GUEST REVIEW: HORSEBACK / LOCRIAN - NEW DOMINIONS

Mister Growls welcomes our second guest reviewer today, Mr. Rick Sahlin, to share his thoughts on the Horseback/Locrian collaboration New Dominions. Unlike the previous guest assignment (Jude Gullie’s review of Evoken’s A Caress of the Void) I had not listened to this release prior. I entrusted this task to Rick knowing that he is a passionate fan and scholar of the full spectrum of music. Take delight in his following musings as he asks difficult questions and gives me cautious credit for not being an elitist metalhead:

“Sean says the leader is into Neil Young. Neil Young is my favorite. I’ve said this out loud many times and Sean must have heard me say that. Lots of people love Neil Young and that’s fine. I don’t need to feel like I have idiosyncratic taste in music.

I just recently heard “Slip Away” for the first time. It was the version from the Year of the Horse album and I fell in love all over again. There’s always another great Neil song to discover.

So there was a chance that maybe I would like this. I initially thought maybe the point of the exercise was to shock the non-metal fan or make him uncomfortable so metal fans can jeer and congratulate themselves for being tough enough or open-minded enough to like the thing that scares or alienates the non-metal fan. But I should have known Sean would not be up to something like that. Sean is inviting me to metal’s house and I am in metal’s house now as his guest. I’m thankful to have been invited and I will a be a respectful guest and I will sample the banquet that metal has prepared.

Why invite a non-metal fan to review metal? Probably you know more about metal than I ever plan to learn. About how metal works and what metal means and how effective this particular metal is. I can only tell you how someone with a limited knowledge of metal and, today at least, more curiosity than suspicion about metal, will receive this.

I was playing “Sway” by the Rolling Stones around my brother. It sounded like the best goddamn song as I was listening to it and it just made me feel great about music and the Rolling Stones and life and I was dancing around with a big grin on my face. When it was over I asked him what he thought about the Rolling Stones and he said, “They don’t need me to like them.” Sharing your music with others is not always rewarding.

But maybe you want to share metal with your friends. Maybe sharing metal with your friends and family will enrich your relationship with the people in your lives and also with metal. I personally wish I knew more people who were into hip-hop because I just need to share my thoughts about hip-hop sometimes and also hear some fresh thoughts from others. I hope everything works out for both of us.

I can't get into the newest Ghostface album but I enjoyed hearing his recent Wu-Block collaboration on a recent walk through the park. The beats are functional. You'll nod your head. There's a song where Ghost and Sheek Louch compare their guns to children they diligently care for. In the intro of another Ghost breaks down his preferences for cold remedies. He browses the Encylopedia Britannica while drinking lemonade and watching Larry King Live on mute. It's just fun.

My metal background: I took a friend’s extra ticket to Ozzfest 2002. Ozzy was fine - the time-tested songs are familiar to a novice and he is a cute and doddering old man. I took my shirt off even though I’m fat and I was one of several shirtless fat guys yelling and throwing up the horns. System of a Down were also fine - you could shout “Disorder!” during that song and alternate between pogo dancing and swaying side to side. I also enjoyed Rob Zombie. I later lived with that same friend for a while and he made fun of my Sonic Youth records.

I've distilled my personal metal canon to 1-2 songs each from the acts I mentioned above and also “Ace of Spades.” I like some of Alice in Chains’s stuff, if that counts as metal. Also I've heard some Sleep and sun0))))))))))) but I’m guessing Mister Growl readers consider that hipster dilettante metal. People are beyond hating “hipsters” I hope, I mean that gets pretty tiresome.

So this album drones. The idea of droning appeals to me.

I’m not feeling this album though and I don’t really have it in me to say much more than that. They lose me at 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the first song when drums make their first appearance and they are not nearly thunderous enough to satisfy my admittedly cliché-informed expectations. I didn’t listen to it all the way through, to be honest. I checked out last track which is a “(remix)” of the first track because I thought it might have some additional aggro-techno drum machine beats you know like a remix but it didn’t.

This very well could be a good or great metal album. As a non-metal fan I am in no position to say and obviously this isn't a real review. But if the newbie or hipster dilettante in your life asks for a recommendation I would suggest more aggressive and demon-y. That is probably what he had in mind when he asked you.

If you want to recommend something to a Neil Young fan I would suggest Several Shades of Why by J. Mascis from 2011. The song “Can I” is just beautiful. Kurt Vile plays on that album and I would also recommend the new Kurt Vile album which is the consensus pick of internet indie culture this month. The consensus chose well this time.”

Not to self: Listen to each album first. Bad job by me. I’ve enjoyed releases from Horseback before and thought I was going to woo someone over to the metal playground with droning Swans-by-way-Burzum-if-they-were-both-from-Arkansas extreme noise. Many thanks to Rick for sharing his thoughts, hopefully we can convince him to review a future release that is appropriately demonic.

Listen to New Dominions here: http://horseback.bandcamp.com/releases

KUNG FU BREAKFAST ISSUE #7

Kung Fu Breakfast just released issue #7 yesterday, offering a twisted roster of artists all sharing work with the theme “Tales of the Internet.” It’s a wildly imaginative and deeply compelling collaborative effort, with artists from coast to coast exploring the horrors of the interwebz.

Also, check out that amazing cover art from Brittany Bindrim, who was FEATURED HERE on Mister Growl not long ago! Now you can see why I was foaming at the mouth in anticipation of this issue. There’s also great photography/poetry from editor/mastermind Jay Kantor, more beautiful artwork from Mister Growl-alum Caitlin Anne, experimental fiction from Jacob Hensen, and a supremely awesome bit of pitch-black tragic humor from Sean Whiteman I encourage everyone to check out. My own entry, “Kilobytes,” is the story of a remorseless internet scam artist descending into paranoia.

You can download the issue for FREE after signing up for a MagCloud account. It takes you two minutes, stop whining:  http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/557555

(It does include mature content, like profanity, disturbing images, and graphic nudity. If you’re like me that makes you want it even more.)

REVIEW: DESECRATION - MIXTAPE

Listening to Desecration’s mixtape, a free sample of cuts from their 20 year discography, is like watching a predator adapt to its surroundings in reverse. It sort of reminds me of the animals in the upcoming film After Earth, where the planet and all its creatures have become more and more efficient as killing humans. Except with Desecration you don’t get some shitty Shyamalan twist, you get exactly what you came to the party for: Lethal doses of sinister Welsh death metal, sharpened like a backwoods chainsaw.

Beginning with two songs each from Forensix and Process of Decay, Desecration show their most polished work first, with hooks that dig into your softest brain flesh and haunt you all day. “Sadosexual Suicide” grinds and batters the listener with blastbeats while remaining one of the catchiest death metal songs I’ve ever heard. There is a ton of groove in the chorus riffs off those albums, contributing an anthemic quality seen in the most addictive songs from Exhumed and Pungent Stench. “Raping the Corpse” celebrates the perversions of Ed Gein with pummelling Tomb of the Mutilated fury, reminding me that once upon a time Roberts Blossom, who played Old Man Marley in Home Alone, played a barely-fictional version of Gein in the film Deranged. “To Kill With A Drill” stomps defiantly, offering the finest batch of memorable riffs in the collection as vocalist/guitarist Ollie Jones unleashes razor-wire sharp licks. Part of the joy of listening to Desecration is the celebration of violent grindhouse-style films, like the winks at Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer, which make a horror geek like me geek out even more.

“Dig Up, Dig In” commences with the eerie snarl of flies blanketing some swollen, disgusting cadaver before launching into grinding death. “Murder in Mind” and “Turning Black” cover similar territory, exploring the grind-groove-grind formula they’ve exploited with great success throguh their entire blood-drenched career. “Crave For Rot” ends with the most primitive production quality, but the song beneath the murk is stellar, with the lead guitar squealing over foreboding doom before speeding to a downright evil breakdown closing out the mix. There’s legitimately something for every death metal fan here. If you can’t boogie to “Bacterial Breakdown” then I’m going to need you to cut that Carcass back patch off your vest right now, chief. Desecration definitely lean towards old-school death metal, limiting technical flourishes while focusing on concise songwriting, controversial content, and songs that will inspire pit-rage and dislodged vertebrae. It’s a helluva lot of fun, as long as you’re not the corpse they’re defiling in each song. Actually, how the hell do I know, it might be fun for the corpse too.

This mix is available on Bandcamp as a “name your price” download. If you like what you hear support the band, you know how it works. Also, look for Desecration to be featured in my upcoming article for Decibel Magazine, I’ll post more details when the release date for the issue has been confirmed. Many thanks to Ollie for taking the time to answer some of my desperate “FIVE DAYS TO MY DEADLINE OMG” questions.

Listen to Desecration over here on Bandcamp: http://desecration.bandcamp.com/album/free-desecration-mixtape

And check out their website for gig dates and merch:  http://www.desecration.co.uk/

REVIEW: UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS - MIND CONTROL

A few minutes into Mind Control and I’ve already slipped into that dreaded Wikipedia sinkhole, descending deeper into Gnostic texts, Mojave geography, and the Beach Boys discography. There’s just no telling how weird things can get when Charles Manson is one of the major influences of a band’s music. All I know is that when Uncle Acid sings, “Don’t you worry baby, you’re safe with me,” I don’t believe that mularkey for a second.

There’s a fuzzy, retro sense of danger and sleaze on the latest album from Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, a phenomenal band from Cambridge, UK. It harkens back to memories of drive-in theaters and grindhouse cinema, pulpy horror comics and psychedelic serial killers. This is the album Ghost B.C. should wish they released in 2013, full of melody and just a touch of technicolor menace. The songs expertly walk that line between charming camp and genuine creepiness while slugging out crunchy hooks from amplifiers stacked in a swirl of cemetery fog and hookah smoke. “Mind Crawler” and “Poison Apple” rumble with mid-tempo swagger and bad boy sex appeal, while “Evil Love” feels like the James Gang started wearing black capes and playing Deep Purple songs. “Death Valley Blues” finds the middle ground The Beatles left vacant between “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Strawberry Fields,” brimming with deceptive harmonies and metallic blues.

While “Follow the Leader” drones on a bit long for my liking, this is a brilliant 70s throwback track and is that song that every band made while experimenting with the grooviest ‘shrooms they grew out in their secret gardens. “Valley of the Dolls” can’t hold a black candle to “Mt. Abraxus” or “Desert Ceremony“ earlier on the album, but its mediocrity is snuffed from memory immediately by closing track “Devil’s Work,” which stomps, swoons, and grooves to lure the listener into a trance before soaking them in the low hum of an ominous organ note befitting one of Dario Argento’s giallos. This is an album that takes an LSD chaser with every shot of whiskey and takes castle dungeon tours while stoned on its lunch break. I know, I’m anthropomorphizing this album quite a bit, but I seriously want to have a beer with it. I just wouldn’t leave my drink unattended, as I might later wake, strapped down to a concrete coffin, surrounded by women with forehead tattoos and janbiya daggers. Still, inspiring their next song might almost be worth it.

Check out Mind Control on Spotify and visit the band’s website here:  http://acidcoven.com/

And head over to Rise Above Records to keep an eye on the band’s merch, which has been selling like hotcakes. Unless hotcakes don’t sell well in your region, then it’s not like that at all:  http://www.riseaboverecords.com/products/view/364

MISTER GROWL: THE WEEK AHEAD

Apologies for a slow few days, but it’s for a very good, very metal reason. I have been working on an exciting new article for Decibel Magazine, marking the third assignment I’ve received from those magnificent gents over in Philly. I should be back with new posts starting tomorrow, covering the following artists in no guaranteed order:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Howl, Waster, Woe, Tumbleweed Dealer, Motherplant, and Desecration.

We also have a guest post in the works, I will cover a visual artist, and the new issue of Kung Fu Breakfast will be released in the coming week, including one of my new short stories.

I will also have a post sometime in the next week about who the Hell I am, so I’m not just some faceless goblin passing judgement on albums from the safety of my lair, littered with the bones of nu-metal musicians.

Catch ya sooner than later, goons.

Mister Growl

REVIEW: FULL OF HELL - RUDIMENTS OF MUTILATION

Don’t be afraid, be very afraid. Full of Hell’s new album, Rudiments of Mutilation, is what all those fairy tales were warning you about. All the ugly, cruel, dangerous elements of the world have packed their bindles and trekked across broken glass and glowing embers to join the sonic fray in this release. While quotes from the band suggest that the album is simply about “meaningless suffering” I created an entire narrative of a tortured soul recounting violent deeds and troubling experiences post-mortem, waiting for the revelation of what exists when our pulse ceases, and finding nothing. In the street-wise words of Blood for Blood, “What have we got? We got nihilism.”

Full of Hell blast pitch-black, grinding crust’n’doom at their audiences like they have a lifelong grudge against anyone in shouting distance. After “Dichotomy” lures the listener in with howls from a bottomless pit and eerie scattershot drumming, “Vessel Deserted” taps into the hardest core of crust punk before slipping into the abyss for one of several funeral sludge passages, where Dylan Walker’s vocals trail away like smoke from bodies burnt to destroy evidence. Full of Hell rip through a few grinders before pounding out “Indigence and Guilt,” a vicious hardcore song with stop-and-start riffage over a grimy wall of tremolo noise. When Full of Hell muscle up and aim to maim there is no place safe to hide. You don’t want to have an arm wrestling contest with Rudiments of Mutilation. Remember Jeff Goldblum in The Fly? Compound fracture just waiting for you, son.

The middle of the album opens up into a gaping pit of despair as “Embrace” features lifeless, droning musing over feedback and a swampy, groovy bass line. The song bleeds over into the doom track “The Lord Is My Light,” whose dissonant opening chords dive cranium-first into a pool of coagulated blood. This portion of the album is the harshest, scraping along on its belly like a dying snake trying to swallow its last rat-meal before it stops breathing. Then it’s back to the daily grind, with “Bone Coral and Brine” and the title track cranking out crusty, savage hardcore punk with barbed-wire texture. The album closes with “In Contempt of Life” marching bleakly to a halt, with barked vocals reverberating restlessly through a purgatory of ash and bone dust that I assume looks frighteningly like Wyoming. In Full of Hell’s nasty reality there’s never a moment of silence, just the shrill ringing in your ears after a speaker explodes or a gun goes off.

This release is exactly what makes A389 Recordings one of the most important labels in aggressive music. Full of Hell has a versatile and downright scary sound that needs to be celebrated and appreciated by fans of sonic extremity. The Dude was totally accurate, even in jest, when he suggested being a nihilist is exhausting. So even the most dedicated nihilists should take a break and seek out Rudiments of Mutilation, because this album will make you believe in nothing except the lasting power of a musician with a bad mood. Full of Hell are also touring extensively through June, so support these bad mofos on the road. Can’t wait to catch them in Brooklyn with Trap Them and Seven Sisters of Sleep, that sounds like the best excuse for a concussion I’ve ever heard.

Check out the album streaming NOW at:  http://www.terrorizer.com/2013/04/23/full-of-hell-rudiments-of-mutilation-stream/

And though vinyl pre-orders are sold out, get a CD/Shirt combo over at A389:

http://www.a389records.com/site/

INTERVIEW: MOM AND DAD GROWL

It may shock or even disappoint you, but I was not hatched from some speckled owl egg in the middle of winter. I was raised by two compassionate Christians who have always believed that to be truly happy in this world you had to make family and friends your priority, always be a good neighbor, encourage creativity even when you don’t understand it, and cheer for perpetually losing sports teams.

In honor of their 35th wedding anniversary I am posting this interview with my parents that I conducted about a month ago in a Friendly’s restaurant. Read ahead to discover my questionable middle school music taste, my mom’s Earth Crisis impression, and my very first CD:

Son: When was the first time you remember me being into heavy music?

Mom: Probably when we moved when you were in middle school. I noticed that the most.

Son: Do you remember any of the bands I was into at that time?

Dad: Bush.

Son: That’s true.

Dad: Hootie and the Blowfish.

Mom: Cannibal Corpse. When did you like Cannibal Corpse?

Son: That was when I got really into it, yeah. Junior high.

Dad: KoRn.

Mom: When was Bryan Adams?

Son: *Laughs*

Dad: Aren’t you glad you’re recording this?

Mom: Pearl Jam too. But I do remember Cannibal Corpse.

Sean: Yeah when I got into Cannibal Corpse that was some intense stuff. Was there a time you were nervous about me liking that type of music?

Mom: I don’t think I was nervous about the music, but I remember going into to try to find a CD for you and trying to filter out by title if we should get it for you. And I brought one home and you said, “Really Mom? This is worse than the one with the Parental Advisory sticker.”

(Editor’s Note: This is describing her purchase of Tool’s Aenima over Rage Against the Machine’s Evil Empire album.)

Mom: But I wasn’t scared so much, because I couldn’t understand the words. *Laughs* The music didn’t make me that nervous though, no.

Dad: I was raised on some hard rock so no, I wasn’t nervous. The only time I remember, is there was one band that wrote about the police. About violence towards the police.

Sean: Do you mean the band Body Count? With Ice-T?

Dad: Yeah, I think that’s the one. The rapper.

Sean: They had the song “Cop Killer” that was pretty controversial.

Dad: And now he plays a cop. *Laughs*

Mom: I think I remember other parents being impressed that I knew some of the bands you listen to, because they had no idea what their kids were into. And I’d list off the bands for them, and I’d get a laugh out of some of the names, like “Blood Somethingness” or “Zombie That.”

Sean: Blood Somethingness? *Laughs*

Mom: It always had “blood” in it!

Sean: And when I started playing in a band you were really supportive. What were your thoughts on me playing in a heavy band?

Mom: I actually really liked it, it felt like a connection. I wouldn’t call us groupies, but--

Dad: It was a social group.

Mom: It was like a bonding experience, and I liked the fact that you were into music. I think that music throughout your life--

(At this point a Waitress my parents have known for a decade approaches to the table.)

Waitress: (To my Mom) I was just thinking about you the other day, I pulled a book out the other day and there was a sketch you did in it with the teddy bear family, and I was like aww.

Dad: How are the kids doing?

Waitress: They’re getting so big, it’s ridiculous. I took them to the Children’s Museum out in Boston this weekend, because of Spring Break, and they were in the bubble room. My five month old’s blowing bubbles and just starts squealing, he loves it so much.

Dad: Loves the bubbles.

Waitress: I gotta run, but talk to you later!

(The Waitress departs.)

Son: Awesome. *Laughs*

Mom: But I think music carries through, you always have the music and the connection with the people you made music with. Like you writing for this magazine now, I think your love for music lead to that. And we would sit in the back with the other parents and cheer you on. Those were fond times.

Son: And as far as having a group of friends who were into that stuff, Dad were you ever nervous about the kids playing metal?

Dad: None of the guys you played with, no. And you gotta remember, I grew up with Alice Cooper. You watch Alice Cooper and he had quite a reputation.

Mom: I think you have to look beyond the music. You couldn’t have a nicer group of friends at that time. They were good guys and the music style doesn’t necessarily determine personality.

Son: And did you ever hear a song that was too much for you, like you didn’t even know if it was music?

(At this point a Waiter delivers our food. When he’s out of hearing distance my Mom continues.)

Mom: Some of them sounded like *Does Earth Crisis growl impersonation and laughs* I think i walked in one time and I said, “Whoa, I don’t even know what that all is.” But my parents used to walk in when I was playing the Beatles and the Stones and they’d say, “That’s music?” And I swore I wasn’t going to be one of those parents who would do that because I didn’t want to be judgemental.

Dad: Those times with your bands were great times, we enjoyed that. You guys went through a lot of garbage after Columbine and you were tough through it, and I always respected that.

Son: And do you guys remember the first CD you got me?

Mom: I remember the CD player, not the CD.

Son: It was Queen. A Night at the Opera.

Dad: Queen!

Son: Too late, Dad.