Wednesday, November 26, 2008
DLA review of Gortuary’s “Manic Thoughts of Perverse Mutilation”
San Diego’s own death metal start-up Gortuary has been tackled by reviewers on the internet’s oldest and most prestigious metal site, the Dark Legions Archive.
Here’s what they have to say about the band’s first release, Manic Thoughts of Perverse Mutilation:
This band reminds me of Psychomancer, who were sort of around a few years ago, but without the ability to grasp the core of what they’re expressing in a song and bring it to light. All instrumentation is capable, songwriting technique is good, but songs don’t come together and end up being a chaotic riff salad of contradictory impulses. That they do this in old school death metal aesthetic is at first memorable, until you realize that this CD lacks what made the old school great: the ability to bring a dark, brooding, powerful vision of life alive and make it exciting. Spare us.
In other words, close, but no cigar: the fragmented, unrelated riffs are this album’s downfall. Perhaps we will see some more noteworthy material from Gortuary in the future?
You can listen to the entire album right here in a modest mp3 quality, but I hope you keep in mind the “try before you buy” philosophy.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Phobia - All That Remains 7” [1990]
All That Remains is the first release (7” vinyl) by Phobia, Orange County’s premier grindcore band.
Production: Distorted guitar comes out with a fuzzy texture, and clarity in the mid ranges, with drums and bass guitar outlining at the higher and lower ends. Harsh vocals have a texture similar to the guitar, but stand out all on their own.
With their first work, Phobia demonstrates a knowledge of the building blocks of grindcore, utilizing closely-related riffs built around sets of drumming rhythmic “cells,” or repeating cycles that move along once they wear out (via hardcore, thrash), and are replaced yet again with a variant improvement of the last (via speed metal and crossover). Awareness of balance between cycles is a key motivator behind the music’s composition, lending to it an effective simplicity.
The vocalist hearkens to us from a shrouded distance, warning us of mankind’s imminent self-destruction by the poisoning of the environment, failure on society’s part, et cetera. The track Imminent Rot describes in metaphor the inner struggle in living and coping with modernity. These songs make suitable anthems that aren’t as preachy as their progeny. The topics and ideas presented here both lyrically and musically aren’t new in grindcore, but they were probably just an indication of stagnant thought; a lack of fresh ideas. Nonetheless, they make for a great starting point for improvement.
Resources
Phobia - All That Remains @ 7inchcrust
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Man Destroys Himself - Mexico /San Diego Deathgrind
When it seemed that nearly every single band in the Greater San Diego area was a pile of filth striving to be “BRUTAL” but falling short of anything interesting, I happened upon Man Destroys Himself.
Man Destroys Himself originated in Mexico, and then moved to San Diego. That seems like a horrible idea, from a music-scene standpoint. Nonetheless, they were entirely capable of grasping the fundamentals of metal, drawing influence from bands among the highest ranks of death metal and grindcore, unlike hundreds of metalcore and deathcore clones that infest the area, thereby forging their own brand of deathgrind.
There’s nothing special here insofar as technicality, but they’re fairly skilled. Their vigor reflects itself in their music.
Of particular interest on their Myspace was the track “Macrocosm of Torture”. The music, highly saturated in noise, with drums pounding through with clarity, kept up in pace with the imagery evoked in the lyrics in an ever-changing yet self-similar fashion, matching the intensities of the violent, metaphoric lewd acts described in the lyrics to the music. Vocals are surging in and out where the bass guitar should normally be, but it is hardly missed here.
And then this video here exemplifies how much more awesome their music is. Suck on this, Cannibal Corpse:
Man Destroys Himself - Cloak of Martyr
Man Destroys Himself on Myspace
Album reviews coming soon.
