Dephosphorus - Night Sky Transform

Without a doubt, grindcore can be a restrictive genre. Any genre could be I guess, but few more than grindcore as its pillars lay in short songs, a hybrid of punk and metal stylings and speed above all else. Some bands have successfully pushed the envelope, yet still retained enough of the zing that allows you to make the jump from Napalm Death to their sound. Examples aren't illusive, nor are they plentiful. Bands like Gridlink, Gride, and thedowngoing are just a few examples of successful innovation in the oft narrow minded world of grindcore. And while those acts are all great, few bands have the ability to become  unrecognizable or rather transcendent of genre;one such act being Greece's Dephosphorus.

Fully cognizant of all the tricks in the book, Dephosphorus need not look to the stars to realize how far ahead in the game they really are. Appetites were whetted with their splits with Wake and Great Falls, but neither can compare to the band's current pinnacle Night Sky Transform.

Foggy, dense, and ponderous, Night Sky Transform finds strength in nearly every facet possible. Songs are well constructed and diverse, from straight grinders like "Cold Omen" to a drawn out dirge like "The Fermi Paradox," Dephosphorus encompass so much in so little. This is the crux of their sound and what makes the album so enjoyable. "Starless" has an infectious groove that has made it my favorite track on the album. Needless to say, like any good album, each track retains a thread, yet reinforces and builds the stitch.

Strained vocals, audible at times, viral at others, compliment the superb guitars well as they highlight the emphasis's and scatter great lyrics like Orthodox incense. Shrouded in references and obscurities, lyrics often hint at grounded issues such as issues of authority or god, but other, more lofty ones such as our place in the Universe and the possibilities of other life and what forces propel us. Thankfully,  the band never comes off pretentious  but rather alluring like a modern Lovecraftian wonder in all things starry and untouchable.

As the album fades, the words "all hail Aurora" are chanted, maybe implying the Roman goddess who brought dawn to the world. Thought of this way, Night Sky Transform plays to change and creation and effectively ushers in one of the most original, powerful and simply awesome sounds in music today.

All hail Dephosphorus.

2011 From a Vinyl Collecting Nerd

Here's some records I bought in the past year that didn't only sound great, but were some of the prettiest things I could've gotten. Depending on my budget, I'll try and make this a regular section, more or less for materialistic assholes like myself.

Thou - The Archer and The Owle

Gilead Media

Maybe the most lovelingly made of the bunch, the thick jacket with  

a raised design on a pristine white is  a real pleasure when you see 

it in person. Marble swirl wax with old fashion looking prints of owls is the icing on the cake.

Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless
Hydra Head

After my friend showed me his original pressing of this record, and further introduced me to the band back when I was just a little shit, I realized this is why I wanted to collect vinyl; for this album alone. Being far outside my budget, it wasn't until "Record Store Day" this year that Hydra Head repressed this beauty and I was able to snag one.

Graf Orlock - The Doombox

Vitriol Records
What else is there to say about a 10" ep and the band's 3 LP effort on a CD all housed inside a cardboard ghetto blaster with an instruction booklet containing lyrics and insight to them. Outlandish; maybe, but reading the liner notes and realizing the band's affinity for 90's action flicks is as much a teenager revery as it is a political statement is very gratifying.







Fell Voices - Fell Voices
Gilead Media

The beatifuly dense artwork courtesy of Rainbath visuals might've been enough for me, but Adam at Gilead didn't stop there. A huge poster, great patch, and nice clean looking card with the info on it round out this heavyweight release.

Gridlink - Orphan/Amber Grey
Hydra Head

If you're gonna pay Hydra Head prices, you're going to expect this level of quality. The jacket is beautiful and ridiculously thick and the red vinyl is a beautiful choice. Beyond that, it's the whole Gridlink discography on one record (including a remastered Amber Grey with added guitar and bass). This was the one I was looking forward to all of 2010, happy to have it.

Teiatanblood - Purging Tongues

Anja Offensive

Teitanblood's DLP Seven Chalices is probably one of my favorite records, not only for the twisted and frightening black/death metal they put out, but the absurd amount of detail and attention given in their truely occult and otherworldly artwork/liner notes. The music on Purging Tongues itself is something I'm still unsure about, but looking at the B side etching on this record is a clear indication of how crazy this band can get.

The End Time: Best Albums of 2011

2011 has come and gone and from a musical standpoint I think we were quite lucky to have lived through it. Where there was so much to look forward to this year, I found myself very disappointed in what I had deemed future greats (Leviathan's True Traitor, True Whore to name just one), humbled with what I had known to be great (Grindlink's Orphan) and genuinely happy to see the other side of the coin (Wormrot's Dirge). Now, my jibberjabber aside, I've taken a  great deal of time to put the following list together, so much so, I'm sure you're all sick of reading "best ofs;" but please, give me the time of day and I promise to make 2012 a special year for you, and you alone.

Without further palaver, here's my favorite full length releases of 2011.

8. Drugs of Faith - Corroded
Corroded's a heart on sleeve effort with such a strong affinity for tempo and rhythm that I can't help but shout its praises. Firmly entrenched in the mid-tempo slop of the best/most prominent bass of the year, the band uses this feeling to centralize the whole effort and slowly build upon it throughout the album. Main man Richard Johnson's clear (not clean), yet virulent vocal delivery is a highlight as the lyrics are some of the most well written, honest, and powerful in the realm of hardcore. Self proclaimed "grind n'roll" is a win.




7. Gride - Záškuby chaosu
Gride are possibly one of the most interesting grindcore bands around, regardless if their previous efforts sounded like this (to my knowledge they hadn't sounded like this) Gride do their best to make the most acceptable curve-balls and freakouts around. Záškuby chaosu highlights this for sure as the band hemorrhages massive amounts of ideas in only 27 minutes and 54 seconds, doing their best to channel fellow countrymen !T.O.O.H.! yet thrash and grind harder then you'd expect from the opening noodle of a track. Gride are pushing the boundaries here and it'll only get more exciting to see where they end up.



6. Looking For an Answer - Eterno Treblinka

Where Gride might be rewriting the rules, Spain's Looking For an Answer are there to enforce the deathgrind rites that have been firmly established and treasured in Spain since Machetazo first threw down. Eterno Treblinka's sound is a tremendous throat-fuck of grindcore that's rited  in the muck of mid-nineties death metal and with the flavor of what you'd come to expect from Spanish grindcore (if I can write "throat-fuck," I can make up "rited"). Seconds over 30 minutes long, Eterno Treblinka is full of delicious Repulsion like mid-tempo efforts and scathing fast sections that make Carcass look like chumps. If I didn't already appreciate this scene enough, Looking For an Answer have solidified Spain as ground-zero of filthy, disgusting, grindcore; y'know, the way Matt Olivio would have it.



5. Wormrot - Dirge
I've finally come around to this band and I have Dirge to thank for that. Wormrot's return isn't marked with some ho-hum technical space trip,or rehashed effort, instead they've made things meatier, thrashier, and more rhythmically inclined. With their locks in socks, Wormrot's demeanor is a total ass kicking of a record based in split second shifts in momentum and speed, owing much more to stop n'go acts of the power violence realm rather than where they treaded before with traditional grindcore. "Spot a Pathetic" dripping into "Evolved into Nothing" is the highlight of the album for me as it forces you to do your best spinkick and break something. Overall, Wormrot's more organic approach, better distributed vocals and leanings towards power violence has made this not only better than Abuse, but one of my favorite grind releases in recent memory. For those who see this as a downgrade it's just "Fucking Fierce So What?"

4. Bosse-De-Nage - II
I keep seeing people calling this band weird, or post black metal. If you really had to pigeon hole this San Fransico act, I'd put it in the realm of depressive black metal much like oldies Strid and Diaboli and reformers Nyktalgia, and okay, a hint of stuff like Liturgy. Regardless, Bosse-De-Nage play a simple repetitive style of black metal with harrowing vocals that are as sublime as they are unsettling. Some of the weirdness might come from the vignette-like lyrics and song titles and obvious influences from French Surrealists/Absurdists. Thanks to a robust, yet honest production Bosse-De-Nage complete a modern day reproach to emotive black metal in which the insane vocals and simple, catchy guitars are key.



3. Ulcerate - The Destroyers of All

If Neruosis wanted to play death metal, I think they wouldn't bother as Ulcerate's already taken care of that for them. While I don't like comparisons all that much (such as the one I just made), I think here it gives you, the reader, a clear idea of what to expect, but is also a huge honor to these New Zealanders. The music is a technical eddy of textures and emotions. The band employs just enough dissonance and atonality to a brew of comprehensible sound that's as jarring as it is enthralling. Few bands can do what they've done and fewer can make me like it.




2. Gridlink - Orphan
The quality just continues as Chang, and his superhuman team of androids blast through a Sears catalog worth of brilliant riffs and technical fits in musicianship. Thankfully Chang's lower register is back which just builds upon the already great effort that was Amber Grey. Taking songs that would've been 5 minutes for other bands, Matsubara and Procopio, create a whirlwind of thrashy technical riffs that also contain melody and cram them into pockets of space around only a minute long. Music for the attention challenged, Orphan blisters with with supreme craftsmanship and an adept understanding of quantity.



1. Ash Borer - Ash Borer
Organic and verdant surges clouded in tendril like wisps of simplistic and building riffs create a dense and atmospheric sound that's unmatched. While there's a slew of other black metal acts to compare Ash Borer to, none possess the same skill at creating long, winding tracks that are full of momentum and melodic energy. Powerful and immersive, this is the kind of stuff that transcends every day listening; Ash Borer are a clear cut 1.