be an old coot (*pulls plaid pants up to armpits*). But despite modern technology's best effort to turn me into a parody of Abe Simpson, 2012 was blessed with a bumper crop of awesome bands that managed to work well and play with each other. Here are 10 bands over five splits who figured out how to do it right this year.

5. Amputee/Nimbus Terrifix
Split
Piggiron Sound
The Nimbus Terrifix side still doesn't really wind me up, but new Amputee material is a gift from grindcore Olympus. Ugly and without a hint of pretense, Amputee are everything you really want in a grind band. Sometimes you just want to be walloped upside the cranium without subtlety or art. Here are two bands that don't get too wrapped up in the whys and wherefores of their music and just decide to smack you silly instead.
 
4. Nashgul/P.L.F.
Split
Bones Brigade
I imagine the Nashgul and P.L.F. split was probably recorded in the musical equivalent of a broke down drive in theater that specializes in seedy midnight movies that are high on boobs and blood and not so finicky about acting or plot. Or the kind haunted by Scooby-Doo villains. One or the other. This 7-inch is a loving tribute to a time when movies wallowed in depravity and violence. And they would have gotten away with it if it hadn't... Actually they got away with it pretty damn well. The next time some Hollywood bigwig wants to make an "ironic" throwback to the heyday of exploitation films, maybe these two bands can soundtrack it.  

3. Priapus/Old Painless
Split
Self Released
I wish I were in the land of cotton cuz grindcore there is not forgotten and runnin' rebs Priapus and Old Painless lobbed a cannonade with this self-released 7-inch. How some label didn't immediately snap this up remains the biggest head scratcher of the year. However, the bands have been spreading their nasty vibes all across the internet and it's yours for the taking at their respective Bandcamp pages. Old Painless' acquired taste vocals and Priapus' gutbusting death just might force you to secede from the world of record labels as a result.

2. Robocop/Detroit
Dead Language, Foreign Bodies
Grindcore Karaoke/Give Praise
Heading in the opposite direction from Priapus/Old Painless, Robocop and Detroit's neo-powerviolence pairing made the leap from Grindcore Karaoke's digital distribution network to a gorgeous 12-inch on Give Praise that you really, really want to add to your collection. It doesn't hurt that the bands both turned in defining performances. Robocop transitioned to a new, cleaner sound that swapped violence for intellect, placing a new spin on familiar songs and expanding the band's arsenal from broadswords to laser-sighted sniper rifles. By contrast, Detroit went atavistic, turning in a furrow-browed slate (and  J. Lo cover) that set up their subsequent solo releases later in the year.
 

1. Dephosphorus/Wake
Split
7 Degrees
Sometimes the most brilliant gambits are the most obvious. Case in point, the excellent and ascendant 7 Degrees Records grabbed its two foremost bands -- Wake and Dephospohorus --  and told them to each record enough music to fill one side of a 7-inch. The result was an absolutely scintillating pairing that proved to be a pivot from Wake's Leeches (which graced last year's list) to Deposphorus' dominating Night Sky Transform. Dephosphorus had backed off the artistry of Axiom for something more primal and vicious, which put them firmly in Wake's realm, giving the pairing a wonderful balance from side to side. This is absolutely everything you want in a split experience: two bands at the top of their game that clearly enjoyed the idea of working together.

Dick Move: Priapus Grind Out a Hero's Journey

Every great hero has a signature weakness, something to help ground them and humanize them in fans' minds. It makes them relatable. Superman has kryptonite. Dustin Penner has delicious pancakes. For North Carolina bulheaded grinders Priapus, it's drummer Kevin Hedgecock's herniated spine. The painful injury has slowed the trio but with the drummer on the mend, the band will storm the stage for a string of live dates this month and is planning to hit the studio in August.
"I just had another injection in my spine this past week; yep, that was fun," Hedgecock said. "This whole ordeal is holding us back a little bit and it’s pretty aggravating. I/we can’t practice as often as we would like to. I’m used to practicing on my own 5-6 days a week, and I have to take it day by day. I can’t push it because I may set myself back. I still have another couple of months of dealing with this nonsense, but we’re going to remain as active as possible."

Departure

But like any good hero's journey, that spinal setback is just a speedbump on Priapus' inevitable march to grindcore glory. A key early step on the hero's pathway is meeting with a supernatural agent who sets our raw protagonist on his way. In the musical context, that would likely be where a deep pocketed label swooped in to foist Priapus on the grind-starved masses.
But here is where the metaphor breaks down. Guitarist Jeremy Shaffer said the band is "definitely not opposed to working with anyone - mainly because I’d love to have some shitty record of ours on a label that has released killer albums that I’ve been listening to for years." However, Priapus also doesn't necessarily feel the need to go the label route to bring their racket to the people in this socially networked world, largely courtesy of their Bandcamp page.
"To be honest, we haven’t really pursued any labels - 10 years ago, we’d probably be a lot more aggressive about it. This is the first band I’ve been in where we haven’t considered label support to be a major goal," Shaffer said. "But yeah, a big reason is that we really don’t need a label right now. Our expenses are fairly low: we record here in town for a suspiciously low price, thanks to Kris at Solo Sound Studios being an awesome dude and the wondrous advances in soulless digital recording. We don’t tour because we’re all office drones during the day (and telling your boss that you 'have to take off a few days to play basements with punx' sounds really dumb when you’re wearing slacks). The computer tubes have been great in terms of getting our shit out there, so we don’t have to rely on physical distribution (and all the expenses it entails) to annoy people in far away places. It’s been really cool to be able to do this for cheap and without having to worry about bugging labels to help us out...definitely wouldn’t have been possible until pretty recently."

Initiation

Priapus seemingly came out of nowhere in 2011, exploding out of the gate swinging a prime-time ready brew of power violence murk and grindcore grit with Air Loom.
And yes, Priapus kinda sound like Maruta.
The Maruta comparisons are pervasive and inevitable. (But to be fair to the chattering classes, the band has not exactly been shy about ripping off better bands, either.)
"It's usually quite surprising for us if we see a review that doesn't mention Maruta," Shaffer said. "Of course, I totally understand the comparison - we didn't set out to sound that similar to them, but I think we have a lot of commonalities with them, in terms of influences. From a guitar perspective, I've always loved the weirder, dissonant kind of stuff you hear in bands like Gorguts, Wormed, Discordance Axis, Malignancy, and Assuck. That background comes through in the riffs I write for Priapus, and I know that the Maruta dudes are super into that kind of stuff, so I'm not surprised that the two bands sound so similar. Priapus is, of course, much worse. We just can't compete with their sultry brown skin and Latin passion."
But our pasty white heroes in their oh-so-stylish Dockers live up to the Maruta comparison thanks to that signature grisly guitar tone -- that swampy, syrupy snarl that helps define the Priapus sound. The secret sauce is a mixture of death metal and neglected technique, Shaffer said.
"Some of it might come from the fact that when Kevin and I first started jamming, we were both in death metal bands - he was in Malebolgia, I was in Atrocious Abnormality - that were both playing fairly technical, clean-sounding brutal DM. Subconsciously, I think, we wanted to do something different - something looser, more aggressive, and less precise, so the low-end murkiness of Priapus is probably a response to what we were doing at the time. Also, I’m a very sloppy player, so that probably helps nail our signature 'can’t play guitar' sound," he said. "I don’t think we really hit our stride until [vocalist] Jordan [Noe] joined. He had never been in a band before and had no fucking idea what he was doing, which we thought was awesome and is probably why his vocals sound so grumpy. I basically see the drums & guitars in our songs as structures to support the vocals - I think grindcore should make people get angry, and I don’t think we had that until we got Jordan on vocals."
Noe not only brought the anger, but he gave Priapus' songs some lyrical and intellectual heft as well. The initial inspiration for Air Loom came from the history of James Tilley Matthews, the first recorded case of paranoid schizophrenia. Matthews, committed to the infamous Bethlem hospital in London (source of the word bedlam), thought he was being tormented by a gang of spies zapping him with a giant ray gun called the Air Loom, as detailed in the book Illustrations of Madness.
"We thought that was sick and could also be a cool analogy for how mass media works these days," Noe said. "All of that is awesome, but unfortunately I got lazy and wrote hardly any lyrics based on that concept. The only song that ended up being about the Air Loom is ‘Where Is Everybody’, which was the last song we wrote for the EP, and I actually wrote the lyrics in our hotel room the morning we went to record vocals. The lyrics are either directly lifted from or are references to The Air Loom Gang, which is another book about JTM and the Air Loom. Everything else on the EP has song titles that reference Illustrations of Madness, but the lyrics are all based on real life shit."
While Noe may not have completed the concept album, his bandmates do credit him with one of the most important decisions when it came time to record Air Loom: scrapping Shaffer's pitch shifted low vocals.
"We recorded the whole EP and then listened to it at the end of the session and it sounded really silly, so I grumpily agreed to re-record all of the low vocals myself at the last minute," Noe said. "It sucked at the time because I was belligerently drunk and exhausted, but I’m glad we did it, otherwise the recording probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day."
"There are a lot of stupid things about Priapus, but the idea to do pitch shifted vocals is probably the most stupid," Shaffer said.

Return

The final stage of the hero's journey finds our protagonist returned to his own domain, wiser for the experience and free to live out his life without the fear of death or failure.
With Hedgecock on the mend, Priapus are looking get back into full swing, booking a handful of shows as time, family and job commitments allow and making preparations to become the new lords of Splitsville.
"As far as shows we’ve got some shows coming up at the end of July and sporadically throughout the summer," Hedgecock said. "We’re aiming to go into the studio in early August to record 3-4 tracks for an upcoming split with InTheShit that I’m pretty stoked about."
After pairing with InTheShit, Priapus are talking about a series of splits and EPs over the next year that would do Agathocles proud.
"Yeah, once we are done with the Intheshit split, we’re going to keep working on new music and play the occasional local gig," Noe said. "We’ve talked about doing splits with The Communion (NY) and Hedorah (MI) -which are both great bands that everyone should aware themselves of - and then we’d also like to eventually put out a 7” of our own. With the time it takes us to write, that should take us well into next year. We’d also like to make a few long weekend treks up and down the East Coast if we can schedule it around work and family obligations. We’ll see!"
Until then, Priapus are content to have set off along the hero's path.
"Honestly, it’s just fucking cool that people dig listening to music that we think is fun to write and play," Shaffer. "We all love grindcore, so our original idea was just to get drunk, play fun riffs and shamelessly rip off Nasum. We still do all of those things, but now we rip off other bands too."

All photos courtesy of Ian Tuten

G&P Review: Priapus/Old Painless

Priapus/Old Painless
Split
Bandcamp/Bandcamp
Proving last year's best demo was no fluke, Priapus come rising out of the muck like an avenging Swamp Thing with three more songs of their pig grunt grinding and North Carolina's Old Painless in tow.
Priapus' side is three more songs steeped in gastric acids, a roiling nausea of gut-burning bile and stale vomit aftertaste that finds the band taking another run at Maruta's vacant throne.
Priapus don't go easy on newcomers either. There's nothing as familiar or reassuring as a build up or introduction to lead off track "$12.50," a double kicked stampede of moshing beef and bad attitude screaming that gets right up in your face from the get-go. There's no reprieve waiting in "Tongue Splitter" or "A List of Unwitting Assholes" either, though the latter rope-a-dopes you with a mid-EP, mid-song, mid-tempo riff that lets you suck down half a breath before jacking you in the chicklets.
Flip side, like uni, Old Painless is an acquired taste. It's the singer, who must have a charred bit of gristle where the rest of us have vocal chords, who may take some adjustment. At one point I expected him to start screeching about my mother's predilection for fellating demons in hell. But once that hurdle is crossed, it's hard not to be enchanted by Old Painless' lawnmower guitars and grave robbing ghoul bass. The songs are a holocaust of pop culture diatribes suffocating under waves of screeching noise and the psychotic exhortations of a mad man on a day pass from the local psychiatric hospital.
Old Painless' angular, loose jointed songs are pretty much the diametric opposite of Priapus: loose rather than locktight, scattered rather than driven. It makes a great contrast from one side to the next. The one time Old Painless step too far off their short and sweet reservation, closer "Designer Trashbags," an anti-Kardashian/Hilton set rant, stretches out too long for the song's modest ambitions.

[Full disclosure: Priapus sent me a review copy of the 7-inch.]

Grind in Rewind 2011: The 11 Demos of '11

If this year's crop of demos are any indication, we're going to have several good years of grind before us. 2011 was chockablock with scrappy youngsters who respect their elders but aren't afraid to muscle their way to the front of the line. Especially this year's number one demo. I'd say a good four or five of these young bands could break out in the next few years. If so, the future is extremely bright.

11. Shangkuan Lingfeng
Demo
Scrappy Indonesians Shangkuan Lingfeng bulldoze their way into the last spot on the best-of list by enthusiasm and will alone. Their three song live-in-a-rehearsal-room demo may have lacked niceties (like intelligible instruments), but the band powers through with a pomp and bite that redeem the whole package. Fans of gut-level grind that gets by on energy and doesn't get hung up on the technical details need look no further.

10. Detroit
Demo
Detroit were readying a split with Robocop when their demo landed in my inbox and the Canadian band in many ways comes off as Robocop Jr., minus all the audio experimentation. What that leaves is an updated assault on '90s fast hardcore's foundations. Names like Infest, Crossed Out and Capitalist Casualties should come up in any conversation about their demo.

9. Spewtilator
Get Conjured
Spewtilator just might have penned some of the stupidest songs I've ever heard as part of their old style crashin' thrashin' Get Conjured. And deity of their choice bless them for that. It's a needed reminded that sometimes we take ourselves way too damn seriously. Some days you need to drop your worries and run around your living room pitting to songs about NES games and zombie bears.

8. Gripe
The Future Doesn't Need You
Gripe have got their grinding down, now they just need to add a few extra shelves to the workbench. The songs on The Future Doesn't Need You are uniformly strong but lack a bit of variety. However, this demo (later picked up by Grindcore Karaoke) is piquant enough that I've marked Gripe down as a band to watch. These guys have plenty of room to grow and the knowhow to get there.

7. Syntax
Demo
Syntax are on that bleeding edge of bands that absorbed Discordance Axis with their mother's milk and aren't afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves. Assuck also played a prominent role in their growth. While someone like Cellgraft has been able to turn those two pole stars into something unique, you can catch Syntax cribbing from the sheet music every so often. However, with their demo they're off to a fine start on a career that should take them far, provided their learn to bend others' tools to their will.

6. Colombian Necktie
Colombian Necktie
Colombian Necktie would make this list for the song "Joe" alone. That may be the first great hardcore song written about America's recent military excursions. The pain and guilt of that one song are undeniable and absolutely arresting. That's good enough to get the nod, but they included four other songs, including the totally unexpected piano interlude of "Lirit." Amidst the rest of their hardcore lashings, it was a surprising digression but definitely a sign of confidence from a young band.

5. God Harvest
Demo
You got your Man is the Bastard in my Vulgar Pigeons. You got your Vulgar Pigeons in my Man is the Bastard. Two great tastes that taste great together, God Harvest mix up the speedy with the trudgy and pound them both into sand with a piledriver of a bass. This isn't a demo that you listen to so much as one you feel deep in your gut. A nice, warm vibraty feeling all through your guttiwuts, as my droog Alex would put it. Put this one on right before a bout of the old ultraviolence.

4. Busuk
Beats of Rage
More than any other demo this year, Busuk left me wanting more. I'm curious to see how far this crusty-grindy group of miscreants can spread their wings after they banged and bumped with the perfect blend of intelligible performance and live-in-your-living room energy. But at only three songs, this demo feels like a bit of a tease. I know they have more left in the tank. I can't wait to hear it.

3. The Oily Menace
All Out Folk Attack
The only reason this isn't ranked any higher is that it's entirely cover versions of Napalm Death's "The Kill" and a handful of folk tunes stretching from the Depression straight through the '60s protest music heyday. Though the tunes are not original, The Oily Menace's passion is undeniable. All Out Folk Attack just bleeds excess energy into the atmosphere. This young band (who chased their demo with a quality threeway with Cloud Rat and Wolbachia) are the perfectly poised troubadours for the moment. It's an era of unrest and they've found a way to tap into that sense of anxiety and unease that define the age of economic collapse.

2. Per Capita
The Damage Done
Per Capita don't do a single original thing on The Damage Done, but they do it with such swagger and panache that it's easily pardoned. Rugged grind and crusty d-beat take one more victory lap around the track, but Per Capita are skilled enough songsmiths that I don't mind curling up with an old favorite. Plus they cover Dropdead. I'm pretty sure there's a rule somewhere that says if you pull off a great Dropdead cover you get a pass.

1. Priapus
Air Loom
Genital grinders Priapus redefine cock rock with their stellar demo, Air Loom, which takes a run at the swampy grind throne Maruta, unfortunately, just vacated. Priapus come right out of the gate with the most professional sounding demo of the year and with the attitude and chops to back up their swagger. This is the sound of tendons snapping and joints cracking over the rack in the hands of a skilled inquisitor. They play your pain like an extra instrument. I'm expecting big things from this Willowtip-ready band.

Demo-lition Derby: Priapus

Priapus
Air Loom
North Carolina’s Priapus leave me absolutely speechless. Not because their Maruta meets Benumb at a Jello wrestling convention crush doesn’t kick ass. Because it totally does. No, Priapus have stolen all my words because cmon… Priapus! So many dick jokes to choose from to kick this off. I’m paralyzed by the possibilities. As it is, Priapus is turgid with possibilities because they swing enough sack to give Jesse Helms horrific Mapplethorpe flashbacks. Their six song demo verily throbs with one of the burliest guitar tones you’ll ever hear on a demo, exploding with an orgasmic fury.
Ok, but enough of that.
Over 11 minutes of erectile destruction, Air Loom mixes slippery fingered dexterity with a grunting Neanderthal bluntness. It’s the same subterranean grumble that slouches toward Maruta, waiting to be born. All of that is corralled by a Pete Pontikoff style drill sergeant bark that keeps all the kiddies in line. Highlights include the prickly hedgehog “Where is Everybody,” which is spiked all over with concertina wire guitar nastiness.
You can check out Air Loom at Priapus’ Bandcamp page, and if it tickles your nethers, a short run of CDs is also available at Big Cartel. I’d highly recommend giving this one a spin, but if enjoyment lasts more than four hours, consult your physician.