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?