Ronald Ruck - 88-89 CDR 2006

Blazing Belgian thrashcore-grind from '89 (with clean vocals). The band was competent (and arguably tight), resembling Filthy Christians during their thrash sections, or a heavier and full blastbeat Larm in overall intensity. There's many microsecond/bullshit songs scattered about as well, with both guitar and bass distortions hellishly pleasing in tone. Studio (?) production was disappointingly buried under massive tape hiss and overall low sound (and this was an official release). There's rehearsals and boombox quality mixed up between the tidier sounding tracks. Very fun (and speedily brutal) band who I wish could have found their real masters for something less half-ass than a CDR (I do admit it's packaged "cutely"). I might have the studio tracks in better quality on tape, but I'm slugshit lazy, so this is how we do it...
 


  

Chemotherapy - 7" 1983

Jesus Christ. The epitome of inept (amazingly not the shittiest thing I own). These want to be songs, there's rough coherency in what SHOULD be songs. If I twist my brain to absolute torsion, I could say they wanted to sound like DRI...or SOA...then complete blurrcore (making them a very warped footnote in the history of fast music). I...I can't figure it out. It's bizarrely recorded, but not awful. Notably (though not adequately) performed on time, it's better than Psycho Sin. It's just terrible, but the enthusiasm that far exceeds the playing ability also shines through like a nuke. Songs range from 18 to 47 seconds (an AWESOME ratio). Get ready for no distortion on the guitar.

Massmedia - The EPs 1979-1980

Pre Headcleaners. Zero thrash, but well executed jangly KBD P-U-N-K with sizzling hi-hats and overall trebly production (some of this shit's gotta be recorded on a boombox though). "Kent Agent" from "Ingen Hets" and "Jag Vill Ingenting" from "Das Jazz" are my fave tracks. "Ingen Hets" overall is my preferred EP. There's still a level of competency here that...given time...they would have easily veered out of Shit-Fi territory (the self-titled actually exemplifies Shit-Fi). But then, we wouldn't have Headcleaners now, would we? :) Shout-outs to Katz Seki for taping me "Das Jazz" literally 20 years ago. That nigga deserves a statue more than Lemmy.

https://www.mediafire.com/?pm0d8761n1a5bfu

Brain Cancer - 2008 Demo

Shockingly, a western-noisecore band I not only liked, but bothered to keep! They have that generically "epic" (but simplified) Framtid energy with a "Monarchy Zoo" era Doom speed/song arrangement. I think ENT's Phonophobia may have been a fave record of theirs. Guitars aren't irritating and seem to have a shape to them. This sounds like a well recorded 4-track (room ambiance is great too), but some power (and bass guitar) is lost. I wish they could've gotten more material out. I received this tape in a trade, lack of any info on the cover and all (I don't think the spine is the title, more a proclamation). 6 nameless songs in 10 minutes, and they're all...memorable! I want to say I got this 2008-ish and would place the band in that same timeframe (I somehow never emailed them, and would feel retarded as fuck to attempt it now). As terrible as this sounds, I really love their name!

https://www.mediafire.com/?c0zp237451ourog

Christfall - "187 The World" 1993 Demo

Suffering Luna's original name. Psych-sludge at hardcore length (think Pain Of Mind, not Larm). It's almost like the guys didn't have the patience for doom, but still wanted to acid-trip you as hard as possible in the shortest time possible. The tracks average between 2:55 to 3:40, yet have an urgency to them that belies their sonic whirlpool of heavily looped tv samples (interwoven into the tracks like an instrument unto itself), torturous shouting and semi-singing that's drowned pleasingly in reverb AND delay, multiple guitar effects mercilessly engaged (some effects become integral to certain tracks), commandingly deep bass that never gets lost in the mix (minus the crap tape degradation/generation), and a professionally captured yet characteristic recording. My rip, and the billionth time I've uploaded it...



Evoken - "Rotting Misery" Flexi 2012

ULTRA DOOM!!! I refute all mankind's perceptions on the silliness of posting a lone MP3. Paradise Lost's most loved track is given a shockingly majestic megaton upgrade! This is one of the best goddamn covers I've heard of the song (there's a couple out there, none bad at all), bringing honest contemplation if it trumps the original. It certainly trumps the other covers. It's slower, deeper (the ambiance immerses you to the blackest fathoms), heavier, and slightly improves a couple timing issues on the original track. It's mindblowing to me, so of COURSE I'm hoping you have a similar experience!

Schismopathic - "Kharkharamaphatic Regurgitator" Demo 1989

Why do I have this on multiple formats? It's not (just) because I'm a nerd, it's because I'm fuckin' senile. I'll give you the superior version, which was the first version I received a few years back: a simple and nicely done rip of the band's demo. Basic grindcore, and completely pure at that (no goreporn or metal in their style). It's tight (enough), mics are cupped, drums are pleasingly fast with notable "wrist power", it's good...just typical of the time and place (all the ex Eastern Bloc bands pretty much cloned Napalm Death but ended up sounding like Agathocles). I gotta extra-credit them with the feel that they could have been on a Chris Dodge comp. 9 songs, 10 minutes, cross between large rehearsal space and live mixed production, and it's old. Old shit's cool. Click the cool link nigga...

Laibach - LP 1985

Highly prolific in their formative years, Laibach's cinematically totalitarian tone and attention to song craft (as a psychological experience) was spread heavily across multiple releases very early on in their career (sometimes several a year!). The self-titled here falls more into the "tortured" camp then the militaristic sound collages and deep horns stuff, though the sci-fi Eastern Bloc propaganda anthems have their cameos. This might be their darkest album, all the early releases bro-down for that throne...but this one feels the most "robotic", "machine-like", "paranoid", "cold"...and fascinatingly experimental. It's industrial as it used to be! The "dance floor classic" (I've seen this) entitled "Panorama" closes the disc out too. :)

https://www.mediafire.com/?74q0q4pw5apg65l

DJ Tron - "Chrome Padded Cell" CD 1999

Classic speedcore with a simplistic edge (Tron's homage to industrialized groove) while also maximizing aural depth. In the 90s, I was very well versed in Tron via his 12" EPs and prolific mixtapes...so when this CD just casually showed up one day at TOWER FUCKIN' RECORDS it was immediately snatched up (that still trips me out, Tron did pressings in punk numbers and held no allegiance...nor a bankable style...to mainstream distribution channels).

Though there's no information in the booklet beyond generic production credits, the CD is somewhat of a collection of comp/12" trax mixed with new material...all original compositions where he was a genre-definer in the 90s speedcore sound: "Just" fast, but not breakneck (yet), with protracted segues into mid-tempo and intentionally monotonous bass kicks that are inherently deep and infused even heavier with sickly distortions. Over and under laid in this robotic tank of doom are surgically edited horror samples of dialog, agonized and tortured female screaming, and fuckin' daaark electronic loops and other synthy buzzings. Everything's entombed in reverb as well. I love it. Tron will grind you down and...I can't lie...rape your soul. Rape. Your. S-O-U-L!

Slime From The Nose Of Texas - "Slaughterhouse" 7" 1986


Speedy '86 Texas thrash (hardcore, trust me it's very punk) that's so forgotten this lone release STILL goes for low-dollars decades later. I never bothered to pick them up (before) because my brain just decided it wanted to tell me they sounded like generic "opening band" hardcore. It took a rip on 7inchpunk to inform me how dead wrong I was, which concluded with an eerily timed opportunity to purchase it via a message board set sale. This EP sat (and on Discogs still sits) for yeeeeeears in nearly every record store I'd been to in Southern California. ANYWAY: It's up tempo, upbeat, shrill guitars (ice your boner, it's not braindrill), stop-on-TWO-dimes arrangements (shortest song is 13 seconds, longest is 2 minutes), spastic and snotty party-guy type vocals, and someone from D.R.I. drew the cover. Efficient low-rent studio sound that is another giveaway to their era. All the thrashier 80s hardcore bands had noticeably "adequate" productions, yet retained highly unique and enjoyable acoustical nuances for whatever goddamn mystery reasons. Usually it'd come out that the engineer didn't know how to mix punk, but somehow didn't fuck the mix up and even made the bands sound semi-distinct and "otherworldly". I think S.N.O.T.'s solid, a few of the homies think they're solid, come do the gooble-gobble with us yo...


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