Sacrilege – Behind The Realms of Madness

Bagsy the stud on the right. The similarity looks-wise to early Napalm Death is unnerving.

How the hell did I overlook these grotty thrash-punk geniuses? They were even from my home town of Birmingham, UK. Admittedly I was still in short trousers when Sacrilege put out their crossover debut but sweet fucking Jesus, how can I not know about a band whose alumni played for greats such as Napalm Death, Benediction, The Damned and… uh.., Morrisey, ah well you can’t win ’em all I guess.

In 1985 they put out a record that combined the best of Discharge, Crass, and the sloppier end of thrash (think Venom or Possessed) for a truly British take on crossover. The ace in the hole though was Tam’s singular vocals. She truly is the queen of crusty thrash vox: snotty, anguished but supremely listenable.

They also had an interesting lyrical approach, melding your typical crusty socio-political rants (think Napalm Death style) but wrapping them in Lord of the Rings worship. Pretty crazy for the time, huh.

Fire up the 2015 Relapse reissue that has great sound and adds another 7 tracks to the original wham-bam-thank-you-mam 6 and enjoy some chunky, memorable riffs, crusty beats and unique vocals. My fave track is probably Death’s Door.

 

Oozing Wound

Does a band name get any better than that?

I have been  checking Spotify every bloody day for their new album but it has yet to drop worse luck.

Those cunts though know how to rip. If you are unfamiliar with their ripitude, try their first opus.

Second album also rocks

Periodic Table of Heavy Metals

Black Breath – Mother Abyss

OK, so I am about a billion years late with this but there’s a new Black Breath album teaser floating about called Mother Abyss.

Press play and you can hear for yourself but if you can’t be arsed, here is an approximation of the decimation in puny verbiage.

• Revving motorbike engine thrash riffs.
• More pounding and dense than before.
• Less crust, more thrash
• Their trademark groove is less obvious
• The infectious flourishes haven’t been entirely sheared off though
• A particularly impressive sustained screams brings the song to a climax.
• It’s definitely decent but doesn’t hold a candle to anything off Razor to Oblivion or Heavy Breathing.

Enough with the bullet points already.

The new Black Breath album Sentenced to Life drops on Southern Lord on March 27 and is engineered by King Midas of guitar tone himself Kurt Ballou.

They best not let me down or I might give them a bit of a dirty look at their April 2 gig. Yeah, that’ll show ’em.

Nails/Skin Like Iron Split 7″

Daddy, look what I did at Play Skool today!

Nails condense their raging noise into a black hole of grinding fury. Their last album Unsilent Death roars home in just 14 minutes, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. I love it.