Artist: All Shall Perish Title: “The Price Of Existence” (re-release) Label: Metal Mind Productions Release Date: 12/9/2014 Genre: Technical Grindcore/Death Rating: 3.5/5
Originally released in 2006 on Nuclear Blast Records, the sophomore album by All Shall Perish was recently re-issued by Metal Mind Productions. The album now comes in a Digipak holder and features no additional tracks, so with that being the case my original thoughts on it remain the same. I have restated those views in the review that follows. The edition is limited to 2000 copies so diehards might want to act fast if interested in purchasing.
Oakland’s All Shall Perish might have something here with their interesting mix of traditional Death Metal along with Technical Grindcore as it allows a new view to be taken of a format that often has loyal fans on either side but seldom together. The band also shows a great level of musicality not often found in either extreme genre and they base this on their mutual love of bands like Opeth and At The Gates while at the same time enjoying Cannibal Corpse and Hatebreed. As you listen to some of the intricate changes during songs like “We Hold These Truths” you would think drummer Matt Kuykendall a protégé of Cryptopsy’s Flo Mounier. He was equally brutal on “The True Beast” and it’s evident that the strength in this kind of music falls to the drummer in most cases. The group has a new vocalist in Herman Hermida and he handles both the growls and the shrieks to speaker blowing levels. I had not heard the bands previous release “Hate, Malice, Revenge” so I cannot compare him to his predecessor and only felt that he handles the material they deliver very well. Continue reading “The Price Of Existence” (re-release) by All Shall Perish→
Artist: Municipal Waste Venue: Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY) Opener: Cauldron, Brutal Truth, Phobia Date: 12/9/2009 Label: Earache Records
Every once in awhile you find yourself hitting a show that while you don’t have the most background on you in terms of the gamut of talented bands, you end up going just the same in hope that you can offer up your take and observe the scene that surrounds the bands that are performing effectively. Such was the case for me with the Municipal Waste show this evening for while a number of my friends have been extolling this bands virtues and discussing their live shows, they were a band that I had not gotten around to enjoying in concert yet myself. The interesting thing was how the whole night would be pretty much of a mystery for me with the exception of the very first band on who would be Cauldron. I knew some of their stuff and remembered one of their members being a part of a band that went away too soon by the name of Goat Horn. The show would also feature Brutal Truth and Phobia and here is how it went. Continue reading Municipal Waste @ Gramercy Theatre (12/9/2009)→
Artist: Carcass Venue: Nokia Theater (New York, NY) Opener: Suffocation, The Aborted, Necrophagist, 1349, Rotten Sound Date: 9/6/2008 Label: Nuclear Blast Records
The summer still had a few weeks left to go before the fall would offer our region some much needed relief from the stifling heat that we had this particular summer season and based on this it made sense that one of the year’s hottest tickets would take place before it closed out. The killer show that I am talking about is none other than the reunion jaunt of the mighty Carcass – the absolute legends of the Grindcore scene and pretty much the reason that the whole genre came about in the first place. The hotter than Hell bill for this event was labeled as the “Exhumed To Consume” tour and not only would it feature Suffocation, 1349, The Aborted, Necrophagist and Rotten Sound as the openers but it would also come to the Big Apple hand in hand with Hurricane Hanna. Readers should know that I don’t mean some sort of female wrestler but instead a super powerful storm system that had been making the news for days before it hit us. Luckily, those who actually had tickets for the long sold out event would be safe inside the depths of the Nokia Theater in Times Square. The doors opened for the venue at around 6:30 to my knowledge but the first band would not go on for another hour. That’s a lot of time to wait around the Nokia, and with six bands in total on the bill this was looking to be a very long night of Metal. Here is how the evening went down for those who missed it. Continue reading Carcass @ Nokia Theatre Times Square (9/6/2008)→
Artist: All Shall Perish Title: “The Price Of Existence” Label: Nuclear Blast Records Release Date: 8/8/2006 Genre: Technical Grindcore/Death Rating: 3.5/5
Oakland’s All Shall Perish might have something here with their interesting mix of traditional Death Metal along with Technical Grindcore as it allows a new view to be taken of a format that often has loyal fans on either side but seldom together. The band also shows a great level of musicality not often found in either extreme genre and they base this on their mutual love of bands like Opeth and At The Gates while at the same time enjoying Cannibal Corpse and Hatebreed. As you listen to some of the intricate changes during songs like “We Hold These Truths” you would think drummer Matt Kuykendall a protégé of Cryptopsy’s Flo Mounier. He was equally brutal on “The True Beast” and it’s evident that the strength in this kind of music falls to the drummer in most cases. The group has a new vocalist in Herman Hermida and he handles both the growls and the shrieks to speaker blowing levels. I had not heard the bands previous release “Hate, Malice, Revenge” so I cannot compare him to his predecessor and only felt that he handles the material they deliver very well. The rest of the ASP lineup falls to Ben Orum (rhythm guitar), Chris Storey (lead guitar), and Mike Tiner (bass) – each of the players coming across as the tightest that the genre has to offer. Clearly this is not everyone’s cup of tea but if you enjoy Cryptopsy and find the need for that adrenaline rush level of Metal to get you going, All Shall Perish is a good choice to make. Other album highlights for me were “Wage Slaves” and “Promise” and I gauge this from the amount of head banging I was doing while trying to write this review. Check this one out if you feel yourself slowing down too much. Continue reading “The Price Of Existence” by All Shall Perish→
Artist: Cattle Decapitation Title: “Karma, Bloody Karma” Label: Metal Blade Records Release Date: 7/11/2006 Genre: Grindcore Rating: 4/5
If Karma has anything to do with how one’s expectation is perceived then Cattle Decapitation more than live up to the lavishly destructive combination of killer instinct and constructive chaos embedded in their own existence. Since 1997’s Ten Torments of The Damned the blood flowed, the bowels fretted and the brain fried in Cattle Decapitation’s cataclysmic karma and death drill. Bleeding from their bowls and brooding from the boils of their previous barrage, Cattle Decapitation brings forth their latest effort. Greeting Grindcore aficionados with an accentuated assault on the academician. The design of their destiny is the bloody karma of Cattle Decap’s latest cacophony. There is no guise of groundbreaking greatness, rather, it’s a refinement of their readily available assault on the aural ideal that makes Karma.Bloody.Karma so successfully sanguine. Continue reading “Karma, Bloody Karma” by Cattle Decapitation→
