Excessive words can sometimes dissuade potential listeners, so I will keep it brief. SLAVEDRIVER are massive, filthy, intense, and relentless. That should be all you need....it's certainly all that I need.
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
22 May 2017
08 October 2015
SHORTLIVED
Seven minutes of complete and utter annihilation from New Zealand. Riffs are killer, attack is ferocious, people are cool as shit to hang out with, and I fukkn swear that if this band were from somewhere cool then people would have lost their shit. Well, it's been a few years, and no one's looking, so feel free to let yourself go, motherfukkrs. Also - they pressed a 12" in criminally limited quantities, but a lot of them made it off their island(s), so I suggest you start looking.
Notes:
**The breakdown in "I Don't Pray, I Think" is so short and so unbelievably sick.
**I want to visit New Zealand's southern island someday.
**This band makes me want to listen to '00s fastcore forever.
**The riff that starts "Fundamentalist" is so simple and so simply perfect.
**Punks should wear shoes....I mean, I'm not wrong here.
06 September 2014
TREPANATION
The noise intro is ominous but, even though you pretty much know what's coming, it's hard to not get your socks blown off when New Zealand's TREPANATION drop. I guess they call themselves War Metal, but I decided to create a new all encompassing subgenre for them: Grinding DBeat Death. Devastatingly heavy churning old school death metal going to battle waving the ScandiCrust flag with healthy doses of blast to keep things uncomfortable. The sound is evil, the presentation is nearly flawless, and the vibe is one of pure punishment.
And their new split with SABBATIC GOAT is even better...
22 September 2013
SID VISHNU
'90s political hardcore, not far removed from their American counterparts like BROTHER INFERIOR and AUS ROTTEN, but with more of a street punk tinge than either. New Zealand's SID VISHNU are an aural time warp, and I can only imagine how much more I would dig these sounds had I seen them at the time. Through process of elimination I've decided that the singer has made me food on more than one occasion, but I liked the tunes before I did the math, so my affinity is unbiased...
09 March 2011
SEASON OF EVIL
I'm not going to try to convince you that this is awesome....but SEASON OF EVIL are awesome. Totally ridiculous mid '90s, mid tempo straight edge mosh metal from New Zealand - listen if you dare.
24 December 2010
DEATH PAYS ALL DEBTS
I find it curious how islands that had punk scenes in the '80s all seemed to have their own little thing going. New Zealand is relatively close to Australia, and it would stand to reason that the two would share major musical components in the early stages of the (then new and exciting) punk scene...but not so. While the Aussies were making musical whoopie on the coattails of the garage drenched punk of RADIO BIRDMAN, their Pacific neighbors were recreating imperialist punk sounds from the UK, but played through filters clouded with the hazy mist of isolated artists and drug addled individualists lost in the lush rolling hills. Flowery praise for a tape that starts of with a track from BONER, eh? This comp, released by Battery Hen Cassettes in 1988(?), is more considerably straightforward than the other NZ mixes that have appeared on The Escape, and this kiwi diversion away art punk means that you get absolutely killer jams from STENCH OF THE WOUNDED (the most rudimentary of the bunch, plodding, awkward and pedestrian), COMPOS MENTIS (brilliantly noisy female fronted punk bathed in high end distortion), CASUALTY (perhaps the most typically UK sounding band I've heard from New Zealand), ARMATRAK (the most melodic and accomplished musicians on the tape), the aforementioned BONER (another UK influenced attack, especially on "Babies," but the comp opens with a beautifully discordant dirge that sets the tone for the next 45+ minutes) and WORLD WAR 3 (distorted and chaotic anarcho noise). COMPOS MENTIS and CASUALTY both have vinyl releases I would love to get my hands on, but most of these bands only released tracks on this and other cassette compilations.
08 October 2010
LIVE NERVE
Live mix tape glory for your early fall Friday. GRUNTMUSCLE is the only band that I had even heard of before this tape, so get ready to tuck into some random jams from some late '80s rockers from New Zealand (I think that's where the tape is from, and I am open to correction and/or confirmation). BIG ED'S USED FARM sound kinda off kilter with a really clean guitar - sounds like Jasper Thread (DEAD MILKMEN) playing for THE FALL and I kinda like it, but I'm glad there are only a few songs. MORAL FIBRE are more straight up UK punk, fast and catchy with great bass lines (especially "Black + White"), while DODGE WEIRDOS slog through a plodding bass heavy 4 minute dirge. In case that wasn't odd enough, THE STRAP-ONS spend twice as much time making three times the racket on "Do You Swallow Cum?," which is art/noise/improv weirdness at it's finest. NERVOSO close out the first side with two raw rippers - sounds like they might have been a pretty basic female fronted UK styled punk outfit, but this live treatment makes them sound absolutely fierce. The flip side starts with STENCH THERAPY, who are pretty awful. I mean awful as in they sound like shit, but I kinda think it rules. More NERVOSO and BIG ED'S USED FARM (seriously, what the fuck were they thinking with that name?), raw snarling madness from GORSE, and the aforementioned GRUNTMUSCLE wrap up the tape (slow and noisy, like FLIPPER delivered by arty post punks). The sound quality ranges from satisfactory to really noisy, so prepare your ears for a serious workout.
09 July 2010
NZ PUNK // PUNK, INFL BANDS!!!
05 March 2010
CAPITOL CHAOS
This 8 band, 29 song mix tape features some of the best that New Zealand had to offer, and whoever put this bad boy together did a stellar job. There's really no sense in giving a rundown of how this thing plays out, because everything on this tape is fukkn amazing. From the Oi tinged scorchers from NO TAG and FEATURES (both of whom were on the equally killer New Zealand Mix I posted back in September) to FLESH D-VICE's UK82 styled punk jams and angular distortion free BUZZCOCKS tinged shits from TOY LOVE. THE HENCHMEN do an excellent job of conjuring up RADIO BIRDMAN and while TERRORWAYS only contribute one track, "Never Been To Borstal" is an absolute gem. Two UK worship burners from PROUD SCUM and dreary sinister post punk from UNRESTFUL MOVEMENTS round out the roster and make this one of the best 90 minute mixes I've ever had fall into my hands. Side 1 is pretty much all raging ("Mistaken Identity" by NO TAG might quickly edge it's way into my favorite songs ever list - it's that good), and side 2 slows it down a bit (but THE HENCHMEN's 7+ minute "We've Come To Play" is a perfect way to start off a flip side). How does the saying go? "All Killer, No Filler!"
And here's the scant info that was included inside the tape...obviously the internet can fill in a few more holes if you're so inclined. The internet is pretty good at filling in holes.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170629193209im_/http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UWPI3C1CSoU/S5FiJPqkN4I/AAAAAAAAAqo/byeOQEBcwsE/s320/CC+info+img.jpg)
04 September 2009
NEW ZEALAND MIX
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170629193209im_/http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UWPI3C1CSoU/SqEhMnaConI/AAAAAAAAAK0/p0LtZwsbMe8/s320/NZ+mix+cover.jpg)
As you can read on the cover, this was a tape that someone ("S.C.") made to highlight the bands from his/her area, and expose them to someone else halfway around the world. Far be it for me to wax nostalgic for the "old" days (though the days on this tape are way before my time in punk), but there was something more exciting about "finding" or "sharing" a band that you love, as opposed to the modern version of trading URLs. That said, this tape can be downloaded by going to:
20 August 2009
SPERMICIDE
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170629193209im_/http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UWPI3C1CSoU/So1wyfTPCFI/AAAAAAAAAIc/AiWkF47tiZU/s320/Spermicide+cover.jpg)
(that is the last line to the fourth tune on this demo, the blatantly misspelled and terribly punk "Steralize." I like this demo even more the more I listen to it.)
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