Friday 4 November 2011

Skitsystem / Cyness split 7"

Skitsystem are one of the best-known purveyors of that Scando-crust sound that the kids are digging so much these days. I'm a big fan of their 1999 debut LP, which I can't be bothered to try and type out, it's this one:


So I have wanted to track down more of their stuff for a while now, and I figured I may as well get one while I was buying a bunch of records from one of my favourite distros, punkdistro.de.
Punkdistro are based out of Germany, and run by a very cool guy named Micha, who I think has taken more of my money than my own government in recent months. Go check out their selection, they have some great stuff.

So I picked up this Skitsystem/Cyness split, which is the last thing they released before going on indefinite hiatus, and again, it sat around in a pile of records for weeks before I finally got around to listening to it. If only I had all the time in the world to do nothing but spin records (hint: someone give me a job as the worst DJ in the world. Cheers.).


'Döden Ar Min Maskinist' crashes in with some colossal slabs of noise, before launching swiftly into their familiar brand of d-beat madness. It's pretty futile to try to decipher the vocals, because even if they weren't spat and snarled out, they're all in Swedish anyway. The track hurtles along for the epic running time of 1:41, and comes to an abrupt halt with a final RRRRUGH! Sweet.

'Pestbringaren' verges on downright catchy, and has some serious throat-shreddage going on. It's kind of hard to write about this stuff interestingly, despite it genuinely being interesting music, there's only so many times you can rehash the comments on fast-as-fuck d-beat, buzzsaw tone and harsh vocals. It's just good, so fucking listen to it for yourself.


Cyness are band I am completely unfamiliar with, but considering they have the word Grindcore incorporated into their logo, I kinda know what I'm getting myself into here.

Opener 'Patriotenidioten' (a title that, even with my very limited knowledge of German, is pretty easy to figure out what they're pissed off about) deafens me with a sampled shout of ARMAGEDDOOOOONNNNN! Before immediately launching into some relentless grind. The vocals bark monotonously for a few bars, before the pace relaxes into some pretty fucking great drumwork, some interesting fills going on in this part. More grind blasts by, and then the track slows to a dissonant mini-sludge section before grinding it's way back to the finish line. I dig this. Hope the rest of the side is so varied!

'Pogoslaughter' opens with some great rolling snare, all fills and noise. I really fucking like the drumming on this record, I'm actually taken aback by how above average this is. Hot on it's heels, snapping at 'em, is 'Maulhelden', a 26 second chug-chug sprint which is close to powerviolence in it's not-quite-grooving riff and forced out grunts.

'Bushkrieger', another oh-so-obvious title, starts off higher up the fretboard, announcing it's presence with some short sharp squealing notes, before crashing into an avalanche of aggression. The second half of the song slows down, but only for a couple of seconds at a time, not like I expected anything longer for a grind band.

Final track 'Kleines Licht' starts out with a series of repeating drumrolls, before erupting into a really fuzzed-out riff backed by good ol' blastbeat-age. The track climaxes, slows, and stretches out to breaking point before snapping with a final bang.
Fucking hell, I did not expect this band to be so good. Looks like I'm tracking down more Cyness records then!

If you fancy doing the same, remember to check out punkdistro.de, and pick up something from their great selection!

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