ACxDC – Antichrist Demoncore – Melotov Records

I just want to start this review off by saying that I am NOT the guy trying to sell the limited edition version of this on Discogs for $80. Now that that’s out of the way…clears throat…to go along with their wildly popular EPs, splits with other great bands, cult-like merch, a European tour, and now a full length going for 80 bones on the Internet; ACxDC gets to hold the honor of being the first band to be reviewed more than once on my site, as I reviewed their split with To The Point back in January which can be read here. So congrats all around.

I’m not going to tell you about ACxDC , hopefully you already know, if not, there’s a metric fuck ton of shit on them in the Googleverse. Getting straight to the LP, despite the incredible packaging and sound on Antichrist Demoncore, this entire LP comes down to memorable moments for me. I’ll likely get crushed for this admission, but most of what I remember about The Second Coming is the Ron Burgundy sound bite to open it up, despite having jammed it sporadically the last couple years.  Antichrist Demoncore though, is chock full of memorable moments and I feel that they are a direct result of vocal variety and a relative, to them, higher speed to groove ratio. Make no mistake, Sergio’s brand of stab wound style vocals are here, but he throws in some more traditional hardcore yells and my favorite are the death type growls that come in over the top of him.  And it works, especially for a full length. Don’t get it twisted on the speed either. This thing blasts just as fast as anything they’ve put out, but they put their full range on display here, which again translates well for a full length. You want to grind, let’s grind. You want to thrash, here’s a 20 second groove. You want to point your finger, here’s some hardcore.  Antichrist Demoncore is a full showcase of styles that should Buk missile its place into history.

Let’s get into some songs. This thing comes in strong as fuck, no intro, no build up, just a straight up vocal assault with a combo of Sergio’s splatter vox in front of demonic growls all carried by blistereing fast hardcore to kick off “Destroy//Create”.  They break it down around the 40 second mark and keep the pace at a slow mosh before jackhammering it out. Memorable track right from the get go. “Vegangelical” is another standout, with choppy hardcore riffing and a sing along breakdown that explodes into some of the most violent sounding vocals on the LP to end the track. The chug groove in the middle of “Hipler Youth” is god damned perfection. I’m nearly positive that’s a melodic guitar riff on “Endless Failure”. “Dead Cops” is just plain catchy as fuck…”I hope that Dorner’s ghost comes back to seek revenge”…has been humming through my head for 2 days now. The slow churn on nearly 2 minute “Filicide” is that balance to the speed I was talking about up above and very well done. The Weekend Nachos style, slow instrumental work on “Give Up” is the fucking mic drop on this masterpiece. Given a 100 more chances, I’m not sure ACxDC could come up with a better way to close out this record than they did with that song.

To close this out, if you’ve been waiting for an ACxDC record that you didn’t have to get up to flip as soon as you sat down, here it is. If you liked the range they teased you with on their side of the To The Point split, well here’s the whole burrito. The reality is that I like grindcore, and outside of a few, it doesn’t always translate to full lengths all that great and honestly, I’m not sure I want to hear a 12” of The Second Coming (I like that record, I promise). However, what ACxDC have done on Antichrist Demoncore is nuked the barriers of grindcore from orbit and given us a full length album with legitimate staying power. Look, I’m not saying I wouldn’t love to see Antichrist Demoncore followed up with an EP or split of some sound barrier breaking, Wookie type shit packed with some 30 second sound bites of explosive diarrhea because that’s exactly what I hope they do. In the meantime though, I going to enjoy the hell out of Antichrist Demoncore and respect it as ACxDC’s hands down, best effort.  Chuck Billy sized props to ACxDC and Melotov Records for putting this out.

Sleep Walk/Impulse – California Violence split 7”– Trends Die/Ghost Friend Records

Short end vs. long end; the eternal debate and likely the most important decision you may ever face in your life.  The short end being the narrower end of a slab of ribs and the long end being the wider end of a slab of ribs, as offered up in BBQ joints around Kansas City.  Short ends are going to give you a meatier flavor, but are chewier and slightly more difficult to eat.  Long ends are going to give you that clean bite off the bone making it much friendlier to eat.  This distinction is taught at a pre-K level here in Grilla City, however, there is no right or wrong answer, both are great, that’s why when in doubt you should just order the full slab.  Just like this split between Chula Vista natives Sleep Walk and Impulse.  Both are similar in that they share members, but they both satisfy in different ways.

Sleep Walk kicks this split off with a throwback 80’s Black Flag meets Dick Dale surfed out intro. California as fuck.  Ultimately, they break it fucking down with laid back fury to end the title track.  Sleep Walk continues that throwback 80’s Cali hardcore throughout their 4 songs.  Stringy guitars behind legible shouts about lifes hardships make for some headnodable jams.  The yell intro into When Things Get Rough is classic.  Lost At Sea comes in at a fast stringy pace, stops, takes off again before building back up with some minor shit talk and breaks it the fuck down Chula Vista style on you.  No bullshit, no faux angry posing, just some dudes from Southern California going all out on some hardcore that’s easy to get behind.

On the other side, Impulse creates their own brand of Burrito Violence.  Sped up Youth of Today energy behind spazzed out “waa wa waa!” vox.  They kick it off with a peacock chest strutting intro that releases into fast hardcore/powerviolence that you'd expect from Southern Cal.  Standout track Ice Control is 43 seconds of fast hardcore with a Youth Crew-ish feel…”You’re Not The Same!”  Turning Point brings that slow powerviolence tension that leaves you hanging by never quite giving way to the fury.  They finish out with 3 songs, each under 22 seconds of hyper fast hardcore that hits like Seau.  This is their Coldstart stuff finally pressed and with their Chula Violence 7" repressed by TLAL earlier this year, this has become the year of Impulse.

Both Sleep Walk's California Violence and Impulse's Coldstart desperately needed to see the light of day. Huge ups to Trends Die and Ghost Friend for putting out this full slab.  You need to get with this shit, now.