It may not have this identity nationally, but to me, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is hallowed ground. It seems like there have always been and always will be a wealth of extremely talented musicians and artists pouring in and out of the city, especially in it’s current renaissance. The entirely DIY run venue, Mr. Roboto Project stands taller than ever, in a great location with a constant influx of shows all year round. There are tons of different communities pushing out excellent music and art. However, without a doubt, the most thrilling part of having a healthy and robust music scene is seeing new bands come out of the woodwork, especially when they are all very young. The idea of young kids naturally coming into form and “finding” this relentless sound is undeniably great. Such is the case with the Pittsburgh upstarts in Purge. Their newest EP is getting pressed onto a cassette via South Floridian start ups, Arctic Night Records. The EP is immediately reminiscent of a traditional grindcore album. This falls somewhere in between an early Earache Records band and Discordance Axis. Relentless and simple, abrasive and ugly. You could easily spew a hundred more adjectives about what this band sounds like, but just listen to the stream after the jump and hear it for yourself. Believe in the youth.

Read full interview after the jump!
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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.

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Let’s get straight to the point here – Rotten Sound don’t fuck about. That’s been an obvious trait from Finland’s finest grindcore output for years, and one more than backed up by their 2011 record Cursed, and while vocalist Keijo Niinimaa spent the best part of 2012 fronting the briefly reunited Nasum, the Finns managed to find time to churn out a new EP in the shape of Species At War to kick start their new year.

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Contrary to the first impression of this EP’s title, Luciferian Deathcult, England’s CORRUPT MORAL ALTAR do not play Black Metal, not even “Blackened something”. Which is kind of refreshing itself. Instead they play pretty much everything else extreme heavy music has to offer: Death Metal, Grind, Hardcore, Sludge and probably a few more genres are wildly mixed together and, surprise surprise, the outcome is NOT highly enjoyable, at least not in the common sense of the word. It’s still really good though, if good means you can do the worst things under the influence of the worst drugs you’re able to find while listening to this. I mean seriously, this is really sick, fucked up and disgusting music. Seems to me that Liverpool (that’s where CMA are more or less from) is either very depressing or puts Desomorphine in the water, I don’t know.

The four sickos performing Luciferian Deathcult are, while the seven-song-outcome is primitive as fuck, obviously really skilled on their instruments. Especially the drumming is totally devastating. I guess being ran over by a train is kind of similar. The vocals sound mostly as if someone put a whole swarm of crows into a bag, beating them ruthless with a baseball bat.
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Cloud Rat just bleed emotion in all its beautiful/ugly forms, delivered in the most chaotic of fashion. The Michigan grindcore trio are a band that have an invigorating mean streak in them with each release. Their self-titled LP expelled a heart-on-your-sleeve ferocity that’s nearly unparalleled. It stems from the myriad influences that have been soaked up by their grindcore heart, most intriguingly the screamo and melodic hardcore strains that have become an integral part of the band’s sound. Listen to a track like ‘Dwell’ from the self-titled for overwhelming evidence, whether it’s in Madison Marshall’s impassioned wails, the buzzsaw guitars that are utterly piercing or the unrelenting blasts that never give up for a second. It’s a pattern that is repeated throughout the record and its subsequent releases, particularly last year’s split LP with Republic of Dreams, where you really felt like Cloud Rat had taken a really dramatic step in their growth as a band.

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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!

If you’re into the brutal and dark side of hardcore and you still haven’t heard of U.K’s Black Mass then you are clearly missing it big time…

Black Mass have been around since 2010 and have at this point released a Demo, an EP and a Split release with Host. “Of First and Last Things” is a compilation and re-recording of all their recorded material to date, plus one previously unreleased track.

Well, what can you expect from a band that states on their Facebook page that their influence is “Horror, disgust and anxiety through tonal abuse and overwhelming volume.“? Ridiculous and brutal drum discharges filled with the most dirtiest of the riffs that will carve into your flesh while fierce and vicious vocals will make your bones almost shatter. Black Mass aren’t fooling around. They have got to be one of the most underrated bands in the midst of this darkest faction of hardcore. These lads grab a handful of genres like hardcore, crust, death metal and grind and blend it into this furious and evil potion to which is impossible to stay indifferent.

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While Water Torture‘s Shellfire! might be one of the hardest hitting things to come out of 2012, their split via Nerve Altar with Australian noise blasters thedowngoing shouldn’t be missed.

For those unfamiliar with Water Torture you’d be surprised to learn they create their ugly, noisy brand of power violence without guitars. Instead, two  heavily distorted basses hum and thump about creating a dissonant and heavy cudgle that locks in perfectly with the frantic drumming and strained vocals.  After the buzzing and screeching intro of harsh electronics  the band drifts in and out of consciousnesses with short blasts of raging power violence only slowing down to ramp up again. I’m still a sucker for Shellfire!  but this isn’t anything to scoff at.

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Last week, CVLT Nation Television was there to capture the epic performances from Full of Hell and Code Orange Kids at Aladdin Jr. 2 in Pomona, CA. Tim Hix was behind the lens and has put together some stellar visuals for you to witness, putting you right in the front row of this brutal show! Check out the videos after the jump!

Photo: Matthew Grant Anson
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This offering from Washington D.C.’s Disciples of Christ is a nasty little bit of brooding, slithery grindcore. Six songs ravage one after the other, verging at times at sounding so evil, it’d make black metal blush. The pace shifts from blitzkrieg to howling silence in a blink, each change replete with its own unique savagery.

“Intro” is a lengthy showcase of ill emotions as lonesome guitars, suffocating in bent up hate, croon to each other like murderous lovers. When this lower-than-hell strumming runs its course, the Disciples will worship. By far among the most feral beginning ever heard by these ears, Disciples of Christ shred, batter and slash their way through, and swiftly, through their demo. Like a hot but rusted blade, the sound slashes and saws its way, giving rare moments of respite as the fury subsides for some gloom and doom.

The production of this demo is one of my favorite aspects of it. The vocals are front and center, abrasive, monstrous and seemingly without mercy. The riffs at times sound like a sound bite from a David Lynch film, fading into bleak static only to rise furiously. The bluesy bass lines sound as if they were lifted from the devil’s own playbook. The drum-work here is off-the-fucking-wall, a pace wrecking homage to utter, amorphous chaos.

Disciples Of Christ – Hall Of Mirrors (Taste Of Fear) by Disciples Of Christ

Disciples of Christ certainly have an eye and sound for aesthetics as this demo clearly gives a fuck about few things. This 9-minutes worth of your time will spit in your face, its that good and nasty. The whole shabang can be heard in all its pissed off glory here.