Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Hayaino Daisuki- Headbanger's Karaoke Club Dangerous Fire



Tracklist:
1. Into The Throat Of Berserk
2. Haiiro Ikotsu Gakidou
3. Horobit Monogatari
4. AKA

So, here it is, my first-ever review in all its glory. Unedited since the very first time I posted it in the Metal-Archives. I pretty much hate it, and was going to massively edit it before posting it here, but I decided I'd rather give all you Chainsaw Justice readers a chance to mercilessly mock and humiliate me.

Have fun:

Really, you shouldn’t even be reading this review right now. The fact that Jon Chang is in this project gives you a reason to buy it. Everything the man touches somehow becomes musical gold. From his work with Discordance Axis to his newer project Gridlink, I’ve yet to hear a bad album with the Changster on it (I’ve still got a few Discordance Axis splits before I truly have all of the Chang-man’s work, but, meh, close enough).
So, on to the music.

Chang and his mischievous little cohorts have left us a lot to love here. Matsubara (of Mortalized fame) tremolo picks his way through the majority of the songs, and does it with style and speed. The riffs are very catchy and very fast, when he isn’t tremoloing, he’s breaking out some juicy riff or hitting a blazing solo. The drums are well done, Eric Schnee proves that he’s a fast and efficient drummer whose style fits the music quite nicely. Jon Chang’s vocals are great as always, that madman shriek of his is still intact and shrill as ever. He doesn’t use his low grunts though- their absence on both this and the new Gridlink record is a bit disturbing, and a bit of a disappointment. Their occasional inclusion in some of Discordance Axis’ recordings were a real treat, it would be a shame if Chang were to stop using them. But, as always he efficiently delivers a solid vocal performance, one that complements the music quite well and pierces through my speakers like a audile spear. Collectively, the music absolutely rips, Hayaino Daisuki prove their ability to write catchy and fun thrash/grind at absolutely blazing speeds.
The only real problem I have with this record is the production. I’m no audiophile or anything, and can tolerate and enjoy lo-fi production when appropriately used, but the production on this record is sub-par at best. The bass drum is too loud while the guitars are not loud enough, which causes some problems. The constant rumbling of the bass drum renders the guitars near inaudible, making it difficult to discern Matsubara’s succulent riffs. When Schnee stops clanging on his blasted bass drum (which he does for about 98% of the whole record), the guitars come bursting out in full color, and you get to hear small sneak-peeks of how great this record would have been had the production not sucked.

Another small mention: This record is incredibly short. Even for an EP, Headbangers Karaoke Club is extremely brief, clocking in at a mere 14:02. Ultimately though, it isn’t a huge problem, it just leaves you wanting more Hayaino Daisuki to sink your teeth into.

Once you get past the shoddy production, though, you realize that this record truly shines. It’s everything that modern thrash/grind should be: fast, catchy, and fun as hell. Definitely worth a download, at the very least. Hayaino Daisuki released this EP in 2007, so we’ll hopefully get more out of these guys soon.

(Originally written for metal-archives.com)

Huh, that wasn't too bad, it's certainly better than I remember it being.

How was my writing, folks? Feel free to send me either criticisms or praise via comments or e-mail, I appreciate both.

Oh yeah, woohoo first post!

-Gravemarker
Purchase:
Amazon

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Bonescraper - Demo 2009

Tracklist
  1. Hunt For Blood
  2. Torturer
  3. Instant Death
  4. Lurking Insanity

Stop digging, there is nothing deep here. Noktorn's previous projects (Rainfall, Feast of Roses, Septic Tomb) might have been more ambitious, striving to reach some kind of aesthetic or unconcieved atmosphere, but this is exactly what it sounds like upon first listen. It's death metal, very very brutal death metal, with no secret message or deeper meaning. Just death metal, pure and simple.

There is obviously a high amount of Mortician influence here. This demo follows that band's exact same style of writing, with lots of very simple, fast riffs that take no effort to write whatsoever, building up tension and releasing it during the slower, more calculated sections. The faster parts aren't effortless because Noktorn's (or Mortician) is lazy, but because they don't require any effort, and whether or not you spend thirty seconds thinking up a set of notes or spend hours dwelling on it, the end product would be the same. They're there to provide a function, and that is to build up intensity before the slow riffs, and they're not there to be listen to and analysed and appreciated on their own.

Did I mention that the production really goes too far? This is STUPIDLY low. There is so much low end on here that both my laptop and iPod earphones can barely contain it. The bass is just too much and goes beyond being heavy by regular standards and turns everything into sort of wavy floods of sounds that are sure to make your room shake if this is played too loud. The vocals only make things worse (but by worse I mean better), it's believable that Noktorn could have performed the vocals on the Septic Tomb album without pitchshifting, but there's no way in Hell I'm believing it this time. The vocals are insanely low and contribute more to the brute...brutality of this demo. The tremolo parts are even weirder, the chugging sounds almost normal under this much low end, the tremolo riffs just sound strange, with those superlow rumblings split up into mininotes whilst Noktorn murmurs with completely inhuman vocals over the top. The drum machine is a well programmed but super-obvious drum machine like the one used on Catasexual Urge Motivation's 'Encyclopedia of Serial Murders'. It does it's job of holding the beat and is pretty heavy, not interfering at all. Infact whilst listening to this you barely even think about the drum machine, which was probably intentional.

The songwriting is completely dumb on purpose and will appeal only to death metalheads that aren't exceptions to the rule that like death metal for it's sound and aesthetic and not just the fact that there are lots of great songwriters. This demo isn't memorable at all, not one bit, but it's super enjoyable while it's playing, which is most definitely it's purpose. Do you hate Mortician? Jungle Rot? Devourment? Then stay away from this. This is not Demilich worship. This is ugly, raw death metal that does not intend to excel beyond anything other than being death metal. It's about taking the basic elements of death metal and crafting really great songs with them without passing outside the boundaries of death metal by even the smallest step, 'normal' music listeners that don't like death metal will not like this at all, and it has been purposefully crafted in such a way. If you're a fan of death metal then I recommend you check out Bonescraper, this demo is a promising look at what the future holds.

- Colum Hill

(Originally written for Metal Archives)

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V6KECJL0

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Day Everything Became Nothing - Le Mort


Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tdebn
Release Date: 2003
Label: No Escape Records
Release Type: Full-Length

Life has been getting in my way recently and I've been swamped in shit, despite the school year coming to a close. I've got finals coming up, so I'll probably be busy pretending to study the next week or so, but after that I've got plenty of times on my hand. Most of it will probably be wasted on playing video games, paying off my sleep debt, and dicking around in general but I'll make sure to devote some time to maintaining this little blog 'o mine.

Anyways, enough with the rambling on my miserable personal life. This is The Day Everything Became Nothing's Le Mort. Goregrind with a serious sense of groove. The gurgly burps and belches (that's not what they really are, fortunately) characteristic of the genre are here as are the ridiculously downtuned guitars (I think these guys play in A). I don't know what the lyrics or, not that I really care either but I think it's safe to gues it something about gore. There's a bit of speed injected in here to well, grind things up a bit, but really, the shining attraction of The Day Everything Became Nothing's sound is their grooves.

"Naked" swings in with its mean grooves and blasts after a throwaway intro track. The blasted part is fine, but the moment that groove hits, now we are getting somewhere. Despite how downtuned the guitars are, they still manage to retain plenty of crunch and clarity. It never descends into a muddy, shitpile which I am quite happy about.

"Horror" is another fine track here. Not much to say except it has sweet grooves and nice riffs. And it's nice and heavy of course. Hell, that description right there could fit with pretty much any other track on this album. Not that this album isn't worth saying much about but really, heavy,groovy, crunching, and catchy pretty much sum it all up. And since I'm such a lazy dick, I think I might as well end this review right now. Blargh. Anyways, enjoy. Good shit, I guarantee you.

Enjoy.