GUEST REVIEW: P.O.O.R. - EXTINCTION OF TRUST

Continuing our series of metal reviews by non-metal fans, Mister Growl welcomes back guest reviewer Shane Frasier, Acquired Taste Booking owner and creator of the Behemoth Music Festival (a series of concerts in Upstate New York that recently reached down into Brooklyn). He has also been a member of roughly seven thousand bands, ranging from hardcore punk (Daytime Soiree) to electronic/dance music (Mr. Owl) to eccentric insanity (The Lanky Mofos and The Bumblebees). He was nice enough to accept our invitation and review the new release from P.O.O.R. (Point of Our Resistance), their album Exttinction of Trust. With the NSA ‘bating while listening to our calls and reading our e-mails and more toxins filling our food every day it’s a perfect time to listen to this album:

“I always thought the saying, 'It's the little things in life', was bullshit. Really? Are you really content with the little things in life? If a gentle breeze whiffed by your face for a few seconds on a brutally hot summer day would you really say to yourself, 'That made my day'? No, you wouldn't, and don't lie to me, because I know who you and know where you live and will make you tell the truth. But, for the first time ever, I found myself uttering this phrase while listening to P.O.O.R's album, Extinction Of Trust.

What I am trying to say here is that you don't need to be fancy in order to deliver good music, and P.O.O.R does it well. Fitting itself somewhere between thrash, grindcore and hardcore, Extinction Of Trust passes you by quickly (Not having a song longer than 2:26), but leaves a fun, lasting impression because of the obvious joy these guys clearly had making this music.

The album is comprised of 24 tracks, each one more mosh-pit inducing than the last.  “Bastard Complex,” “Flip The Scripture” and “Your Bullshit” remain my favorite tracks on the album, delivering quick hardcore punk ditties in an otherwise growly thrash album, which, I must admit, is a welcome addition if for any other reason than I am a huge hardcore punk fan. That's not to say I don't appreciate the other songs, on the contrary, they're all great, I just have to make my loyalties clear sometimes.

Songs like a “A Man Called Disease” often wake you up to the fact that you are listening to a grindcore album, but the fact that every song is different in a way really makes you love what these guys are doing. One second “Christian Science Fiction” makes you wonder if you're listening to a metal-influenced tough-guy hardcore band then, like clockwork, a song like “Cherrorizer” smacks you in the face waking you back up to the fact that the grindcore roots of the album are back into full swing. Also, putting one of the biggest smiles on my face is the cover of “Religious Vomit,” a Dead Kennedys song. Being a huge Dead Kennedys fan, I find myself embarrassed saying that I kind of prefer P.O.O.R's version more. I think my only problem with the album is that it ends, and I know that might come across as a cliched answer, but I could care less. It's how I feel. I didn't want this album to stop playing when it did.

Overall, P.O.O.R's Extinction Of Trust totally made my day. It's a wake up call, and a welcome one at that, knowing music like this is out there. Too often are we shoveled the same genre-sticking music day in and day out, knowing full well that, somewhere out there, a diamond in the rough awaits our discovery. If you have a soul, you'll love this album. If not, you'll be crying in your bedroom by yourself, slamming your head against the wall wishing you had a soul so you could like this album.”

- Shane Frasier

(Editor’s note: I also wanted to mention that Matt Harvey from Exhumed also appears for guest vocals and solos. I will be reviewing Exhumed’s Necrocracy sometime over the next week.)

Many thanks to Shane for covering this release, and YAY we finally landed a positive review from outside of the metal community. Sure, maybe I cheated a little, knowing he was a Dead Kennedys/Minor Threat fan and hearing a lot of that influence deep in the belly of this grinding punk album, but I digress.

Stream Extinction of Trust over here at Bandcamp and buy it for a totally modest $7 to support these Californians:  http://poorgrind.bandcamp.com/album/extinction-of-trust

And follow them on Facebook for touring news and info on future releases:  https://www.facebook.com/POORGRIND

REVIEW: SPLIT - TEETHING / RAVAGE RITUAL

This nasty little 12 inch split shares the meanest cuts from two bands prepared to kick the religion right out of your keister. Teething and Ravage Ritual team up for a record that stinks like an unwashed political prisoner and bites like a cannibalistic hermit.

Teething are somewhere between the buzzsaw death grind of Napalm Death and P.O.O.R. and the growling d-beat blasts of Skitsystem. Formed in Madrid, Spain, their music is loud, fast, and storms into brawls prepared to fight dirty, taping glass and chunks of brick to its knuckles. Teething’s songs are a violent call to action that takes Tool’s passive “fuck all the [insert item(s) here]” mantra from Ænima and takes it the next rebellious step forward, like the brutal blur of anger in “Starting Fires.” This is music that fights lies with pyromania and oppression with razors. From the thundering, familiar bass drum gallop to the toxic gang-shouts of “How To Kill A Child,” Teething know how to bring a mosh pit to a boil and bust eardrums with crusty hooks and immediately recognizable hostility.

Ravage Ritual have a more varied approach, introducing elements of death metal into their charging hardcore grind that only occasionally resembles fellow Finnish band Rotten Sound. “Deadbeat” slams a Disfear-styled attack into a sludgy breakdown that feels like dragging your body across a slaughterhouse floor sticky with blackened, moldy meat and old blood. “Drown Beyond Insane” introduces metallic riffs over blastbeats before switching gears into an acidic groove tailored for possessed headbanging. Then there’s “Hymn II,” a grimy slab of street-gutter doom that sounds like it was cooked up in a basement meth lab, ending with ambient guitar work like a snarling cloud of flies descending on the masses. It’s an eerie, foreboding conclusion to the split album, and I appreciated the tempo shift as it crawled to a stop.

This is a great split from Nooirax Productions that should be sought out by fans of extreme music everywhere. Maybe you don’t share the anti-cop sentiments of Teething, maybe the slower moments in Ravage Ritual’s songs aren’t your poisoned cup of tea, but there’s no denying the passion and aggression in these songs. You get the idea that these guys mean exactly what they’re shouting, and that sort of sincerity amplifies the music even louder for me.

Check out the split album for FREE over at Bandcamp, and donate what you can if you like this album as much as I did:  http://nooirax.bandcamp.com/album/split-12

Then check out Teething over on their Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/teethingband

And do the same for Ravage Ritual:  https://www.facebook.com/ravageritual