Oath of Cruelty – Hellish Decimation

You’ve got to be pretty fucking special for me to bust out the ol keyboard for a 2 song 7”. Fortunately, special doesn’t even begin to describe Houston, Texas, Oath of Cruelty. If you heard the most underrated tape in the history of metal, Altar of Impalement, then you already know.  Comprised of notables from within the Houston metal scene, Oath of Cruelty combine to create the ultimate in death thrash.  THE ULTIMATE in death thrash.  Mo’ thrash; less death and grind than Blaspherian and P.L.F.

This new 2 song 7”, Hellish Decimation, features 2 unreleased tracks from the Altar of Impalement recording sessions, so they naturally coincide with each other. It’s like finding out your down-with-metal girlfriend has an incestual twin. Title track "Hellish Decimation" races in with a fast, death thrash tempo, before getting to that holy shit, circle pit moment at the 1:10 mark.  They mix up the shred by adding some impressive guitar solo work, with the groove still chugging in the background. Pure thrash violence. Slight vocal changeup on "Skeletal Armies" with Dave C. (P.L.F., Morbosidad) taking over. This song again features phenomenal guitar work on top of unadulterated shredding. Both of these songs absolutely kill.

If you’re a fan of any type of metal, any type, you need to check out Oath of Cruelty. These dudes keep it super DIY with their releases and with the work they put in with their live show. In my mind I’m telling myself, that while these aren’t 2 new tracks, that anything surfacing from these guys might be a prelude to a full length record. Or even a 6 song EP or something, anything really. Album art is by Daniel “Sawblade” Shaw and its released on Warfare Noise Productions. Don't be a dope, seek these dudes out.

Bleach Eater – Night Work – Supercoven Records

This review is a long time coming as I am making a concerted effort to step my Death Metal game up and what better way to dive back in than with New York’s Bleach Eater. Night Work is a full length that came out last year but is most certainly worth the review. I heard about Bleach Eater while doing the Mother Brain interview for the zine and immediately started checking them out.

Bleach Eater play a style of Death Metal that reminds me a lot of early 2000’s era Razorback Records, which is legitimately one of my favorite eras of metal. Night Work kicks off with a short psychedelic type intro on “Pit of Kings” and transitions into a fit of rapid drumming and clever guitar work before dropping down into a thrashing death metal groove. The vocals come in with a pit of hell growl that then range from scathing to straight up vomit vox. The song clocks in at 4 minutes, which is about 3 minutes longer than when I usually check out, but they’ve constructed the song so well that it flows without ever getting redundant.  The rest of the album ranges from fast to mid-paced death metal around the 2 minute mark. “Horse Girl” is a prime example. Sound bite intro explodes into fast DM which chugs down heavy as fuck then ramps back up into a fast groove full of lung cookie gurgle vox.  “Nukekubi” comes in with a chunky riff before splattering into blasting drums to vomit vox before digging down into a mid-pace death groove and going on a long death metal all instrumental that gives way to more psychedelic noise that is present throughout Night Work; absolutely killer song. For a 2 piece (now a 3 piece), Bleach Eater bring precision riffs and tight drum work. More highlights from the album include the grooved outro on “Algor Mortis”, the vocal work on the intro to “Den of the Lummox”, and the death grooves on “La Bruja”.

My Death Metal intake is on a Terri Schiavo level of vegetative state, but this Bleach Eater full length is a rotted breath of pungent air for my atrophied lungs. Night Work is available on cd and limited edition vinyl. If you're like me and feeling stagnant in the Death Metal game, or are tired of having to get up to flip the vinyl every 4 minutes, do yourself a favor and check out this Bleach Eater full length. Its plus musicianship and heavy as fuck.

Water Torture – Pillbox – Nerve Altar

All Hail The Full Length.

As an exercise, while reading this review, I want you to create a list in your mind of bands you believe can do no wrong. I’m talking about bands that when ISIS has a sword to your neck, you remain steadfast in never uttering a bad word about them regardless of if they broke edge with a bottle of passion fruit MD 20/20 or if they say the rosary with the poor on the weekends while their Satan gear is being dry cleaned. I’ll start, P.L.F.  P.L.F. could put out an acoustic K-Pop album and I’d write a review right here on my site proclaiming it as the most bone chilling and crushing release of the year. I’ll give you another one…Water Torture.

Fortunately for me and everyone else, I don’t need to blindly proclaim the brilliance of Water Torture’s first full length, Pillbox, it does it all on its own.  The dual bass and drum trio have always leaned towards the experimental side of grindcore/powerviolence and they have taken it to a new level on Pillbox. Tuned way low, Pillbox sounds like the first black Sabbath after super power nations have fired upon one another. Post apocalyptic sludge, littered with spurts of blast and chock full of urban decayed noise. Rust Belt grooves behind a rain storm of metal shard vocals and steel factory drumming. The brilliance of Pillbox is not just that it’s a full length, but the way it flows as a true linear listen. Short, fast, menacing tracks linked together by ominous noise create a sonic premonition of a bleak future.  

Pillbox opens with a 30 second noise intro that gives way to familiar Water Torture low tuned grindviolence. They grind out 5 tracks before coming to the first mechanical-like noise intermission. It almost serves as a breather for the punishment you just took. The noise gives way to my favorite track, "Fourth Stage", which builds into fierce powerviolence before dropping down into thick, down tuned, doom licks littered with spurts of drum blast. "Boxcars" is a unique track in that it’s almost 3 minutes of solid doom; with long, drawn out, tormented chugs behind strained shouts; very dark. Post nuclear fallout, Godfather-esque, instrumental track "Creature of Repetition" is another agonizing interlude to break up the grinding pummel and stretch out the overall despair of this album. "Rat" comes in with another fuzzed out doom intro that maintains a mid-pace groove before slowing even further before fading out.  The Water Torture speed is still here as well. Title track, "Pillbox", starts fast and maintains a nice speed to groove combination before giving way to noise which is a formula followed throughout.

Overall, Pillbox is a true genre crippler. It’s a grindcore/powerviolence/noise record overcast with doom making it a truly tormenting listen.  The low end tune and production on Pillbox capture how heavy the Water Torture sound can be.  Tip of the cap to whoever is responsible for conceptualizing this record and the brilliant use of the noise interludes that tie what could easily be a couple of 7”s into a masterful large vinyl. The packaging from Nerve Altar is suited perfectly and can be purchased from their site. You already know this is good, but do you really know how good?

Fissure/Gets Worse – split 7”

You already know about Fissure; fastcore front runners from the OC/LA, purveyors of powerviolence infused punk, and undisputed West Coast house show champs. Boasting a s/t 7” out earlier this year, a recently released cassette, and a West Coast Summer mini tour; they were cool enough to let ShatteredKnee preview their side of their upcoming monster split with UK’s Gets Worse.

Ripping a new acne scar on the scene, Fissure’s brand of fury is everything you’d expect from SoCal fastcore; fast, explosive, and well executed. However, what sets Fissure apart for me is how efficient they are with their song composition. I like 40 seconds of blast as much as the next recluse, but Fissure will actually give you an intro, some blast, a crusty breakdown, some Nigel Tufnel-esque guitar parts, and a furious close out; all within a minute. For a fast hardcore band, they do all the little things well that make for a complete song. 

Their side of this split kicks off with some excellent drum work that transitions into Oscar’s mid-range, hysterics bordering shouts that moves at a quick pace and then grinds down to a slow, pounding breakdown behind lower end barks only to speed back up on the way out with some clever guitar work. Track 2 shows the attention to detail that I spoke of earlier. A quick hardcore intro into a blistering pace that shifts down into a subtle groove that is so minute you could almost miss it…the little things. The song breakdowns around the 20 second mark with some thick bass and wanky guitar work before chugging back up into a nice hardcore-ish groove. I don’t have the lyrics to the Fissure side of this split so I can only assume that At Least It Wasn’t Barbed Wire is a song about an armband tattoo. The high energy breakdown on Don’t Tell Me Secrets Because You Have Bad Breath is a standout on the Fissure side of this. The highlight though, is the intro to final track 30 Miles (Of Diarrhea).  They may have perfected the powerviolence ballad with that intro; nice guitar work to feedback to chugga chug to “BUUUURRRP!” to fastcore explosion. Just a great and memorable song to close out their side.

I thought Fissure’s s/t was pretty straight up fastcore and I thought their cassette had a more hardcore feel to it, and their portion of this split seems to have blended the two nicely.  Well put together, high energy, SoCal fast hardcore from some dudes who put in work up and down the West Coast and in their own communities with their live show. Don’t wait to support these guys.

On the flipside, Leeds, UK curmudgeons Gets Worse bring a more traditional, low tuned, powerviolence sound. With the obvious nod to 90’s powerviolence given, what separates Gets Worse for me is their 3 prong vocal attack. They write the song then add in the vocals to fit each guy’s style which melds into an unmatched layered vocal assault. The irony in writing a Gets Worse review is saying so many positive things about something soooooo negative. I mean, on the rare occasion I wake up in the afternoon with a hint of optimism, I like to throw on a Gets Worse record to bully myself back into hopelessness so I’m never disappointed. I heard Robin Williams (RIP) may have listened to a Gets Worse record on his last day.

If you didn’t hear “Negative”, please hurt someone you care about as penance. If you did hear “Negative” then you know about that intro to Negative PV…Too Much Talk. I’ve never been able to dead lift as much weight as I was able to while listening to that intro. That whole record is like sonic human growth hormone. Well, Gets Worse come very close to that again with the intro to Boring Legend to kick off this split. Feedback gives way to drums to a low tuned creepy crawl groove which stalls then explodes into some grindcore-ish blast drumming before finally settling in with some caveman barking in front of that same low and slow Gets Worse PV groove. The mean streak continues on No Remorse; shout intro to blast spurt to guitar windup to beatdown chug; everything you expect from a Gets Worse track. They set up the groove with the blast and vice versa; using they’re vocal variety to tie it all in. Part grind, part powerviolence, part hardcore, 100% pissed. Another highlight for me is the classic PV, all vocal barking kick off to Push Past the Trash. Also, the drum work by Rich (The Afternoon Gentlemen) is ferocious, but especially on No Shep.  If I had any complaints about the Gets Worse side of this split it’s that none of the lyrics are about physically assaulting someone, but they more than make for that by using the line “Fuck this!” in 2 of their 4 songs on here.

I realize that this is an absurdly long review for a split 7” but this isn’t just any split, this is a step backward in the right direction and deserves the commentary.Two bands on the rise with two different adaptations of powerviolence infused punk. The only thing that could make this better is if it were a split 12”. The UK release for this is sometime in September on Dead Heroes and the US release will be later this year on Obscene Records/Murdernoise. Steal or find or borrow the cash.