Wednesday, April 30, 2014

positive faction our songs so buy it damnit! tape

sorry I haven't been around, I was supposed to do a co review but I think bishop died or something...or is just busy...either way I'm blaming him for the no posts, even if I knew he's busy with his book..i'm an asshole. anyway here we have a band called positive faction from huntuntsville Alabama, and this demo was released in 1988. and they were straightedge. that's all I know about this band. I found this tape wile I was on some weird site I guess dedicated to Huntsville bands. I found a lot of great bands including skellatal earth...but here's my review of this 7 song tape. this is pretty midpased hardcore punk with a straightedge youth crew theme. pretty dated by 1988 standards (the year of napalm death's second album and infest's slave lp) but this really isn't bad per say. the mix is strange, it sounds very echoy and weird. not quite what I expected from a demo at all. the lyrics are meh..mostly about straightedge and joining the positive faction (if it's all the same to you i'll have a beer) and...love? really? a fucking love song? and a cover of stand by me that's not that bad. this band sounds like they'd later evolve into an alternative rock band, you can almost hear it. maybe it's the weird ass guitar tone, maybe it's the way the singer does his thing...they never got to evolve as far as I can tell because they seem to have broken up after releasing this tape. it's not bad but it's nothing special either. if you like midpased hardcore with a love song (granted that love song does have a good guitar rif) download this somehow..if not well then..don't... it's a good tape but more speed and rawness would have helped

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

dark angel darkness descends lp

1986, thrash, super fast. these are the words that kept popping up when I researched this album. sounds like it should fit my tastes. but here's the thing..it doesn't..no. no no no. in fact, this album falls right flat on its face. let me prolog this. we have arrived is some of the best thrash you'll ever find ever. the riffs grab you and don't let go. on this followup they traded riffs and heaviness for speed. is that all I really want? sure if it's a grindcore band. pure speed is fine and really fun to play. but for thrash..i want rifs. that's why pleasure to kill hits me so hard, it's got riffs, speed, heaviness. this album sounds like the band sat down and said okay..what do the kids like? hmmm..let's play as fast as we can! that's right, I'm calling this album commercial. and fuck you all who don't hear it. this album just seems like someone sat down and tried to please the kids. the riffs suffer from being played so fast, the aggression so many of the meatheads on metal archives talked about seems to be the kind where I can't find it..what aggression? this isn't aggressive at all, just pointlessly fast. it's a good album for pure speed but come on, how can anyone say this is better than we have arrived? maybe the poser new thrashers. maybe I'm wrong, maybe the band really loved playing fast..but it doesn't sound like it to me. the mix is dirty without having that live punch creator had. I expected so much from this album and I leave shaking my head going..really? was that really what people are so in love over? the overall take away from this album is...meh. that's it..it's a good album, fun, but nowhere near the godly thrash classic kids seem to think it is. I prefer we have arrived for its riffs. maybe if they pulled a slayer or creator and actually wrote songs along with the speed it'd be good. or do an anal cunt and just go apeshit. don't get this unless you're one of those who blindly follows metal archives reviewers. rather you should blindly follow me!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

psycho chainsaw priest cd

so here's a record..by a band..that's not even out yet! I guess it's who you know. question, who the fuck do I know? I somehow ended up on the mailing list of self made god records and they sent this. how I got on i'll never know but I ain't complaining. here's on of my favorite bands..sort of. I don't know much about psycho past 86. they started out as a really fun hardcore punk band with some pop in it then got harder and harder. they did an album with gg allin and released splits with bands like anal cunt..that's about all I know. then they released a 7 inch shaped like a saw with 4 cutting (it's a pun!) tracks..awesome stuff..pure hardcore. I heard this described as a grind punk album and at first I was like...what? I didn't know psycho went grind. but I guess they have but grind punk I wouldn't call it that. this is just really really really fast hardcore. it reminds me of mid 80s bands from Europe and japan in the really fast punk sound but of corse this sounds like nothing before it. this is just raw and crushing hardcore with a lot of grind influence...I've said before that grindcore has to have punk in it and here's the proof. the mix is soooo fucking loud. it's great. though the drums are sort of hidden in the mix. it sounds pretty polished but not in the ultra clean misery index sort of way. it does sound like they recorded it in an actual studio rather than in a room like some albums...this is just really solid. 17 tracks in 29 minutes. what more could you possibly ask for? if you're a fan of ultra fast hardcore/grind like napalm death, fear of god, filthy Christians, s.o.b well you should already know who this band is..if you're one of the sad few who don't know, get all the band's records you can and of corse buy this..best of 2014 so far.

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