Vise Massacre - Expendable Humans

Genre: Hardcore, Punk, Grindcore
Label: Independent

After submitting my review for Seizure Crypt a couple of days ago, it was suggested that I gave another hardcore band from New York a shot. After a couple of days of letting Expendable Humans sink in, it is crystal clear that I owe my brother-in-metal, Dave, a big ol’ THANK YOU!!! I’m not ashamed to say that Vise Massacre had me won over in a matter of minutes with their hyper aggressive hardcore style and filthy, almost grind percussion tactics!

The overall sound that Vise Massacre spits out is a grimy hardcore masterpiece full of fresh ideas and time tested structures. There are tracks here that are reminiscent of If He Dies… He Dies, Oroku and even a little bit of a sped up Fog Wizard. So it’s safe to say that I had a massive erection forming over the first two tracks of this album.

I mentioned aggression just a few sentences ago and I don’t think that that description alone does the mood that this album conveys any justice whatsoever. Imagine walking through a crowded shopping mall, the day after Thanksgiving. You’re overheated, tired from getting up super early and fed up with all of the idiotic mouth breathers that are usurping your oxygen. An overweight house frau steps on your toe and doesn’t so much as break her waddling stride to apologize for crushing your big toe under her bovine hoof that’s crammed inside a two sizes too small croc.

Getting pissed yet?

Well, now imagine that in your hands, you’re holding two .357 Desert Eagles that never need reloading and all of the doors leading out of the mall have been locked from the outside…

Expendable Humans is the soundtrack pumping out of the P.A. system overhead as you mow down the annoying and tolerable alike.

Aggressive! Psychotic! Hateful! Fucking Perfect! Vise Massacre unlock the homicidal maniac in you through their blend of loud pounding drumwork, hardcore bellowing and grinding riffs. Expendable Humans is a hardcore adventure unlike any other that I have gone on before and couldn’t wait to take it again as soon as the album was finished. And I did. Over and over again. Once while I was strolling though the mall even…

Overall: When all is said and done, a recommendation  to listen to this album couldn’t be glowing enough from me. This is easily an album that I could listen to for days on end, tell a friend about it and listen to it with him/her for more days on end! Vise Massacre may prove that humans are expendable, but they themselves are invaluable to the metal/hardcore community!

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Anaal Nathrakh - Desideratum

Man, do these guys even need more attention? I remember just a few years ago when NOBODY outside of the UK had heard of the British duo of Sir Scream-A-Lot and Sir Fast-Play. But here we are, roughly eight years later and they're attached to Metal Blade Records and I saw more Anaal Nathrakh t-shirts at my last black metal show than any that were supporting a band that was actually there. Or is that a cultural norm that I'm only just now picking up on? Meh...

Anyhow, Anaal Nathrakh's eighth studio effort, Desideratum is a smooth and steady progression from 2012's Vanitas, complete with all of the bells and whistles you've come to expect from these British bastards. Up to and including; "how does he do that?" level screaming, "probably out of place the first time you heard it, but now it's grown on you" clean vocals, "Merlin enchanted your wrists and ankles with an endurance spell" drumming and "simply chaotic" string work.

On the newer side, there's a slightly heavier focus on some of the more electronic effects than in albums past. There is an occasional sample here and there ("What you call genocide, I call a days work." Deep Space 9 for the win!) and a little more "wub" than I'd really like to hear. But in all honesty, they make it work for them in a way I doubt that most other metal bands ever could without alienating their audience.

Other than that, there's no real innovation to speak of. I know that it's unfair to lay down an expectation of improvement on a band that consistently blows you away, but "blast beat, scream, riff, blast beat, scream, riff," ad nauseam to infinium can start to get stale to even the most dedicated of fans. Does that really hurt this album though? Not really. But it seemed unfair to not point that out.

Well, it seems that Anaal Nathrakh have built an asylum of sonic destruction, planted a garden, dug a shit ditch and rooted themselves in to stay, comfortable in their trademarked sound and unwilling to budge regardless of how much they make the neighborhood's windows rattle.

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