Black Breath and Victims: Live in London, UK

Black Breath in the process of staving in my skull. I’m clearly no photographer but hey, it’s an original pic so cut me some slack bitch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He stumbled from the shadows, blinking, rubbing his eyes. They were red-rimmed with black hammocks slung beneath them like scars of lost time.

Shambling into the light, the hunched figure muttered and twitched as he repeatedly jamming his fingers in his ears. This involuntary rummaging dislodged flakes of dried blood that fell like rusty snowflakes only to catch in his stubble.

The freshly-showered and laundered commuter crowd parted easily around him as if subconsciously aware of the foreign body in its midst, slipping him through with nothing but a few sideways glances to hinder him. 

Those close enough to hear the murmuring from his cracked lips could make out the simple mantra, “Black Breath, fucking hell”, repeated again and again.

Balaclava – Crimes of Faith

What next, death metal bands called "Bobble Hat"?!

Happy new year gentle men and women, lovers of the heavy.

Gotta love serendipity.

Picked almost at random from the Southern Lord website in a bid to sate my hunger for crusty metal, Balaclava has barrelled into my life without warning and wrenched me from my festive meat coma with an almighty slap around the chops.

Crimes of Faith may be billed as “hardcore punk [played] with severe intensity” but that is selling this cracking little gem far short.

Pulled Apart by Horses – S/T

Not a black metal album

I’m back. I have fought the plague that is Swine Flu and survived. I wrestled the virus and won. It took me two weeks of sweating, snotting and lying about like a opium addict but I did it. The worst thing? Not being able to listen to music. The very thought of any kind of sound in my ears made me feel queasy.

To maintain thematic integrity, I should post about Pig Destroyer or some other porcine referencing record. However, the thought of grindcore right now is akin to drilling holes in my eardrums, however cool the artwork.

Nails – Unsilent Death

Nails - Unsilent Death

I’m still not quite sure what to make of this odd little debut from SoCal band Nails. The 10 songs of Unsilent Death flash by in 13 minutes 48 seconds – in your face Slayer and Napalm Death!

Indeed the instant velocity achieved by 32-second opener Conform recalls Scum-era Napalm Death and surely track titles like Scum Will Rise and Suffering Soul are nods to that seminal slab of grind.

Unsilent Death is not grindcore, although there are moments that certainly come close.

As these feedback-linked songs unfold, there are moments of brief respite where Nails simply groove.