Vinnie Paz & Stoupe The Enemy Of Mankind

Alright fuckers - done with the lo-rent death metal - at least for a post or two. Straight outta Philly comes the first hip-hop record since 1994's Niggamortis that has raised a dry smile on my mug since the golden age of rap ended. Sounding a heckuva lot like the Gravediggaz (especially "Books Of Blood"), Jedi Mind Tricks keep it lo-fi without completely sounding like they are recording on a couple of 18-D battery ghetto blasters. Some of the "guest" rappers are a tad weak - who the fuck are the Lost Children Of Babylon? - but it all works overall. While the duo would eventually focus on more politically-charged shit, this first LP is a refreshing amalgam of science, history and tongue-twisting pop culture vocabulary. Amazingly the guys, while changing members over the decades, have stayed completely independent throughout - selling their records with a heard-earned swap-meet mentality, and their success speaks for itself. En-fucking-joy.

Last Straw

Choke Puke Slap Fuck

Banal brutal death grind from Budapest done exactly by the numbers yet for some weird reason it's not only listenable but mildly catchy for all the 10 minutes of their 2008 demo. Interestingly, the trio inexplicably re-recorded Meat as Meat 2.0 two years later - the latter sounds absolutely terrible in comparison (you can download it for free here) which goes to show a flashy production studio does little for a grind band's groove. Still, the guys eventually managed to release a full-length in 2013 which sounds exactly like you would expect it to... and their facebook page hasn't been updated since...

Letöltés

Local plug...

Chompin' on my Tel-Star burrito the other week at a personal fave mexi-cali joint I was intrigued by a flyer promoting a weekday show by some cooly-monikered band called Hoboknife. Unfortunately the gig was cancelled the day it was supposed to happen but my slightly piqued interest was enough for me to search out their bandcamp page. Amazingly it was worth the visit. A weird death/heavy/black metal amalgam that sounds fresh from the late 90's, Hoboknife play "drunken black-and-roll straight off the rails" (per their facebook bio) and while it's nothing I'd ever kill for it was nice to hear an active RVA band that isn't metalcore. Enjoy.

Straight off the Greyhound

My Name Is Really Mud...

No, this isn't a Pork Soda post, it's instead the then-customary early 90's remix single by NYC crossover legends Prong. Hot off the heels of their so-so Prove You Wrong LP, they grabbed Killing Joke (and future Prong) bassist Paul Raven (then a competent programmer in his own right) and Foetus mastermind J. G. Thirlwell for a better-than-most maxi-CD single. Interestingly, as opposed to the bonus stuff Faith No More was releasing at the time, the remixes aren't that much of a variant - they still basically sound like the original, only much more "industrial" - no doubt an effort to cash in on the up-and-coming genre spearheaded by Ministry at the time. Interestingly, a few of the songs work a lot better in their remix version than on the source record - without a doubt both "Prove You Wrong" cuts are far superior. The dry smile inducer on this one is a "previously unreleased" cover of Music Machine/Alice Cooper's "Talk Talk". Sadly though, it just makes the admittedly subpar originals simply sound soooo much better. Enjoy.

Fuzzbuster Harm Dub Safety Xanax

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! YEEAAHHHH!

While his output with Black Flag is unquestionably a watershed influence on SoCal hardcore, Hank Rollins' most cohesive (and undeniably best) work is his 1988 debut LP by the eponymous Rollins Band. Seriously, Life Time may be the heaviest album ever. Fuck doom and Khanate, Otesanek and all that post metal shit - their efforts may be bleak and miserable but not heavy. Not like this. Causal case in point: track four "Lonely." The perfect bludgeoning opening (thanks to über-bassosaurus Andrew Weiss) is the most sadly minor key dirge-of-a-fuck of a song I have ever heard... even before Henry starts in on his cynical "I hate the world that I think hates me" lyrics. What is so great about Life Time is that I feel what Henry is going through. The nearly nine-minute lament of "Gun In Mouth Blues" absolutely redefined what music can actually be; I wrote a fucking book thanks to that song and would seriously encourage any listener to seriously take a check of one's life while listening to the final audal minutes of a determined suicidal souls' existence. The closer "Turned Out" is unrestrained id gone astray - the epitome of hardcore by the guy who defined it... I doubt there has ever been as much anger compressed into one song as on this fucker. My old school Texas Hotel CD has a couple bonus live tracks from Belgium - later remastered by the man himself but enjoy these raw cuts.

Prepare To Destroy