Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genres: Death Metal, Progressive Grindcore
Label: Relapse Records

FTF have been a favorite of mine for a long time, as readers of this site may well know. When I was given the opportunity to download and review the new album from the PR company, I was stoked. So yeah, I downloaded the promo, listened to it a couple times, and loved it. But never had the actual time to get my thoughts on it down. Then last night I was in HMV and ended up grabbing a copy of the album. So now that I have the physical version I’m making the time to review it properly.

This is definitely one of the strangest FTF albums so far. It has the grinding of previous albums Stigmata High Five and Disgorge Mexico, but it blends in more of the death metal influence that was very obvious on the Unnamed 7″. Absent are the slower, pretty parts that hearken back to 80′s thrash (especially Metallica) that were featured on Disgorge Mexico. The songs seem longer too, and in continuing with FTF traditions, there is a long song that is almost seven-and-a-half minutes long (“Census Blank”). This song also has a guy doing vocals on it, but due to the awesome amounts of liner notes for the album I have no idea who is doing them. Probably one of the guys in the band.

The second-longest song brings in another FTF tradition, a song in French! “95″ is the tune, and it’s a really fast, angry sounding track that makes me want to mosh like crazy, especially during the guitar solo. This one is a good example of the strangeness of the album too: it’s got a slower riff that really strikes me as a Black Sabbath worship riff. Totally doomy with a touch of psychrock going on.

These little sections are peppered all over the album, riffs that just are not typical grindcore or death metal, but bringing in other genres that influence the men and lady of FTF. And the way that they work with the more typical Fuck the Facts sound is amazing!

In the end, Die Miserable is a sweet album, and definitely should be looked at for those that are into Pig Destroyer, Buried Inside, Gigan, Napalm Death, and Nasum.

8.5 out of 10.

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Genre: Death Metal
Label: Relapse Records

Where was I back in 1990? Well, truthfully, I was five. Now, if I could, I would take this release to my five-year-old self and tell myself flat out that this was my future. I’d say “Little Blaspheme, Morta Skuld are going to rip a new asshole in the death metal world, and with this little disc you will witness it happening.” I’d then have to provide a Discman to myself.

But, unfortunately, I can’t go back in time literally. Instead, I’ll use this digital promo to do that work for me, and take me to a time, mentally, when death metal was fucking brutal, uncompromising, and lacking bullshit. Before autotune and ProTools. And before ‘core ruined a generation of metal fans.

Morta Skuld are seriously that kind of band. And to think that this was recorded in April of ’90, just a few days after my fifth birthday!
The songs are not that long, two-and-a-half, three-and-a-half minutes long, but in those brief times Morta Skuld are putting together some genuinely great riffs that have equally great solos layered over top. Vocally, Dave Gregor reminds me a bit of a Tardy/Benton/Schuldiner/Barnes combo, which could be somewhat attributed to the fact that Grief, Death’s manager, was involved with the band pretty much right form the start. Drumming is top-notch, fast and tight as hell, but with the right amount of looseness to make it come alive.

My favorite tracks are “Gory Departure”, “Through the Eyes of Death” (no wonder why they chose it as the disc’s title), and “Feast From Within”.

8 out of 10.

Morta Skuld on Facebook.

Genres: Doom, Progressive, Sludge
Label: Relapse

The first album in four years from these Arkansas gents yields a set of mixed results. And all of them are good. There is some seriously bone crushing and ear damaging music held within Rest, and with songs that breach the sixteen minute mark, you better be bringing your attention span to this headbanging contest. On the other hand though, there are some seriously mind expanding (but still ear damaging) parts to Rest. For example, “The Culling”, the sixteen-minute-plus song I mentioned, features some gorgeous acoustic/electric riffage that enables one to space out and relax before the storm renews itself. The same goes for “It Was Only A Dream”, the final track.

If you are a fan of Rwake’s other work, then this is a definite must for you to get. If you’re interested in listening to some proggy doom, then you should get your hands on this album.

8 out of 10.

Rwake on Facebook.

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

Stolen from a note on Facebook:

“Back in January we put together a little home studio and spent the month tracking a majority of what will be our next full length album. Everything was shelved while we went on various tours, released our Unnamed 7” EP and then Disgorge Mexico: The DVD. But now having all of that out of the way, we are recording the finishing touches of this new album which we have aptly titled Die Miserable, after the feeling I have every time I need to write a quote for a new album.

“Mixing will be handled by our long time friend (aka: sucker) Craig Boychuk. He’s pretty much had his hands and ears on almost everything we’ve recorded over the last few years, so we feel confident that he won’t totally fuck it up. We’re not very good at rushing out our full lengths, so we’re thinking this should see the light of day in the spring of 2011 via Relapse Records.

“Keep an eye out for updates, videos, blogs and all that shit bands put up when a new album is coming out. Even if our album isn’t any good, the garbage we’ll be posting to hype it up will be awesome.”

I know I for one am pretty fucking stoked.

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