Begging for Incest new CD

Begging for Incest (great name) are a relatively new slam band from Cologne, Germany. They now have a new EP out on Pathologically Explicit Records called Awaiting the Fist. I've heard this band's name thrown around before but I'd never checked them out until now. The first thing that struck me was that the songs off Awaiting the Fist have fabulous production. They sound huge and heavy and I'm listening on myspace, a notorious destroyer of sound quality. This complements Begging for Incest's penchant for static, hardcore-esque breakdowns.

Their are a few things I think could be improved, although I'd like to again mention that this is from a myspace listen, not from the actual CD. The vocalist is decent for the most part, but a couple of times does some pretty bad squeals. Also the songs don't have very good flow and left me feeling that I just heard three good breakdowns instead of one good song. Check them out and if you like them buy their EP. At the very least Begging for Incest is a band to keep an eye for a future full length.

Begging for Incest @ Myspace

Devourment, Malignancy + others @ Police Athletic League in Fall River, MA

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Blaze Inside - Pure Potenciality - 2008 - Dan's Crypt

Straight out of Dan's Crypt, Blaze Inside is the newest band to blaze (sorry) onto the scene from Colombia. I first heard of this band from Sevared Record's Open Wound Comp and Pure Potenciality is distributed in North America by Sevared so it should be easily available for most readers.

But should you get it? Yes, absolutely. Go now, this is a surefire member of the top albums of the year and there's still four months left.

Now that you've ordered it, here's what you're going hear from Blaze Inside (great name). Super fast riffing that stays constantly brutal, but with little bits of epicness. It's unique but you can tell they're Colombian. It's reminiscent of Amputated Genitals and Ancient Necropsy but at the speed or faster than Internal Suffering. This mixture is very satisfying to both the gut, with intense speed and pounding slams, and the brain, with labyrinthine melodic passages that keep the songs interesting without sacrificing anything. This album does not have a dull moment on it. The constant dynamism mixed with the unrelenting brutality and speed left me both thrilled and exhausted.

Another amazing part about this album is that Blaze Inside, despite being from Colombia, use guttural vocals. They about as good as your average TXDM band. Think Aversion to Life or Insidious Decrepancy. Don't worry, they don't buck too many stereotypes. The drum sound is quite loud and pingy.

Another album from Colombia, another absolute crusher. The South American nation's reputation as a brutal paradise continues to grow. If you buy one release from the summer, make it this.

Poppy Seed Grinder - Humanophobia - 2008 - Sevared/Nice To Eat You Records

Yikes! We've all been waiting for this one; ever since their AWESOME split with Defeated Sanity way back in the day, these guys have been under-heralded masters of Czech slam/brutal death. Their last album of Dying Fetus-meets-Inveracity brutality was released on little known Kharaanus Productions, but those truly dedicated to this scene worshiped it as it was meant to be worshiped...

Now, years later (4 or so to be exact!), PSG has risen again with another grooving, moshing and heavy album of excellence. The production immediately sounds a LITTLE rawer, and the vocals are mixed a bit lower, but the trademark PSG groove riffs and pinches/melodies are still present. The vocalist, Cifron, still employs VERY varied techniques ranging from typical deathgrowls to rabid screams, inhales, gurgles and pig squeals, plus some of his own special deviations; solid stuff as always. The first song features an unprecedentedly complex song structure; no longer does PSG stay on a blasty path as they did a lot of the time on Oppressed Reality, there is more technicality (subtly done rather than ostentatiously like some bands nowadays) and maturity in some songs here. The second track, which was available for a while as a song on their Myspace ("Fetus Of Hatred") is furious and raging with a really catchy verse/chorus section featuring a second or two of turntable scratching(?!), and the early breakdown has some great bass interplay.

This album even features a re-tooling of the title track from their half of the split I mentioned earlier, "Talk Evolution", which is well done and does justice to the original; would've liked to see a re-release of ALL the songs (due to "The Unmenigable Of Consequences" being one fucking sick and awesome song, despite having a nonsensical title) but I can deal with one for now.

Anyway, this is very good stuff, not TOO much of a departure (slightly punkier, a little more underproduced, etc.), and thus not too much of a significant progression, from Oppressed Reality, but it holds up quite well on its own. It's fun, it's brutal and it's not just typical gore slam with no concept; I'll take two!

Band Appreciation: New Yorkment

This is an unusual choice for a band appreciation but New Yorkment are an unusual band. The uniqueness comes not from their music (the opposite in fact), it instead comes form their intent - namely to parody the genre and scene of brutal death metal. Why appreciate a band that essentially mocks my favorite music? Because it's damn funny that's why. For me, most parody fails because it goes too far over the top. Getting bludgeoned over the head with the joke tends to make it less funny. However due the natural extremity involved in brutal death New Yorkment's humor thrives on being over the top. This can be seen in the complete lack of lowercase letters on their myspace page including such utterances as "GORESLAM IN THE HOUSE!!!!!". Their songs also have such amusing names as "INGORGING INGORGITY" and "PIT RIFFMENT". They also lampoon the practice of inventing a meaningless brutal sounding genre name by calling themselves "THUGSLAM GOREPUNCH" among other names (see left).

One of my favorite things they've done is create a myspace page for what seems like hundreds of "Slam Chapters" including ones for Africa and "Killafornia". This of course is making fun of all the NYDM/UKDM/RUDM/TRDM etc. pages which have proliferated recently on myspace.

The music too is worth mentioning. It's pretty much just retarded slams and rather gross guttural vocals. It's like playing baseball (or any sport) with your friends. You suck compared to real players, but you're probably having a lot of fun.

A key part that makes this work for me though is that I sense no malice in it. I could be wrong and admittedly I do not know who made all this and what their intentions are (if you know please enlighten me), but I do not get the sense that the person (people?) behind New Yorkment really hate this music. Instead it's good natured ribbing of the odd idiosyncrasies that have developed in the scene. And besides, if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

New Yorkment Myspace