Os Mutantes

Here we have an amazing gem that was lost to time. Os Mutantes is a band from São Paulo, Brazil formed in 1966. Formed by brothers Anarldo and Sergio Baptista with Rita Lee, They were the spearheads of a musical movement in Brazil during the late 60s called Tropicália. They fused various styles of Brazilian music with highly experimental American and English psychedelia. I would describe them as The Beatles meets Pink Floyd in the tropics. They were in fact very popular during their time making them the rock band of South America during the 60s and 70s. Since then they've been totally forgotten about which deeply surprises me seeing that the music they made was incredibly ahead of it's time and even alien compared to today's music.

This is their 1969 self-titled album. I listened to this record with my friend and I borrowed the LP so I could rip it since I loved it so much. It's a very dream-like and psychedelic record making it an instant favorite of mine from now on. I never thought I'd hear sunny-beach-fun-time tropical music fused with tripped-out psychedelic rock backed by tribal beats and poppy sing-along vocals thrown together with some experimental instrumentation to top it off. Searing guitar leads, flamenco riffs and funky bass lines are a small part of the various styles of music you'll hear in between trance like dirges from your dreams. If you think the description sounds good just go ahead and take a listen, you won't be disappointed one bit. 

All of the album's quick turns and quirks keep you hooked on to what's going on, the musicians shift and flow together so well that the trio performs as a single instrument. They alternate between 3 different vocalists utilizing different singing styles in every song (sometimes with songs sung by the whole band), with the female singer providing many dreamy singing parts and contrasting spicy roles. Did I mention the singing is in Portuguese? 

The album plays like a flowing story cut up with some odd samples from movies and experimental breaks composed with strange sounds, but it  never drops the tropical groove that brings colorful images to the mind. A definite album choice for tripping or chilling with a bowl of green and some friends. This is definitely one of my best musical discoveries ever.

Download HERE:

Os Mutantes - Self-Titled 1968

Burning The Prospect

From Lincolnshire, England, a screamy d-beat thrashing crust band. Some totally ripping stuff. Sounds like Tragedy and others but much better than most of their kind. Very underrated and almost unheard of for how good they are. Just check it out. This upload has their LP plus their split with Silence, another great crust band from Poland who play stuff like most of the neocrust crowd.

No Great Design + Split w/Silence

Powerviolence Post #1

Powerviolence means fuck you.

Straight out of Austin, Texas and founded 2005 by former Insect Warfare bassist Alex Hughes. Hatred Surge started off as a one-man powerviolence project when Alex recorded the first few releases by himself. Eventually Alex formed a live band and then a permanent one. They used to have a few different female vocalists (Despise You worship) with Faiza being the most well known, she left the band as of last year and is still playing with Mindless, another Austin powerviolence band. They are now lined up with Rahi from Insect Warfare on 2nd vocal duties and include Chris from Mammoth Grinder playing guitar.

Hatred Surge plays mosh heavy powerviolence featuring furious vocal power, blast beats and Alex's monster bass tone. Fast, pissed, short and loud are perfect words to describe everything they do. The first demo contained 9 songs and clocked in at around 6 minutes in length. Which is plenty enough time for it to kick your ass.  Further releases featuring female vocalists recall the vocal styles of Despise You. In 2009 they dropped an LP entitled Deconstruct annihilating the eardrums of PV fans everywhere. The album is a brutal 19 minute whirlwind holocaust of blast beats and wall-of-noise guitar riffs combined with a thundering runaway tank like bass tone. To top it of Alex, Faiza and Rahi are all present on the album delivering an onslaught of hateful vocal chord tearing throat violence. Hatred Surge's most recent output is a split with Mammoth Grinder (who they share most members with now) that came out earlier this year.

Hatred Surge still remains my favorite band in all of hardcore so I highly recommend them to anyone getting into powerviolence.

San Jose, California 3-piece choloviolence vatos In Disgust tear it up on everything they put out. And they tear it up hard. Going back from 2006 they sadly disbanded earlier this year. But I venerate them as one of the greatest bands in hardcore ever. They sound like pure hatred and everything they recorded shits pure malevolence and over the top amounts of brutality into your ears. Their use of two vocalists (bass and guitar players) range from death growls, pig squeals, screaming and top-of-your-lungs-yelling, sometimes in the same song.

Their 2007 release Reality Choke runs 15 songs in 12 minutes and doesn't hold up the violence for a single second. Their last release, being my favorite, was a split with Houston grindcore veterans P.L.F. An 11 song, 8 minute assault that probably reduces your lifespan by a year with each listen to its noise and feedback ridden blast-fest. Not to mention they did a badass job recording it one continuous take.

Listen to In Disgust, drink a 40oz. do some coke and punch your girlfriend.

From Dekalb, Illinois (also home of pv champs Charles Bronson) is Weekend Nachos. Formed in 2004 they're another band of intensely hateful sick fucks. They really go beyond the limit when demonstrating how intense their hatred for the human race is. Read some the lyrics from their 2009 output Unforgivable and chances are you'll feel right at home with the band.

What the fuck do I owe this world besides misery and pain?
I've died a lonely death on this soil
All that's left are my bloodstains
I observe human life
Nothing seems more absurd
The only solution is death
Make everybody hurt
Burn for every breath
Suffer for every sound
A species unworthy of life
A society gone wrong
Nothing brings out more hate in me than sharing life with another human being
I can no longer deny I am everything I despise
Relieve the world of its cries
This unforgivable existence must die 

See what I mean? Now the music is every bit of brutal and downright nasty as the words. Down-tuned guitars all the way to A, mosh heavy breakdowns and pissed off gruff as fuck vocals from John Caution will make you want to punch holes in your walls. They've just released an EP titled Black Earth and a new LP 'Worthless'. So be sure to check them the fuck out because they're an absolute must.

 Hatred Surge - Deconstruct
 In Disgust - Reality Choke 
Weekend Nachos - Worthless

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos

One of the best death metal albums of all time, Bolt Thrower's second album and 1989 masterpiece, Realm of Chaos. There was literally a point where I didn't put this album down for a few months because it was just that good. I mean look at that fucking album cover. Goddamn Warhammer 40,000. Bolt Thrower were some serious nerds to write an entire album about space marines destroying the forces of chaos in planetary scaled war. But that's what makes it so goddamn great.

The imagery of the cover comes to life through the music. Everything about it is so bestial, it really sounds just like an army charging through a battlefield. The guitars were tuned all the way down to A and had a ton of distortion thrown on them. The bass plods throughout the album as the center of the massive low end sound. The drumming might be the only weak point in this album because they sound sloppy on occasion but I believe that only adds to the war-like sound of Bolt Thrower. The guitar riffs herein are fucking god-tier. No guitar-wank and no showy solos. Just straight fucking heavy riffs like it should be. You'll notice that some of the riffs have a certain to groove to them as well during songs like 'Through the Eye of Terror'. The kind of sound crafted on this album influenced countless of bands afterwards.

This album is a definite must for any fan of oldschool death metal, so if you haven't listened to it already you're doing it wrong. All wrong.

Download:
Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos

Screamo Post #1

This is my first post in a series on screamo bands from around the world during the 90's period and to groups active today.

Jeromes Dream existed from 1997 to 2001, they released a handful of LPs and numerous splits during their time and toured fairly frequently along the east coast and the midwest. Their sound came from their unique performing and recording habits. Their vocalist/bassist, Jeff Smith, would refuse to use a microphone and screamed at the top of lungs with his vocal parts being recorded by a microphone taped to the floor. He would do the same thing during live shows as well (minus a mic being present for the vocals). They were also known for their short sets, lasting around 10 minutes.

They crafted an especially noisy and chaotic form of screamo akin to bands like Orchid, Ampere, Pg. 99 and others deemed "emo violence". You can describe their music as very rushed, intense and shrill in nature with drums blast beating through the average length of a 2 minute song. But they still managed to squeeze moments of clarity and calmness into songs with melodic sections. Their songs also included samples and noise pieces. Near their end Jeff had put so much strain on his vocal chords that it was rumored he passed out in the studio while recording their split with Orchid.

Next on the list is I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism In Your Yearbook (Or IWHAC for short). I can't tell the exact year the band formed and when they split up since I can't find any information for that anywhere, not even in the liner notes of the discography LP I own. But they were from Antioch, California. Judging from photos of them playing live I think they also went without using mics.

A long time favorite of mine they play a hyper-emotional and sincere brand of screamo. Their music sounds like it was recorded in more of a bedroom environment or they were playing in front of their friends, but that makes it all the better because it adds to the personal feel of it. They also have some of the more shrill vocals around with 2 or 3 of the band members going at it during the same time. They're light on the distortion and heavy on the melodies.

Noisy Sins Of The Insect is a group from Istanbul, Turkey, existing from 2005 to 2007. They're almost unheard of but they're another one of my top favorites. They play really atmospheric and melancholic screamo traveling into instrumental territories, featuring superbly crafted guitar parts and gut wrenching screams. They only left behind one album but it's one of the best I've heard.

From Gainesville, Florida circa 1996-1997 it's I Hate Myself. Lot's of people don't really get that they were in fact a joke band and that they really just wanted to mock the whole scene during the time (like Emo Summer did). But it's hard to believe that when you hear the music they made and when you read the lyrics they wrote for it.

They played a mix of midwest-emo and screamo with every song being as sad as the one before it. Twinkly guitars and soft singing weave in and out of distortion and screaming. They even dedicated an LP to Roy Sullivan, a man who was struck by lightning 7 times throughout his life (a 22 septillion to 1 chance) but committed suicide at the age of 71 due to an unrequited love. Sad yet?

Jeromes Dream - Completed 1997-2001
IWHAC - Discography
Noisy Sins of the Insect - Discography
I Hate Myself - 10 Songs

Spanish Crust.

Gonna start this blog off with some of my favorites...

The spanish neocrust punk scene has turned out to be my favorite group of bands ever. Most of the bands in the scene are anarchistic, engaged in squatting and communal shows with strong sociopolitical messages throughout the numerous bands' outputs. The sound started out in the later 90s with a band from A Coruna, Spain called Icon; formed '99. Their 2000 Demo was a metallic tinged, yet melodic, blend of screamo and crust punk.

The band later became Ekkaia and released a split LP in 2001 with a grindcore band from Madrid, Spain called Unsane Crisis. Ekkaia's side of the split has become some of my favorite pieces of music ever with its furious brevity and crushing guitar work, playing a heavy-as-fuck blend of melodic death metal and screamo.

They later went on to release an LP titled Manos Que Estrechan Planes de Muerte Y Sometimiento, shifting again to a purely melodic fusion of fast crust punk and screamo with anarchistic lyrics. After a few EPs they released their last album in 2004 named Demasiado Tarde Para Pedir Perdon their shift in sound turned to a more dark hardcore vein in the style of Tragedy, From Ashes Rise etc.

The band then went on hiatus after a final EP and the members went on to form other bands that are still around. I haven't heard of the possibility of Ekkaia reforming but if they do I'm shitting my pants as they're my favorite band of all time.

Another band originating from A Coruna, releasing 3 LPs and a compilation/live album during 2002-2005, Madame Germen is another one of my favorites from the Spain scene playing the distinct style of neocrust but with a darker baroque sound incorporated into their music, as on the first album A Cicatrizes Do Paraiso, using string instruments like violins, cellos and even classical guitars laying down chaotic, balls-heavy and searingly fast tracks with dual-vocal (sometimes triple-vocal) work.

Their last album, Invocation A Morte expanded on the sound but with a lower ended fatter sound and an overwhelmingly epic feel to the music. Definitely the shit you'd wanna play during the end times.

Summing up my top 3 is Hongo. Again from A Coruna they started out during the year 2000 playing a caustically emotional and unique form of screamo, with heavy guitar parts in between periods of melodies emphasizing loud/soft dynamics to the extreme. They also utilized two vocalists trading off lines in pure catharsis. The vocal work in this demo is amongst my favorite, just very intense and loud.

This was only present on their 2004 demo though as they then shifted members and developed an entirely different sound for their 2007 LP Formas De Vida Que Se Precipitan Hacia La Destrucción. On this release they play a form of dark atmospheric sludge metal with baroque tendencies using classical instruments, along with a vocal style change to something like a suffocated scream.

They're still around with their last material released being a split with a french band called Aguirre released in 2007. They really need to put out something new though because I've been dying to hear more.

My last.fm neocrust group where you can find similar artists.

Mediafire links:
Ekkaia - Manos Que Estrechan...
Madame Germen - Invocacion a Morte

Hongo - Demo 2004