Get off my case motherfucker!

As I've droned on about in other pages of this blog I'm a huge fan of Italian cannibal/zombie horror and have been ecstatic seeing some of the more notable "classics" get the deluxe re-release treatment on Blu-Ray. Movies that were only seen as a scratched, beaten negative in the smelliest dives on 42nd Street or via cloudy nth-generation VHS dubs are now being scanned into high-def with a host of fun bonus shit for sleazeophiles like me. Umberto Lenzi was the auteur behind 1981's Cannibal Ferox (astute trash cinema historians will know it by its VHS title Make Them Die Slowly), a poor man's cash-in on Ruggero Deodato's epic Cannibal Holocaust. While much has been written about the two directors' individual style, Lenzi was clearly the knock-off king of the two, riding an established genre wave to its inevitable completion. Cannibal Ferox effectively ended the minor Italian cannibal cinema renaissance - it's a mean-spirited canker sore of a film that features absolutely no likeable characters spitting spiteful dialogue from one to another with contempt and a sneer. It's a riot. And that's not even counting the inescapable violence that supposedly got this gem banned in 31 countries. Gluing the whole thing together is a solid synth-funk soundtrack by one "Budy Maglione," also known as composer Roberto Donati. Donati was a Lenzi regular in the early 80's, scoring his other cannibal/Guyana mishmash Eaten Alive! and oddball comedy Daughter of the Jungle. While nowhere near as coherent a soundtrack as provided by Riz Ortolani for Deodato's jungle films, Donati effort is much more poppy and terribly catchy. Some of the NYC jingles almost sound like they were recorded for some 1980's L'eggs commercials - they are that kitzchy (to be honest I think Donati was trying to sound like Ortolani's "Do It To Me" from La Casa Sperduta Nel Parco but that's just me). Anyways, the actual soundtrack is only 20 minutes or so long but there are a host of alternate takes to keep you interested - enjoy a trip down tit-piercing, dick-cutting, brain-eating memory lane.

Los Últimos Canibales

Tomato Babies

A few of you may remember Insomnia Isterica from the hard drive deadbeat posts a few years ago - while I successfully exorcised my back-up drives of anything to do with them, some of the B-side bands from their random splits escaped my mass cleansing. Introducing the aptly-named Compost from Rome, Italy. Absolutely banal lo-fi goregrind (my rips are supposedly at 320kbps - yeah, right - they sound like they were initially torn at a much much lower bitrate) but almost desperate enough to sleaze into the so-bad-it's-good category. First off, any band champions a GUT cover - set your expectations to low. That slight hiccup notwithstanding, it's a pretty painless seven minutes of grind - there are actually a few moments of enlightenment, especially the pretty rocking "Inferior Angiosperm". Too bad it just sounds so absolutely shitty.

Cinoist

Blood Clot

Manic fucking black grindcore from Italy - sounding like the guy from Converge screaming over the Anaal Nathrakh or some similar sounding apocalyptic-esque band. Blisteringly fast as fuck with a few breakdowns here and to catch your breath. Most of the tracks hover around the two-minute mark and suffer somewhat from sounding alike but there are a couple longer, feedback-laden, almost experimental-ish epics in there to keep the record fresh. Really amazing album to grind your teeth to. Enjoy.

Antitalian

Spirit Of The Time

Solid 5-song demo from Torino, Italy. Eight brutal minutes of sludgy grind that is nothing you've heard before but they do it with style and some motherfucking aplomb. You'd be amazed how many bands on bandcamp have the name Zeit Geist. It's like 30. Fucking ridiculous. Check out the one good one here and enjoy.

Bless

 
Currently watching: Don't Torture A Duckling

Currently listening to: 311 Unity