BAND OF THE DAY: CLINGING TO THE TREES OF A FOREST FIRE

If album of the year lists weren't a big pile of cancerous nothing perpetuated by people nursing a swollen sense of smug self-importance, second album 'Songs of Ill Hope and Desperation' by the cumbersome Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire would have racked up a hyperbolic phrase or two.

But album of the year lists are a big pile of cancerous nothing, so it probably didn't, not in a world in which Six Feet Under continue to exist. Nevertheless, this Colorado trio are filthy. Their frantic blend of crust-caked grindbastardry and slab-dragging blackened sludge riffs is like a emaciated, bloodsplattered survivor clawing in panic on the earth walls of a mass grave, screaming for rescue, death or the soothing balm of madness. In a moment of inanity, they dubbed themselves 'bestial funeralgrind' and while the last thing the world needs is some humourless cunt picking that up and running with it... it does fit quite nicely.

REVIEW: NEEDFUL THINGS 'TENTACLES OF INFLUENCE' (OBSCENE)

Poland and the Czech Republic are without doubt, the underground heartland of European grindcore. Maybe it's the recent history of direct political action, or the sense of very real impotence and stagnation that characterised much of post-communist decade, or maybe it's just the preponderance of gassy lagers doing something to the attention spans or shortage of vowels making lyrics seem angry, but in this part of the world they build them fast as fuck and thoroughly pissed off.

Active since 1995 and having released a split with the absolutely blistering Lycanthropy, Needful Things have bolstered their rumbling, Scandinavian-style assault with some monstrous, muscular production on 'Tentacles of Influence' (which you can stream here, and then BUY, obviously!), giving the whole thing a sense of Rotten Sound, circa the bloody-toothed pummelling of 'Exit'. The perfect balance between that old school chaos and modern, tightly-hewn delivery like a laser-guided warhead packed with rabies, 'Tentacles of Influence' is a serious, zero-bullshit offering that'll make both casual fans of the genre and diehard speedfreaks drop their jaws and fill their pants.

HAPPY FREE MUSIC MONDAY!

Two doses of legally downloaded goodness to set off your week, first up a super tiny 3" EP from Polish hellions Suffering Mind which you can get down you here, and secondly an EP from English drum machine duo Unnatural Selection - grab that here!

REVIEW: COKE BUST 'LINES IN THE SAND' (SIX WEEKS)

Woah, puns!? Don't let this get out, because it could seriously change the way people think about music, but it looks like it might be possible to make straightedge hardcore and have a sense of humour.

Featuring Magrudergrind drummer Chris, Washington DC natives Coke Bust have the same sense of aggressive, tooth-spitting urgency and the same appreciation for meaty, circle-pitting grooves. Obviously sans the grindcore, Coke Bust deliver a frantic take on late '80s mosh fodder, gleefully breaking out the gang vocals like an AD/HD Youth of Today. Originally released in 2009 as a vinyl LP, this CD edition comes with their earlier 'Fuck Bar Culture' 7”, a demo and some other assorted tracks that means there's a sudden disconcerting drop in production quality around the half-way point, but that's only a momentary distraction from the general flurry.

It may only reach the 30 minute mark thanks to having earlier material thrown on the end but as a result, the breakneck 'Lines in the Sand' is a rare fastcore/powerviolence album that actually feels like one.

VICTIMS ALBUM ARTWORK UP, HAPPY DAYS

Swedish crust bastards Victims, based around Nasum/Sayyadina bass-twangin' grindcore royalty Jon 'Elle' Lindqvist, are releasing their long overdue new full-length, 'A Dissident', through Deathwish Inc, Tankcrimes and La Familia, on April 12 - check out the artwork to the right. The band's most recent addition, former Raging Speedhorn guitarist Gareth Smith kept a studio blog here. Oh, and production is courtesy of Entombed's Nico Elgstrand, who also did the new Rotten Sound. Awesome!

BAND OF THE DAY: COLLISION

Perhaps not as deserving of the accolade as others, if you haven't heard/seen Collision in action – you're not getting out nearly enough. Obnoxious purveyors of punker-than-thou grindcore abuse, the Netherlands' Collision are all about the snarling shoutalongs, hard-thrashing riffs and chunky grooves.

Celebrating ten years in 2010 with the 'Decade Of Disgust' compilation (which, by the way, you can stream here and buy for a pittance), riddled with loads of their infamous cover songs, and their take on 'Closer to the End' on Power it Up's 'A Tribute To Nasum', Collision have just finished recording their eagerly awaited third full-length for release this year. All of which sums these maniacs up nicely – saluting the chaos of grindcore's past while charging recklessly into the future.

If there's one disappointment from Collision, it's that their toxic green t-shirt is sold out.

REVIEW: WADGE 'GRINDCORE LU'AU' (GRINDCORE KARAOKE/BOVINE)

Wadge have always been shaken like a ragdoll by the tsunami of whimsy, the spectre of Hawaiian shirts, tiki bars and generally cringeworthy wackiness detracting mightily from any genuine appeal lurking in their otherwise reassuringly orthodox drum-machine flurry – that's just the shit you have to content with when, at 4am, you decide your idea for a painfully specific theme band is the funniest ever and has infinitely more staying power than all the other painfully specific theme bands in the world.

Perhaps the most high profile of releases on J Randall's Grindcore Karaoke (and the only one so far to get a physical release, through Bovine Records), by merit of already having frustrated optimists over two previous full-lengths and a bunch of splits with bands who don't feel the need to open with the 'Haiwai Five-O' theme. Unless you proudly own MOD's 'Surfin' MOD' and stick it on every night while shooting pineapple juice out of your nose with barely restrained mirth, you'll be delighted to know 'Grindcore Lu'au' tones down the gimmickry considerably on the actual music (the art and lyrics are business as usual, which is fine) with only the odd burst of tooting 'hold, please' woodwind to distinguish a satisfying slab of genuinely furious and fist-pumpingly robust Napalm-esque crust grind as otherwise being the product of a diseased mind.

That said, the tock-tock-tock-percussion assisted riffing on 'Lost Kingdom of the Menehune' is brilliant. Aloha!

BAND OF THE DAY: DEMOKHRATIA

A collision of the words for 'democracy' and 'shit', by the end of the week Algerian fastcore hellions Demokhratia might be elder statesmen for failed democracy, lecturing their North African brothers who're poised on the cusp of death, (in)glory or both in Egypt.

Unleashing that punkish, freewheeling that makes great hardcore great and the twanging breakdowns that induce doofuses to chase each other round in little circles, Demokhratia's most recent EP, 2009's 'Bled el Petrole Takoul Lekhra' 7” on French label Darboukah, is perfectly concise blast of vitriol from 'petrol country'.

REVIEW: CHULO 'ODIO A PRIMERA VISTA' (GRINDCORE KARAOKE)

With a low end bass rumble like something horrible being dredged out of a blocked drain, Colombian four-piece Chulo charge, ape-like through eight minutes of punky, primordial powerviolence in the feedback-driven style of Crossed Out, Infest, Spazz, Disrupt and the like - roll over the nearest comatose crusty with froth for a beard and you'll find all the appropriate reference points scribbled in tipp-ex about his attire.

Up for free download on J Randall's Grindcore Karaoke label, there's really no need to review this – as listening to it has no barriers, there's really no urgency to hold your trembling hand through a buying decision, but here we are anyway. Dark, thuggish and over breathlessly quickly in a burst of Dean Jones-like bellowing, 'Odio a Primera Vista' is old style hate delivered by 21st Century tools.

PLAY FAST OR DON'T 8 IS STAGGERINGLY GOOD

Play Fast or Don't, the other Czech grindcore festival, held July 29-30 in an incredibly sketchy looking aircraft hanger just outside of Hradec Králové, has announced its line-up with the standout acts being Belgian mincecore progenitors Agathocles, much hyped Czech powerviolence savages Lycanthrophy, Italian apocalyptic crust thrashers Children of Technology, handsome British crust/sludge/grindbastards The Atrocity Exhibit, Texan grind whirlwind Pretty Little Flower and d-beat originals Mob 47. Check out the full line-up on the poster.

DARGE, DISGUST AND NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR VIDEOS FROM NAGOYA

Rafael Yaekashi, of Brazilian-Japanese crossover thrash punks NEK and metallic crusties Darge, takes a lot of pictures and films a lot of videos of assorted shit going down in Nagoya, which is grand, because who hasn't wanted to go to a punk or grind show in Japan? 


How about one featuring Danish crusties Nuclear Death Terror?




And Japanese death-dealing crusties Disgust?




And, of course, Darge?

BAND OF THE DAY: CTHULHU YOUTH

Not to be confused with Chthonic Youth, who definitely scored the better version of the name but the far shittier sound, London-based Cthulhu Youth are feedback-laced, dissonant powerviolence, coupling sludge grooves, in the manner of Weekend Nachos, with harsh, dystopian electronics and chaotic, pit-filling hardcore.

The masked three-piece have an “anti-cosmic” cassette demo out, strictly limited to 50 and possibly touched with a cat, and a bunch of shows with assorted grimey hardcore bands of chuggerific quality. Enigmatic pseudo-black metal image management aside, this is sinister, disorientating stuff and the lack of gurning faces, acne-ridden peering gormlessly over the top of boxfresh Bastard Noise t-shirts only adds to it.

BAND OF THE DAY: LE BUCHERETTES

There's no gagging, gurgling deep-throat samples or KKK rally speeches here, but the boundaries of acceptability are being well and truly pushed. Crusties, prepare to cry foul. Formed in 2007 in Guadalajara, Mexico, Le Bucherettes are a sleazy garage rock two-piece featuring drummer Gabe Serbian, he of The Locust and ex of Cattle Decapitation, as of LB vocalist/guitarist Teri Gender Bender's relocation to Los Angeles in 2009.

Le Bucherettes debut album, 'Sin, Sin, Sin', is produced by Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta, and is due to be released on his label later this year. A surprisingly catchy, very '90s single is up for download here, but while the music is all jagged guitar rock irreverence, the band are waging a war on the malign mundanity of domestic oppression – check out this LA Weekly interview. Not that they're trying to appeal to reactionary grindcore douchebags or anything, but that should tip the scales over from overwhelmingly unappealing to mostly unappealing.

Now stop throwing things, please. You can have some crappy d-beat tomorrow.

MORE STUFF TO DOWNLOAD

Another haul of legally free delights to get down yer. Firstly, Cork, Ireland's I'll Eat Your Face play, unbelievably, instrumental grindcore and you can get their full-length, 'Irritant', from here. Secondly, Birmingham's ferocious Macho Insecurity recorded a whole bunch of songs for a split with Mistress/Anaal Nathrakh-affiliated blackened crust grinders Fukpig and got so impatient they ended up releasing them as a EP, 'The Shit End of the Stick', here. The split is still happening mind, only with newer songs.

WATCH DESPISED ICON'S LAST SHOW, EVEN IF YOU HATE THEM

It was a sad day for pit ninjas when French Canadian proto-deathcore beefcakes Despised Icon called it a day. Immeasurably superior to a lot/most of the bands they inspired, they had an awesome run and despite dribbling to a close somewhat underwhelmingly, they'll be missed - unless your tolerance for gang signs, slam hands, 'Awwwww shit [your city]' mosh call-outs and gratuitous beatdowns is wafer thin.

Fortunately, you can relive the live glory of Despised Icon (or dance on their digital grave, whichever works for you), because their last ever show, in Montreal on December 5, 2010, was filmed in its entirety with quality superior to most £16 music DVDs. Check it out, and turn your New Era cap to a suitable hip-hop angle before tearfully burying it in the garden for a golden age of chug is now at an end.

BAND OF THE DAY: PICK YOUR SIDE

If there's anything 'typically Canadian' about Ottawa grinders Fuck the Facts its their tempo-shifting weave of dense polyrhythms and and juddering stop-start dynamics – the sort of things that brings to mind the output of Galy Records, those proud sons of Cryptopsy, before they all signed to bigger labels and got fat and boring.

Guitarist since 2008, Johnny Ibay, has only a finite tolerance for jazz bass it seems, having formed (along with one of the atrociously named Haymaker) a more heads-down, feedback-driven doomy hardcore mob. Shades of Cursed, 'My War'-era Black Flag and being so angry your voice comes out in a spluttering shriek that people laugh at, Pick Your Side have a 7” EP coming soon on super respectable metallic hardcore label A389 Recordings and European grind powerhouse RSR Records, and one track is up for your consumption here.

There's not much information out there, but all signs point to good crusty mosh.