Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Punk, NYHC
Label: Punk Core Records

Seven years after forming, The Casualties put For the Punx out, their first LP. Straight forward street punk anthems that hearkened to bands like GBH and The Exploited.
The original release from Tribal War Records had twelve tracks, but this version that I have from Punk Core Records (who seem to be defunct) has four bonus tracks, recorded in a radio studio.
This is not the radio friendly pop punk that seems to be what people think when they view punk; it’s the raw, vicious stuff that is politically charged and socially aware. One thing I’m really noticing about this album is that The Casualties also sing about the scene, the punk scene where they were born and punk rock in general. In a Digipak, the booklet is pretty sweet, full of live pictures and promos, and some of the biggest fucking mohawks I’ve ever seen.
This is the epitome of punk and should be owned by anyone who’s a fan of NYHC. And if you get the chance to see them live, do it! I saw them opening for GWAR in 2010 and it was a fucking smash!
7 out of 10.

The Casualties on Facebook.

Where: Edmonton Event Centre
When: November 4, 2011

When I found out that GWAR were coming back to Edmonton for the second time in (barely) less than a year I was stoked. Blood was going to flow once more. And this time around they were bringing Every Time I Die and Ghoul! ETID have been a band I’ve only heard bits and pieces of, and liked what I’ve heard. And I’ve only heard Ghoul through the other band of two of its members, Impaled. So it was exciting.
Ghoul came onto the stage to lots of people shouting for them, which is pretty rare. An opener getting cheered by name from the crowd? Must be an Edmonton show. The band themselves were really good, high energy punk/thrash hybrid full of pit-inducing gory lyrics. They even brought up a stage show, spraying blood onto the crowd with a decapitated chicken as well as Killbot and Goreboar’s battle. Fucking awesome, and I hope they make it back to Canada again.
Every Time I Die were great, full of the acrobatics that many of their members have been known for. The crowd really got into them, moshing like crazy for breakdowns and crowdsurfing all over the place. I honestly didn’t know these guys were that big. I’ve seen them in tons of magazines and the like, but never figured they have this strong of a following. The music was loud, fast, and punk as fuck, with tons of hardcore breakdowns. If you get the chance to see these guys, do it, you won’t regret it. Even if the music isn’t for you, the show should be good.
At the end of the night though, this whole show was about one band and only one band. GWAR. Their stage was unveiled, and Corey’s guitar was brought out, placed on a stand with a light on it, and the tech that brought it took a knee before it. I can’t explain how moving that in itself was. For those that don’t know, Corey Smoot played the part of Flattus Maximus, and he had passed away in the tour bus the morning before, and GWAR still decided to finish the tour, the way Corey would want. The crowd, of course, loved it. Cheers were heard all over the EEC.
The band then came out and we let them slay as per their usual. But it wasn’t usual. A very palpable sense of sadness, mixed with anger and anticipation was coming from Oderus, Balsac, Beefcake and Jizmac, and I think it brought them to a closer level to the fans, who were also feeling the same. The set was very much emotionally charged, with Oderus frequently asking Flattus why he went to Planet Home, leaving them all behind. There was even one moment where it truly looked like Beefcake was genuinely choking down tears.
The blood and sweat and goo were all present, and Edmonton was well soaked by the end of the night, turned out into the cold November air. Everyone I saw was elated, full of the GWAR experience, but there was still some melancholy at the end of the amazing night.
Thank you GWAR for sharing your grief with us, and thank you Ghoul and Every Time I Die for joining them. Rest in Peace Corey, and have fun Flattus Maximus on Planet Home. Oderus says you’ll be killing shit and fucking it. I hope so.

Photos from the show are available for your viewing pleasure at the FRPC Facebook page.

Genre: Thrash, Punk, Blackened Thrash

Label: Relapse Records

Yes! I’ve been waiting for three years to get my hands on some new Toxic Holocaust material! Conjure And Command couldn’t of come at a better time too. It seems that every act in Portland, Oregon (NOTE: Toxic Holocaust originated in Florida, hence the, “in Portland” and not, “from Portland”) and their cousins are releasing material about the same time. And so far, it’s all unbelievably awesome! Let’s cross our fingers and and see where Mr. Grind & Co. are taking us this time around…

Joel Grind ditched being a solo thrash master before recording Toxic Holocaust’s successful 2008 album, An Overdose Of Death. Continuing to find strength in numbers, Toxic Holocaust is once again a trio of semi-blackened thrash and punk driven madness! Bassist Philthy Gnaast plays his fours stringer like anyone else who feels under-appreciated: loud and aggressive so that somebody will hear you and go, “Dude, you fucking kick ass!” Well, Phil… Dude, you fucking kick ass! (Appreciation!) Meanwhile, drummer Nikki Rage trots and bangs his way through Conjure And Command at a pace that’s more befitting someone who’s more accustomed to playing sludgecore… oh wait. He’s in Kingdom Of Sorrow? Now I get it. Personally, I think he sounds much better in Kingdom Of Sorrow. In Toxic Holocaust, he just kinda lags behind and drags the whole album down a bit.

Joel’s voice has gone through a bit of a change since the last album. His blackened rasp has been scaled back for some songs to the point of almost being a traditional thrash/punk shout… sort of. But what can be said for sure, would have to be Joel’s continuation of cranking out some insane thrash riffs that you may or may not of heard before. Some of them sound like inverted or rearranged versions of Witchmaster and Artillery songs. Either way, they’re original enough for me to bang my fucking skull to!

And maybe it’s because of that, Conjure And Command has a sense of redundancy that one doesn’t exactly want in there new release from a fresh thrash act. But then again, maybe that’s just me…

Overall: Conjure And Command is probably Toxic Holocaust’s weakest album to date… and it’s still worthy of your time. If you’re a fan of Toxic Holocaust, then you’ll undoubtibly dig this one. If not, start off with Evil Never Dies and listen chronologically until you get to this one.

7/10

Toxic Holocaust On ReverbNation

Toxic Holocaust On Facebook

Genre: Death Metal, Punk

Label: Sevared Records / Comatose Music

Yay! You just don’t see enough orange on metal covers anymore.

Before Broken Gravestones came out with Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, they had a self-titled demo from 2009 that few have actually heard, so I’m as new to this project as pretty much all of you are as well. Your guess will be as good as mine as to whether or not this will be any goo… Kam Lee is going vocals? Well… let’s hope they make up for that in other ways.

We’re not off to a good start here. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a six song EP that features an atmospheric introduction, four original tracks and two demo tracks, one of which is a demo version of one of the four orginal songs. So… there are actually three tracks on here to give a shit about.

In case you couldn’t tell from earlier, I’m not a fan of the vocals. There’s waaaay too much distortion and digital shit in there for me to even consider them actual vocals and not synths. Why couldn’t Noel Kemper just do vocals as well as guitar and bass? He sounds better then Kam in Gruesome Stuff Relish! Speaking of Noel, he plays much slower in Broken Gravestones than I’m used to, but these are still some pretty catchy and punky riffs. However, there is this ear splitting solo in Zombies Don’t Run (EP version) that I’m guessing is supposed to be all warbly and cacophonous, but is so much so that it just plain sounds bad. The down turned punkish tempo is probably what gives this EP the zeal and appeal that made me give it a higher score that I originally thought it’d get.

Overall: I dug this EP more than I thought I was going to. Kam Lee’s vocals are ridiculously horrendous, but he gets the job done, I guess. Thank the Maker for the clean up job that Noel Kemper and David Arias pull off instrumentally. Though, I guess it would be hard to royally fuck-up punky death metal. But hey, the cover is orange! That’s pretty cool!

7.5/10

Broken Gravestones On MySpace

Genre: Scottish Pirate Metal
Label: Napalm Records

Ah, Scotland. The home of golf, haggis, bagpipes, and the kilt. And high seas piracy?
Sing-along choruses and Scottish instruments fill these riff and hook soaked songs of whiskey, rum, the ocean, squids, and whores. Don’t forget the whores. Elements of punk, thrash, and folk metal all come together to form this voyage, and in all it’s a pretty epic tale indeed.
Favorite tracks are “Buckfast Powersmash”, “Scraping the Barrel”, and the album closer (and longest track) “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid”.
7 out of 10.

Alestorm on Facebook.