Nicaragua: Upcoming Slam Scene Report

In my search for new and brutal bands from all over the world to cover in this blog, I came across a little-spoken-of country by the name of Nicaragua. So...why not; here's a random update about how brutal Nicaragua can be!

First off is a band with a silly name (though we're no strangers to that, we worship bands called Sourpuz and Fetal Mutilation among countless others), Gorepoflesh. Fast blasting slam sickness and insane reverbed inhaled vocals that sound somewhere between a toilet (generic I know) and a meat grinder. Fucking brutal! Snappy and nice drum production, especially the great kick sound. Awesome almost melodic riffs and fast paced chugging slam breakdowns coupled with the pinch harmonic laden breakdowns we're all used to, oftentimes a few per song! This is the kind of stuff that makes me wake up in the morning and go "what new ridiculously good bands from some random corner of the world will I find today?" Just totally leftfield stuff, and so good at that! Highly recommended.

Fleshtorture is a pretty badass name, so we're off to an impressive start right there. The one song available on their Myspace begins with a stupid sample before launching into some raw and almost Mexican sounding blast-slam-death. Right after the first blast part you're hit with a slam breakdown, but it's really only the usual. The drummer hits a few good fills, but the vocals are mixed way too high and the guitars too low to be very effective. Still, it is nice to see a band at least attempting brutality in such a small/weird place, so we'll give 'em a nice round of applause.

Humangrinder is quite good Mortician worship. Mid-paced "half-blast" style goregrind/brutal death with all of the Mortician trademarks...low and monotone vocals with catchy if repetitive riffs and the standard decently programmed drums. Still, there is some merit to this style, considering bands like Carnivorous Vagina have done it well in the past and are even well-liked by Rahmer himself. They even cover "Hacked Up For Barbecue" with much worse drum programming than in any other song, but perhaps better than the original overall (I have an overall distaste for Mortician in any case, but this band was fun to listen to possibly due to just being kind of charming and not hyped like the NYers).

Last but not least is Corpus Mors, a few guys doing old-school goregrind-sounding stuff combined with straight death metal and dual vocals. Nice fretwork reminding of Insidious Decrepancy without the insane scalework and more focus on straight riffs, with the pacing of a good Squash Bowels impersonator and with the edge of bands like Repulsion (you can also hear shades of their influences such as Mucupurulent and Oxidised Razor, too!). Nice stuff, pity there's only one non-live song on their Myspace...love to hear more. The live stuff does sound like a blast of pure noise mayhem, though...and I know for a fact that that shit is fun live.

And there you have it...Nicaragua has a few bands to call its own, and they're pretty brutal to boot! Perhaps this odd little scene will burgeon within the next few years...or decades. But we'll be here when it does...check it!