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

REVIEW: ANCIENT SHORES / CYNARAE - SPLIT

A389 Recordings, the label out of Baltimore, has gift-wrapped another lethal offering that should have hazard warnings attached. Eventually A389 LPs will require waivers to be signed, because they release some serious spine-snapping material. Every fan of heavy music owes it to themselves to study the A389 roster and salivate over the talent. This split album featuring Ancient Shores and Cynarae is a great representation of the A389 approach to music making: Songs you break faces to.

When I first heard the band name Ancient Shores, especially matched with the album’s artwork, I was prepared for blackened music that would accompany fog rolling off a black ocean onto the majestic banks of a snowy Norwegian beach. But these shores aren’t majestic, they’re littered with shattered whiskey bottles, discarded switchblades, and the splintered bones of rats caught in food processors. Ancient Shores, a downright dangerous crew from Morgantown, WV, fuse crust, sludge, doom, and heavy slabs of hardcore with punk rock energy that spits on your attempt to classify by genre They share strands of the same DNA as The Secret and the Dazzling Killmen, bands that demand to be separated by how much viciousness they pack into a track as opposed to some forum-created sub-genre. Album opener “SSDD” laces hardcore punk with classic rock licks to create perfect driving music for road-rage enthusiasts. The melancholy, slouched melodies of “The Omen” throws off its sheep disguise and reveals a predatory d-beat wolf beneath. From the dissonant, harrowing doom of “Not on the Ground” to the metallic burst closing “Destroyer,” this is abrasive, mean-spirited music proud of its scarred, ugly mug. Ancient Shores carve their initials into this album with a rusted scalpel deeply enough that the impression is guaranteed to last.

Cynarae rampage through the second half of the album with a murkier, meatier production that reminds me of a meaner, snaggle-toothed cousin of Skitsystem, Earth Crisis, and early-Napalm Death. This nasty Seattle band plays songs that feel like they escaped their cages, running free at last and hungry for whatever bleeds and breathes. They seem unconcerned with polish, relying on ferocious, reckless energy that greatly hints at the mayhem that must occur when these miscreants take a stage. I’ve never seen them perform but I’m going to guess right now that concussions in their pits are not rare and Roger Goodell will approach them about helmet regulations. “An Elegy” is the type of song a band dreams of closing an album on. It thrashes and bangs heads with a massive, confident mid-song riff before leading into the following track “Harbinger,” a grinding assault that pounds skulls into dust and skulldust into nothingness. Unfortunately the album ends on “Attrition,” which just didn’t have the same craft or energy to keep my interest and just faded into memory. Still, there’s plenty of raw promise to convince me that Cynarae is an uncaged animal you need to keep track of, if only to make sure they don’t eviscerate you in the wild.

I strongly encourage you, dear, deranged reader, to check out A389 if you are not familiar with their venomous releases. I’ve read an alarming number of reviews of split albums that pit the bands against each other like it’s some sort of death match. What’s really important is that these bands would share the same bill, they both have blood on their knuckles, and they are perfectly willing to knock your ear drums the fuck out. Bottom line: They are intense bands that know how to inspire a frenzy and are well worth your time. Leave “picking favorites” to those creeps on The Bachelor, this is extreme music and all true ambassadors are welcome.

Listen to the split album here:  http://a389recordings.bandcamp.com/album/a389-121-ancient-shores-cynarae-split-12

You can track down Ancient Shores over on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/ancientshores

And learn the pronunciation of Cynarae here:  https://www.facebook.com/cynaraekittenmachine

And don’t forget to check out 389 Recordings for all their sinister releases:  http://www.a389records.com/site/