death metal / grindcore
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Let's once again kick off with an anecdote from my days as a shopkeeper in the metalscene. One day I exploited a merchandise stand at a local death metal festival where bands like Aborted and Suhrim played. After a few hours I had enough of all the noise and sheer brutality and for a very long time I've been ignoring those genres. It's only since I've founded this webzine that I've started listening again and it often surprised me how much the genre has evolved over the past few years.
Take Gorepunch for example. Judging from the cover you'd expect a sickening grindcore album, but the involvement from ex-members of Aborted, System Devide, Malignancy and Fear Factory shows a different approach. True, this is still brutal zombie and gore-infested death metal in the vein of bands like Exhumed and Regurgitate but they also incorporate the technical skills of Nile and Suffocation. The result is a blast, an intense slap in the face and an effective assault on your sanity.
After an eerie intro, Gorepunch immediately drags you down into their vile, putrid world of extreme metal. With fierce guitars, hammering drums and a scathing tempo, 'Darkness Rising' crushes many competitors active in the world of death metal, black metal, metalcore and goregrind. The continuous variations in speed stun and confuse he listener, who will be left behind disorientated and terrified. Of course we're dealing with some very experienced musicians here and that's quite noticable in title track 'Give 'em Hell', which features similar elements and a punishing sound.
The odd thing about this album is this: no matter how perverse, gore and twisted many grindcore (and related) bands claim to be, the immense technical level of the debut easily outperforms them. It takes malignancy to a completely new level, one which only a few people can endure. Others will probably go mad, insane or pissed off when listening to demolition machines like 'Dead And Breakfast' or 'Wait For Me To Reload'. Even I, normally a calm, quiet human being, have been throwing my keyboard through the living room when the adrenaline took over.
So I'm going to stop listening to this album before more accidents happen and switch over to a calm, soothing piece of ambient music. I don't think my heart can take more of this and my brain is already creating images of me slaughtering zombies at a busy Antwerp shopping street. This album stunned and scared me in several ways and it will probably blow you away too. If you dare, check out this brilliant piece of technical death metal. Just don't come complaining to me when the men in white throw you in a van and drive you out of our society...
Serge
Take Gorepunch for example. Judging from the cover you'd expect a sickening grindcore album, but the involvement from ex-members of Aborted, System Devide, Malignancy and Fear Factory shows a different approach. True, this is still brutal zombie and gore-infested death metal in the vein of bands like Exhumed and Regurgitate but they also incorporate the technical skills of Nile and Suffocation. The result is a blast, an intense slap in the face and an effective assault on your sanity.
After an eerie intro, Gorepunch immediately drags you down into their vile, putrid world of extreme metal. With fierce guitars, hammering drums and a scathing tempo, 'Darkness Rising' crushes many competitors active in the world of death metal, black metal, metalcore and goregrind. The continuous variations in speed stun and confuse he listener, who will be left behind disorientated and terrified. Of course we're dealing with some very experienced musicians here and that's quite noticable in title track 'Give 'em Hell', which features similar elements and a punishing sound.
The odd thing about this album is this: no matter how perverse, gore and twisted many grindcore (and related) bands claim to be, the immense technical level of the debut easily outperforms them. It takes malignancy to a completely new level, one which only a few people can endure. Others will probably go mad, insane or pissed off when listening to demolition machines like 'Dead And Breakfast' or 'Wait For Me To Reload'. Even I, normally a calm, quiet human being, have been throwing my keyboard through the living room when the adrenaline took over.
So I'm going to stop listening to this album before more accidents happen and switch over to a calm, soothing piece of ambient music. I don't think my heart can take more of this and my brain is already creating images of me slaughtering zombies at a busy Antwerp shopping street. This album stunned and scared me in several ways and it will probably blow you away too. If you dare, check out this brilliant piece of technical death metal. Just don't come complaining to me when the men in white throw you in a van and drive you out of our society...
Serge
