Oct 142010
 

Yes, as promised, we have back-to-back MISCELLANY posts, still trying to catch up on bands we haven’t heard that for different reasons we put on our running list of music to check out. But it appears that even after running faster, we’re still pretty much in the same place. Between yesterday’s post and this one, we’ve cleared six names off the list. But since last weekend we’ve also added six more.

But do we care? Fuck no! Because taking pot luck with the music of new bands isn’t a chore, it’s an adventure! We have little or no idea what the music will sound like before we embark on a listening excursion, so it’s almost always a surprise to find out. Doesn’t mean it will be a happy surprise. It could be the kind of surprise you get when you find out your cat has thrown up in your bed (as happened to me last weekend).

And that’s the way MISCELLANY works: What we hear, we write about, even if it turns out to be cat throw-up.

Yesterday’s post and this one were based on a random selection of six bands we plucked off our list. I listened to a song from each band, in the order described in these two posts. Yesterday, we covered the first three listening experiences — all of them bands from the U.S. Today, we have a more international flavor. The subjects of today’s post are:

Vomit the Soul (Kuwait/U.S.), Deathember (Sweden), and Excrementory Grindfuckers (Germany).  (listening notes, and the songs we heard, follow after the jump . . .)

VOICE OF THE SOUL

One thing leads to another. In early July, we ran a three-part post (Part 1 of which is here) about metal from North Africa. In doing our research for that series, we came across an excellent Cairo-based metal blog called Metality that covers metal from all over the world, but with a particular emphasis on music from the Middle East. About a month later, we saw that, to celebrate their 1000th post, Metality had assembled a free compilation of awesome global metal, with the permission of the bands and labels involved. (We wrote about that here.)

We started following a few of the bands who appeared on that comp, including one from Kuwait (at least one of whose members — frontman Kareem Chehayebis now going to school in Boston) called Voice of the Soul who sent us a MySpace friend request. Back in July, Voice of the Soul released a new, four-song EP (their second) called Eyes of Deceit, and recently they made the EP available for free download. So, I decided the time was right to check out some VOTS music.

The song I picked is called “Farewell To Hope”. It’s got a 2-minute long instrumental intro that includes a really nice melodic guitar lead that gives way to a charging thrash riff. I thought the rest of the song was strong, too: Rhythmically dynamic melodic death metal with a good mix of heavy riffing and resounding, ringing guitar solos. The vocals are satisfyingly deep and evil, too. Good stuff! Here’s “Farewell to Hope”:

Voice of the Soul: Farewell To Hope

You can download Eyes of Deceit for free by visiting this location. For more info, the band’s MySpace is here and their Facebook page is here.

DEATHEMBER

Deathember is a young band from just outside Stockholm, Sweden, who recently contacted us by e-mail with a request that we listen to their just-completed EP, a three-song untitled demo. So I did, and man was that a happy surprise!

I listened to the first song on the EP (“There’s Nothing Called Equality”) and got into it almost immediately. It’s fast and catchy as hell, with a couple of killer riffs and a nice mix of hi-low vocals (the non-clean kind). The song is augmented by electronic pulses, an inventive guitar solo — and lo and behold, a breakdown in the middle.

I cheated and listened to the other two songs on the EP before turning to the last band on this particular MISCELLANY excursion, and so I can tell you that they’re as much fun as the first one. And I do think “fun” is the operative word. The music isn’t deep and dark and evil, it’s upbeat, loaded with hooks, flavored with a sprinkling of techno. Listen to that first song I heard:

Deathember: There’s Nothing Called Equality

Deathember is making its EP available for free download via a link on their MySpace page. Or, you can just click here to get it. For more info on the band and their news, you can visit them on Facebook here.

EXCREMENTORY GRINDFUCKERS

This next band from Hannover, Germany, made our MISCELLANY list through a tip from NCS reader “Phro”, and we decided to check ’em out after listening to Deathember.  (NOTE: This was before Phro polluted the sanctity of my mental temple with a word that shall not be mentioned and expressed the most horrible imaginings possible about your mom.)

Phro pointed us to both an official band page (here) and a unofficial one (here), both of which have music available for streaming. He also explained that this band seems to play grindcore covers of traditional and pop music. Here are a few of the song titles we had to choose from, along with the ridiculous Google Translate translations of the German-titled songs into English:

Grindcore Out of Hell
Beds Are Grind
I’ve Been Lookin for Grindcore
Schnaps
Und jetzt schön Crack (and now, good crack)
Veganerweibchen (vegan females)
Schnick Schnack Schnuck
Taschengeld (pocket money)
Wohn-Haft (residential custody)
Flummi, das Reh (rubber ball, the deer)
Penispropeller
Fäkalkardinals Rückkehr: der Kot ist rot (Fäkalkardinals return: the mud is red)
Party in Moll (party in minor)

Which one do you think I picked for MISCELLANY purposes?

Yep, you guessed it: “Penispropeller”. Wouldn’t you?

This song seems to be from the band’s latest album, Headliner der Herzen (Headliner of the Heart???) — their fourth. And guess what?  I liked the fucking song! It’s nice and heavy and groovy, and it’s also funny because of the funny voices that make appearances along with the deep, growly vocals.  But if this is a cover of a pop song, I’m having trouble figuring out which one it is. Maybe Coldplay had a hit single called “Penispropeller” and I missed it. Anyway, here it is:

For more info, the Grindfuckers’ Facebook page is here. It will help if you speak German.

Now, of course, this band seemed so delirious that I couldn’t possibly resist doing a little more exploring, even though technically I was at the end of my MISCELLANY expedition. And there’s plenty of Grindfucker craziness to be found, especially on their YouTube channel. But I’ll just leave you with this video of two of the Grindfuckers recording a rap vocal (in German) to one of their demented creations.  What’s ingenious about this is that you can’t hear the music, so all you’ve got is these two whiter-than-white Germans pretending to be Jay-Z and gettin’ down with music you can’t hear — and it’s just fucking hysterical, which they seem to realize.

Enjoy the rest of yo fucking day. Yo.

  12 Responses to “MISCELLANY (NO. 15)”

  1. I was looking forward to seeing the Grindfuckers end up here!

    Here are some videos that I’ve found on YouTube…I doubt any of them are official, but…

    Grindcore Joe
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHQQtr9c5p4

    Looking for Grindcore
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kCzCXi0mpo

    I Like My Grindcore
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZJ_VUPmvo

    As near as I can tell, about a third of their songs are covers/remixes, a third are pretty standard grindcore, and the last third is just…madness. Sorry for the mix up.

  2. The other bands!

    Voice of the Soul is a pretty solid band. Oddly reminiscent of Amon Amarth and Children of Bodom. (For me, anyway.) The use of melody, even in the vocals, works pretty well.
    It’s pretty amazing to realize how truly international metal is. The only other genre of music that I can think of that has this much universal appeal is, oddly enough, hip-hop. It’s interesting that both genres tend to be the most maligned in mainstream American culture.

    • No question about metal’s global appeal. I’m continually amazed about the diversity of places where metal is alive and, if not yet thriving, at least fighting to breathe despite a small fanbase and even significant difficulties in some local cultures. We’ve tried on this site to put the spotlight on obscure bands from places that can’t be the most hospitable platforms for metal bands (e.g., Iran). It’s inspirational (and not in the sense of The Browning’s lyrics).

    • Thanks for the kind words, Phro. I love Amon Amarth and (old) children of Bodom, so I’m taking that as a great compliment . I agree about hip-hop as well. Lots of hip-hop emerging in the area, especially in Palestinian territories, where they have this need to talk about their hardships in struggle. Music in any shape or form, with some exceptions, is a healthy passion to have.

      I’m really glad you liked our music, and we’re currently working on a full length and trying to get some gigs in different places.

      Take care

  3. Thank you so much for covering us! it really means alot!

    For the record, only one of our members is Kuwaiti (well half Kuwaiti) I’m actually from Lebanon!

    Let us know how we can promote you guys in the Middle Eastern scene in any way possible! You really have interesting reads around here 🙂

    • Many thanks Kareem, and continued good luck in Boston. We’ll be looking forward to the VOTS album when it’s ready. Also, if you happen to see this further comment, it would be great if you could recommend to me and our readers a few other bands from the Middle East that you think are worth hearing (I’m sure there are many, but maybe not so many that we would already know about).

      • Of course.

        Nervecell are the best right now. THey just got signed to Lifeforce Records..they’re also endorsed by EMG, Engl Amps, and Spektor basses

        Scarab from Egypt are cool. They’re signed on Osmos Productions

        If you dont mind some cleans, Benevolent from Kuwait are good. Depth from Kuwait are great, and so are Black Well from Kuwait.

        Egypt also has Crescent which I’m sure you guys will probably like.

        Also check out Weeping Willow and Kimaera from Lebanon.

        That should get you guys started for a bit, haha

  4. Glad to see that Voice of the Soul are getting recognised for their awesome music! They’re an amazing band and have loads of potential!

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