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!

Wolfbrigade - Audio Kollaps split 7"

I've had this split kicking around for a couple of months now, but just haven't gotten around to listening to it yet. I bought it on impulse when I had a few spare quid in my paypal account, being only vaguely aware of Wolfbrigade as being exponents of that modern crust sound I love so much, yet knowing nothing of Audio Kollaps except that they hail from Germany. Expectations are non-existant for both sides, though I'm excited to hear a couple of bands that I haven't before!

I'm going for what I think is the Audio Kollaps side first, since, rather annoyingly, the label has decided to force you to participate in some sort of 'DIY or Die' confusion in regards to the labelling of the sides. What the fuck?

First track 'Schwadronen Des Todes' opens with frantic buzzsaw tone, then the definition of cookie monster vocals kick in, and it sounds like the vocalist is singing this way for the very first time. I dig into the band's history a little and find that yeah, this was actually their first release, so that might be why his voice sounds so strained. An unimaginative single-snare d-beat hammers in background, with no deviation 'til halfway through, when the whole thing breaks down into a riff-led backbeat, which is pretty cool.

Second track 'Wahnsinn' is much more frantic and fast-paced. It's pretty standard grind, but late on in the track, there's this little weird descending riff that catches my ear. I dig that one riff, but not much else.

The final track, '5 Vor 12' opens with a bizarre sample of... what sounds like circus music, or trumpet-y nonsense soundtracking a chase sequence. Whatever it's from, it seems to have fuck all to do with the actual subject of the song, not that the English translation of the lyrics acually means anything, maybe they work better in German, I don't know. The blast of music itself is okay, but the sample has thrown me too off guard to really pay attention.

I'd need to check out what this band are doing these days to see if they morphed into something a bit more inspiring, after all, they've had 11 years to do so since this split's late-2000 release.

Next up is the side that piqued my curiosity...

It opens like the thousands of other punk/hardcore/crust/d-beat/grind songs I've heard, abrasive riff for a couple of bars, with two-chord accompanying drumfill intro, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And considering I can't get enough of that turn-of-the-century sound, I am more than happy with this record for this first track ('High Tech Degradation') alone.

Second song 'Equality?' opens with the sort of fat bass rumble that, again, countless bands utilise (Stockholm's VICTIMS seem to do it for every second song, and I fuckin' love 'em for it), before kicking into some awesome barked out vocals about the hypocrisy in crying equality, yet judge those who don't share those same beliefs. Lyrics I actually read and relate to? Whoah, this doesn't happen often.

Final track 'Misery' is a short sharp shock, over so fast that I have to drop the needle back at the start to try and catch it. S'good.

This was released on a German label called Epistrophy, who should still have some copies I reckon, as well as a bunch of other German punk/crust goodness I'll get around to checking out sometime.

Check out Audio Kollaps' amazingly 90s site HERE

I can't seem to find an official site as such for Wolfbrigade, other than a myspace link, but I sure as fuck ain't clicking that. Hey bands? There's this thing called bandcamp. Get into it.
In the meantime, here's SOMETHING I found for Wolfbrigade.

Hot Graves

I can't exactly recall where I first heard of Hot Graves.
I know it was a year or so ago, and the thing that caught my attention was the name, making me think of the awesome Hot Snakes... but Grave-ier. This has got to be the worst intro to anything that anyone has ever written. But fuck it, who even cares how I got into this band. The point is, as always, the music.

A few months ago I ordered the compilation CD (a CD review! how un-kvlt! fuck off.) direct from the band, and was instantly enamoured by their mix of crusty D-beat and proto-Black Metal. I won't get into reviewing the demo compilation here, because like I said, I've had it for months and I love it, so it'd be a bit of an outdated, and very biased review. Needless to say, you should still pick it up from the band's merch store, if only for the eye-searingly pink design.

The reason for my rekindled interest in this band of Floridian 'bangers is that they recently released a 7" through the relatively new Greyhaze Records, complete with snazzy new logo courtesy of Vberkvlt (I won't get into how much I love his work yet again, read my older posts.)

So I snapped up one of them beauties... well, I won't say straight away because that'd be a lie. I'm broke as a joke pretty much all the time, but any spare cash I have lying around is usually spent working my way through the ten million distros I have bookmarked. ANYWAY, I'm being even more boring and self-centered than usual, the point is that I bought the goddamn record, obviously. It arrived with the scrawled message...

Which my very basic French translate as something like 'I want to kill all the world'. Which is a nice sentiment.

First up is, strangely enough, side A!
Buzzzzzzzzzz go the first few seconds of the punk-as-fuck riff that begins the first track Desecration Time, then with an UGH, the d-beat kicks in with a vengeance. When the vocals begin a short time later, they're noticably deeper than on the demo comp. They've mutated into a real putrid growl, which seems to permeate the track, to echo under the music, instead of over the top of the instrumentation.

Then this awesome section kicks in with the guitars and drums locking in to this tight little groove which has my head banging like nothing else. They run through this sequence once more, before the track descends into a plodding doom stomp.
Splashy ritualistic cymbal sounds and twin guitar melodies give some respite before things amp up considerably, the tempo building, gaining momentum, before the whole filthy mess explodes into this short sharp shock of a solo, a frenetic, spasticated thing that goes out with a bang. Damn, that was good! I'm actually gonna play that side through again. And again.

When I eventually get around to side B, my expectations are pretty damn high.
Baphomet's Revenge blasts out of the speakers like... I actually can't come up with a shitty metaphor for this. To be completely ridiculous, the mental image I get from those opening chugs is of some goat-headed demon biker riding a blood-fuelled motorcycle... in space. This song would make an amazing addition to the soundtrack of some Satanic b-movie. I actually can't describe this song in cold, clinical terms because it's just too much fun. Just sheer headbanging visceral thrills.

The second track on this side is a cover of Anti-Cimex's 'Make My Day'. I'm going to lose cool points by admitting that I've never taken the opportunity to familiarise myself with Anti-Cimex, despite them being a punk-patch staple. The cover track blasts past, much shorter than the band's own songs, and seems decent enough. With a few more spins, I might grow to love it enough to delve into the Cimex catalogue.

But for now, it's all about Hot Graves for me. As much as I love the demos, this 7" is a whole different beast. They've gotten tighter, yet somehow more sprawling in the range of styles they incorporate into their songs. To include Warrior-worshipping UGHs, neck-snapping d-beat, doomed marches, to blasts of guitar histrionics, and all within a single song, executed without feeling cobbled together, a mere pastiche, is no mean feat.
This 7" was recorded 2 years ago now, and has only recently seen the light of day. If the band were THIS good 2 years ago, I can't wait for their upcoming debut LP, Knights In White Phospherous.

Listen, buy, and dig Hot Graves (HA!) in the following places:
http://satanikrecordings.wordpress.com/
http://satanikrecordings.bigcartel.com/
http://hotgraves.bandcamp.com/