OBIEDO METALPUNX COLLECTIVE

 

Got a box of Filipino rippers from Zepol (KILLRATIO) a couple of weeks back and I've been itching to really sink my ears into everything (or let everything sink into my ears). This tape from the OBIEDO METALPUNX COLLECTIVE is the first one I've spent proper time with and it keeps hitting harder every time I listen - rough and raw punk and hardcore from three bands out of Naga City who've banded together and formed their own gang of sonic terror dealers. Brutally harsh vocals drive OMNIPOTENT through four blasts of hardcore ripped out of the early '90s USDIY crust annals. URUR lay a steaming pile of raw blackened crust at your doorstep...not for those with weak constitutions. Then the tape ends with MALICIOUS EXISTENCE taking sound to raw extremes - guttural bursts of raw PV-tinged grind/crust that will make you question your fucking reality if you listen at the proper volume. And I stringly suggest listening at the proper volume. There will be more blasters from Zepol's package on these pages eventually, but I'm gonna be stuck listening to this shit for a long ass minute. 

D'BEAT BASTARDS

ON WINGS OF SONG

 

Eighty-seven minutes of subtle repetition. 

OM NAMAHA SHIVAYA

...couldn't have said it better myself, so I didn't even try...

LEFT UNSAID

A blank tape with no cover, a hand written label that reads 'LEFT UNSAID' and that's it. See, people give me things that they're about to throw away because I'm convinced that if I can "rescue" just one recording from a life of obscurity then the hoard is all worth it so I ask everyone to just please make me that one last stop before the trash. I'll toss the trash after I comb through it (I swear), but one person's trash is....well, one person's trash ends up on a blog. I'm not here to entertain a discussion concerning a life of obscurity versus a life on the pages of this blog and/or how much those two lives may (or may not) intersect because the simple fact is that this tape was going to be thrown away but it wasn't, and now you can listen to it. Sounds like metallic hardcore from the '90s - like ANIMAL FARM but played by folks who listened to early East Coast metalcore. There's a band on the internet called LEFT UNSAID who were maybe from Connecticut so maybe it's the same band. Also, maybe it's a different band. Maybe no one has ever heard this before. Probably not, but also maybe. 

LEFT UNSAID

DELETER

 

Both of these songs should be commercial hits. There are only two songs on this tape, and both of them are worthy of large scale appeal and (dare I say) success? Carefully rafted and expertly delivered dark indie pop - I dropped Franz and Interpol references when I posted their full length a few years ago, but lazy comparisons do a disservice to a track like "A List Of Demands." And "Mention You" is even better for fuck's sake. 

DELETER

VASTUSTA

I'm just not really sure what more you could want this morning than.....than this. Fierce, brutal Finnish hardcore with buzzsaw guitars and a tinge of Burning Spirits in the vocals. Absolutely fucking relentless, and the perfect prequel to 2015's also perfect though slightly more advanced Kohti Lohdutonta Huomista. Karoline just walked by me and commented "Who's this? Sounds like a ripper." Listen to that woman, folks, she's a smart one. 

DEMO 15/12/2014

PARASITES OF GAIA

 

So hard to nail this one down - it's loose and dirty and they land like a dark garage / indie / shoegaze outfit...but they hit hard and they feel like a gnarly hardcore band ripped out of the late '70s LA freak punk scene. "Middleman" is like a lost damaged BAGS track, but then "Land Of Nob" rolls into "Alliance" and this organ drops in (seriously) and....maybe you should just listen to Parasites Of Gaia instead of reading me try to blabber about it. Shit is cool and doesn't sound like anything else, which is a (very) good genre.

PARASITES OF GAIA

CYANIDE TOOTH

 

The first side of this tape is a mind fuck - a sonic melting pot that hits like TG intercepting desperate battle communiques from another reality. A collection of constructions that culminates with the brutal repetition of "Press The Mesh Techno Animus" before "Shadow Enforcers" closes the side with the exact opposite of a come down. But it's the 25+ minute title composition on the flip that solidifies Midnight Climax Operation as a journey through other worldly realms of sonic power. A soundtrack to a disorienting existence. A(nother) mind fuck. A collage that paints a picture far darker than any of its individual components. CYANIDE TOOTH conjured a...a masterpiece. 

MIDNIGHT CLIMAX OPERATION