No Zodiac - Population Control Review

No Zodiac. Bringing the hate mosh since 2009. From the city of Chicago comes the next big thing in hardcore (or at least for me) Since Harm's Way. Their album Population Control is kind of a game changer in my opinion. Mixing tough-as-fuck beatdown hardcore with the intensity of death metal and the nihilism of black metal, Population Control has a sound that is absolutely crushing.

Starting with the slow sludge-y song Rigor Mortis and exploding into the title track, the tone is set for the entire album. This band has everything that is good. Blast beats? Check. Slams? Check. Pissed off vocals? You know it.

I mean the breakdown in Population Control is probably the greatest ever made. Hatebreed ain't got nothing on these guys. The formula is right and they do it so well. The riffs are just heavy and the vocals and lyrics are so good. It's something that has to grow on you. And what I love is you can hear the death metal influences so much. The tremolo riffs in Irreversible are on par with any old school death metal band.

Check out the part at 1:14 on Track 5, Sadistic Intent. The song starts off with the heavy hardcore riffs and then goes into some ridiculous black metal riff that has an almost "epic" quality to it. And the lead melody's are awesome. You can hear an old track Non Existant redone on here. Much better quality then on the EP.

This album is almost flawless and if you've heard there earlier stuff the progression feels natural. Whatever comes after this is going to be some serious next level material. They are going on tour in Europe so go see them and buy the album here!

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Out of Order - Paradise Lost LP

This is a weird album by the band Out of Order. It's not really weird as in a "psychedelic" way or an "artfag" kind of way but in a general "They did their own damn thing" weird. It sounds like if MDC in 1986 if they were from Chicago. Still damn good and the cover art is sick. It's got fast songs and it's got some almost new wave sounding jams on here.

Compared to other bands at the time, this isn't the greatest but it's not god awful.

Check it out here.

Agathocles/Drudge split

If you are into grindcore or extreme music in general you will eventually run into Agathocles sometime in your life. Most people are completely shut off from this band because of their ridiculously vast discography and generally poor recording quality. However there are some gems that everyone should check out and the one album I love out of everything else is their split with Drudge.

 It has just about every classic song from Agathocles with pretty good quality. Mincecore at its finest. Also this split includes Drudge who are just about unknown. However their side of the split rules. Crusty grindcore similar to the late 80's UK scene. Definitely can hear Chaos UK, Extreme Noise Terror and all the other UK greats in their sound.

Check it out and be on the look out for Agathocles stuff!

Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses

This band holds a special flame in my heart since they are homed in Rochester, NY. While that may not be the case now as the members live in various cities, Dan Lilker resides in Rochester and has been a great influence on metal and grind for many years. Brutal Truth was one of the first grindcore bands I heard. Their first album Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses is a knockout release. 15 tracks of bone crushing grindcore that borders on death metal at times.

While they didn't start the second wave of grindcore in a way they lead the US grindcore scene from the ashes of pioneers like Terrorizer and Repulsion. They rose through the ranks with bands like Assuck, Discordance Axis, Brujeria, Excruciating Terror and various others.

The album starts slowly with a haunting ambient intro and a sample. The first song Birth of Ignorance showcases a midpaced riff intro and the song leads into a thrash type riff which Brutal Truth uses a lot on this album as well as some heavy midpaced riffs and great tremolo picking. Songs like Stench of Profit, Walking Corpse, H.O.P.E. show the sheer speed this band shows as well as some technical riffs which Brutal Truth is known for. While most of the stuff this band has been done before by the death metal and grindcore bands before them, they use a lot of samples, power tools and noises in their songs. Also the production on this album is fantastic. Clean sounding yet not lacking any sort of heaviness. Some people cite this as a reason why this album isn't that great but it adds clarity especially during the blast sections. If you listen to From Enslavement to Obliteration it's hard to tell what's going on when they are blasting while with Extreme Conditions its pretty clear. The version I have includes a ton of bonus tracks. With bonus tracks from singles and EP's, as well as a Black Sabbath, Butthole Surfers and a few S.O.B. covers.

I have yet to check out their other albums like Need to Control and Kill Trend Suicide but I've heard they are really good and expand on the technical prowess and dissonant sounds of Extreme Conditions. Also Richard Hoak drums on those albums and he later starts Total Fucking Destruction which is another amazing band.

Check it out!

Update and Lärm - No One Can Be That Dumb

Hope everyone had a good 4/20 Record Store Day. Picked up a few neat things. Got the Filth Kick EP by Poison Idea and Ringworm Demo as well as Confuse's Nuclear Addicts boot leg and Whitehouse's Great White Death!

Today's band is the one and only Lärm! Fast straight edge hardcore punk from the Netherlands that takes no prisoners! My first encounter with this band was on their EP No One Can Be That Dumb. The sound is terrible on this. The guitars are just a sloppy pile of noise and the bass sounds like its coming through a practice amp. But the speed and ferocity of them makes this EP so great. Songs like Wodka, It's Not What it Seems to Be, Chemical Suicide, and Dollars and Roebels show how blisteringly fast this band can play. The lyrics are very politically motivated learning strongly to the left and straight edge but not coming off as whiny like modern day straightedge bands. Songs like No One Can Be That Dumb, Non Conformity, Up To You and Somewhere Over the Rainbow have lyrics about police violence, conformity and self realization. This is a precursor to what the early 90's thrashcore/powerviolence stuff would become.

As I said the guitars sound terrible and the bass kind of funny but this is still a great EP and a wonderful band. The EP after it, Nothing Is Hard in This World if You Dare to Scale the Heights is much heavier sounding and their more recent recording simply titled Lärm is a modern recording of older songs and some newer ones I believe. None the less, they broke up and formed Seein' Red and Manliftingbanner as well as some other bands but Lärm will always be my favorite.

Koriza - Koriza

This is some weird obscure metalcore/mathcore/screamo/experimental band from Russia that totally rips. The music is deep and complex but not in a nerdy progressive metal kind of way. The awesome part of this band is the dynamic of the band as they have a keyboard player who really makes this band shine adding a ton of atmosphere and variety between the crazy bass lines and tough guitar riffs. The vocals are sung in Russian and range from painful screams to quiet whispers and a lot in between.

Download it now!

Abdicate - Fragmented Atrocities

Abdicate are a brutal death metal band from Rochester, NY and with their new album they showcase some above average music. I say above average because it's brutal death metal. While I feel like there could be so much done with this style, its the same old, same old (Not that its bad). My expectations for brutal death metal are about as high as my expectations for fast food, just don't mess it up and I'll enjoy it. This album pretty much hits the spot.

The formula is pretty basic for brutal death metal, and the whole album kind of lacks any deviation but it's not bad. Like just about every brutal death metal band from 1998 and on, its more about the slams then anything. That's not a bad thing because its a good formula. However the only thing wrong with this album is the production. That's what always kills a good amount of death metal bands nowadays in my eyes. The drums and vocals are so overbearing they drown everything. The snare is compressed so much that its all you hear when the drum does blasts and it sounds terrible when he does his gravity blasts. The guitars and bass is pushed back and hard to hear expect during the slams.







While the guitars are quiet you can still hear the riffs and they are pretty good. Ranging from fast tremolo picks, palm muted breakdowns and fast death thrash type riffs. There is a good variety, and the songs differ. They aren't just fast part-faster part-slam repeat until they get bored. And the vocals aren't annoying after 10 seconds like more death metal bands nowadays. For a guy like the Yeti you can only expect the best. I wish he had some variation but it doesn't take away from the music.

All in all, its a good CD. It's what you come to expect from this band. The artwork is really nice and really captures the album title. And the last song is a Carnivore cover. I've honestly only heard one band do a Carnivore cover so it was nice to hear a band that resides in my city doing something as cool as that. Definitely something to look into.

Download the first three songs here!