Portugal is not a very known country when it comes to heavy music. In fact, experience has taught me that foreigners don’t know much about our metal scene. The only known band outside these walls is the one I always get for an answer every time I pose this question to anyone: “Moonspell.” Good for them… but it pisses me off. Why the hell is it so hard for a Portuguese band to make it out there? The problem here isn’t the quality of the music itself…what could it be then? Is it fault of the Portuguese labels who don’t promote them enough? I really don’t know and I’m not a musician to answer to this question. Throughout the years, we have seen many quality bands rising up from scratch, a big part of them as the result of side projects from musicians coming from several bands in the Portuguese hardcore/punk/metal scene.
One of these latest creative joints could well be the result of a bestial and evil summoning… Besta.
Besta gathers members from several bands from the Portuguese scene, like We Are The Damned, Atentado and Men Eater. Together they conjured as this evil alliance, making one of the most sick bands ever created here in Portugal. Influenced by bands like Dropdead, Rotten Sound, Mass Grave, Pig Destroyer or Napalm Death and inspired by cult horror movies, they drink up all of these influences and spit out a crude, crust-punk-face-melting-grind. Damn right… Besta is on the loose and hungry for blood.
With the mark of the Beast on their forehead, Besta unleash with their latest sonic assault, Herege, six (six, six) tracks of some of the most vile grind made in Portugal. The first thing I notice in Herege is an evolution in the sound of Besta’s music. This time it’s very “Napalm Death-ish“. Because if you look into the early Besta releases, you will see that their sound is slightly different. But I guess that’s good right? Especially for Napalm Death fans like myself. And although the treatment of the tracks is different, it doesn’t mean they have slowed down, no way. This latest production presents us a Besta with a more cohesive and powerful sound. It’s got more evil in it. Besta are pissed off with everything and everyone.
When Sean CVLT asked me to review Ecocide’s new album ‘When Will It End’, I was about to decline. As I’d heard a song of theirs before sometime back and didn’t get into it, so I assumed I didn’t like them. So I have a rule when it comes to reviewing, which is I only review bands I like. As I don’t see the point in putting energy into slating a release by a band after them putting all their heart, money, time and effort into releasing. But before I emailed Sean back I said I’d give it a listen to it streamed on CVLT. This is when I was stopped in my tracks. I don’t know what I had heard before, but this is not what I was expecting at all. I really love this and am kicking myself I’d just so utterly dismissed them.
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New Records in the
CVLT Record Store!0
Posted In Avant Garde,Black Metal,Crust,Dis-beat,Features,Music
We just got in a new shipment of LPs, 7 inches and cassettes to the CVLT Record Store! There is a whole bunch of awesome music in the store now, including titles from Locrian, Mamiffer, Horseback, JK Flesh, Prurient, Asile, Black September, Pissheads, Wolfe, Fifteen Dead, Kasputin Yar and The Subtractions – all in limited quantities. Check out a gallery of our new titles after the jump, and head over to the CVLT Record Store to pick ours up now…
Face it, metallic hardcore/metal punk or whatever you want to call it is hot. Tons of bands are playing it. But while other genres seem to drown in monotony this genre is flooded with great bands. Deathseekers (or “dthskrs”) is one of the fresh bands that popped up on my radar, because coincidentally their guitarist lives a mere 5 minutes from my town and they just released their first demo tape.
The pros of Deathseekers and their demo:
- They’re Belgian
- It’s fast
- It’s as vicious as it can be
- It’s not unlike bands like Length of Time, Trap Them, Rot In Hell or Entombed, to name a few
The cons of Deathseekers and their demo:
- It’s limited to 50 copies and sold out, just like their shirts
- The tape only has two songs on it, so it’s not that long
Seriously though, this is good stuff. A389 and Deathwish enthusiasts will eat this up like there’s no tomorrow. No reason not to download the two songs and give it a try. If you dig it you can maybe try and pick some of their future (and probably also strictly limited) releases up!
There has been great albums out this year from Thisclose, Black September, Cross Stitched Eyes, Countdown To Armageddon, Hooded Menace, Neurosis and the list goes on. But this is a count down of the crust ones, so I won’t be including them, even though all great releases. And of course there has been great crust albums this year too by Slang, Nuclear Death Terror, Oiltanker, Martyrdöd, Wolfbrigade and Acephalix. So this has been a very tough list to compile as I like all aforementioned bands.
Number One: Putrefaction ‘Blood Cult’
(review 15 May 2012)
The debut LP by Ireland’s Putrefaction is a heavy dose of dark metallic crusty riffs skewered together by visions of concentration camps, putrefied bodies, cities consumed by filth, corruption and disease. The opening track ‘Scourge’ leads us in, with distorted feedback slowly fading and declining into a heavy bass tone atmospheric riff. This as all fans of heavy music know is the revving up and things after this are going to go pretty fucking awry. Much like being handcuffed to a car that’s about to explode. There’s the riff change, a low-pitched roar and yes, balls to the fucking wall, things have gone very awry!
Tribal Slaughter…AGE OF COLLAPSE
Full 12-1-12 Oakland Gig
Now Showing!
Posted In Crust,Dis-beat,Film,Music,Music Videos
Age of Collapse released Burden of Beast this year via Aborted Society, and to me, every song is an anthem! When the song “Hands That Take” is blasting out of our speakers, I get chills and realize this world had better fucking change for future generations! Age of Collapse made a recent trip to the Bay Area where they rocked the house. Their passionate performance was captured by our comrade Hellsasick in full. Check out how this band cuts off the legs of corporate greed after the jump!
Arise…Amebix has officially called it quits for the final time. From the time that this group came together in 1978, they have been doing things own their own terms. On a personal level, ever since 1981 I have been a huge fan of theirs. I never got to see them in the 80′s, so in 2009 when I got a chance to see their first ever show in America I was ultra hyped. What was so fucking killer about that night was the energy in the room, and Amebix were brilliant (I felt 13 again)! As human beings, they were so humble and kind it made their music even better that night. Honestly, that was the first night that Meghan and I looked at each other and realized we wanted to start something like CVLT Nation. Amebix’s last album, Sonic Mass, still gets constant spins in our HQ. Today we want to celebrate one of the greatest bands to ever do it with a huge post featuring the Arise movie, photos from their 2009 L.A. show, plus a vintage download…Let’s all shout No Gods No Masters! It goes down after the jump…
AMEBIX OFFICIAL STATEMENT – STIG C MILLER – FIRSTLY THE LAST FEW YEARS HAVE BEEN A DIFFICULT TIME FOR ME – BIG CHANGES & HEALTH ISSUES WHICH I’M BATTLING ON A DAILY BASIS…FOR ME PERSONALLY FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS I STILL (STUPIDLY I GUESS] LOVE AMEBIX AND WHAT WE DO… THERE IS NO DESIRE ON MY PART TO SPLIT UP THE BAND {AND APPARENTLY AFTER JUST SPEAKING TO ROY NOT ON HIS PART EITHER]. I THINK OF AMEBIX AS SOMETHING THAT IS BIGGER THAN ALL OF US, AN IDEA WE ALL SERVE, A PARTNERSHIP, THINGS SEEM TO HAVE VEERED AWAY FORM THIS IN THE LAST FEW YEARS…AS I SAID TO MY BROTHER WE NEED TO SIT DOWN AND TALK ABOUT THIS FACE TO FACE UNTIL THAT TIME I’M NOT MAKING A LAST CALL ON THIS… FORGIVE US OUR FOLLIES – “NO GODS NO MASTERS!” – STIG
RE/VOLT are a new band with crushing power and intense speed. Their debut EP ‘This is our war’ due out in 2013, was recorded in Killing Joke’s recent rehearsal space in Hill Valley Studios. The bands line up boasts members of such greats as Extreme Noise Terror, Killing Joke, Gallows and Raw Noise. With such an unrelenting onslaught of power and roaring venom, you’d know they have experience at this. Dean Jones from ENT is instantly recognizable on vocals, the drilling drums of Lee Barratt from Gallows are as tight as ever. Guitar wise there is no Killing Joke influence here, but certainly heavy solid riffs throughout.
Of course this band has had a previous kinship. Kneill X (ex-Killing Joke) played with Dean (ENT) before in the band Disgust. And Chino has played along with Dean in Raw Noise, Death Dealers and Extreme Noise Terror. You can hear echos of those collaborations on this ep too. The title track has been ringing around in my head since I heard it. Mainly the end of it, it has this heavy chugging guitar and the word ‘war’ in a chant-like roar left lingering there, before it continues into vigorous riffs again. A raging debut EP from RE/VOLT.
BRAINOIL
Basement Gig Now Showing!
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Posted In Crust,Doom,Features,Film,Live Rituals,Music,Music Videos,Sludge
One of the best things about living in the Bay Area is getting to see shows like this one. Brainoil is a supremely Heavy band that features Nate on Guitars/Vocals from the legendary band Destroy, Ira on Drums from Watch Them Die & Greg on Bass/Vocals from I Will Kill You Fucker & Dead Language. They are all very respected and looked up to in the scene and for good reason, they are fucking incredible. It’s rare that you get the opportunity to watch one of the best Heavy bands in America play a free basement show – This is 40 minutes of Brainoil ruling in their hometown of Oakland, California.
Born In Chains
Okus Review
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Posted In Crust,Death Metal,Doom,Music,Reviews
Okus are a very new Irish band having only played their first gig in October of this year. But are very much old hands music wise with members having played in The Dagda, Bleeding Rectum, Fuckhammer, Sodb and more. They are to me like a hybrid between crusty death metal, grind and doom. With their music taking a real nihilistic and bleak look at the world based on religion in some way, through war, religion, economics etc.
Pic: Okus’s debut at Cellars Drogheda by Brendan McHugh
There are a lot of bands playing crusty death metal. But Okus bring an eerie disturbed feeling into it. Which at times wanders into a slow doomy landscape before intense frenzied riffs take you somewhere else. A great example of this is in the track ‘Blood and oil’. Which starts off with big pounding primal drums and low bass which gradually builds through distorted decay and background noise. The track keeps building, until it changes quickly into extreme grind, then to a slow heavy riff and then off again. They have just completed some new recordings which will be available from the band.
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