LOWCARD DE LA MORTE / KILLSEDUCTION Split EP review

 

LOWCARD DE LA MORTE / KILLSEDUCTION Split EP

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions

OK bias alert because this split release reminds me of the 1980's Underground Hardcore / Speed Metal era when you only heard good music via tape trading. What we have here are two bands from Japan who not only nail the sound and fury. But the production is time honoring perfect. The fucking attitude is a slam pit smack to the face. 

First of there's LOWCARD DE LA MORTE who deliver six cuts that are pure old school sounding Hardcore / Speed Metal. I mean short songs, meaty riffs, aggro vocals with plenty of tongue in cheek lyrics. It's serious music for the not so serious but want to get crazy to. 

The second band here is KILLSEDUCTION who deliver five cuts in a different way. Yeah it's Hardcore, Speed Metal as well as Thrash and Grind. That latter touch is obvious since guitarist Takafumi Matsubara of GRIDLINK is in the band. Musically their songs are a psychotic speed trip which would be more enjoyable if I was still a coke head. But for right now their short sharp and diverse extreme shock is pretty cool. 

Like all split releases I judge em as wrestling matches. I mean real wrestling and not like that BS on TV today. This is Japan style Wrestling from decades ago in a exploding barred wire match with tacks on the mat. Although KILLSEDUCTION seem to walk into this ring as the predominant winner and heals. I'm choosing the baby-face LOWCARD DE LA MORTE who do a better job jumping off the ropes and pinning. 

NUFF SAID!

https://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/kill-de-la-morte

RETORTION TERROR - Self Titled EP review

RETORTION TERROR - Self Titled EP

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions


Well fuck me running! Seeing that the past couple of weeks I've been inundated with a lot of slow music. I'm half in the bag with a cold. And oh yeah I decided to have more than a few beers last night. Then I check this one out. I didn't even read about it before I hit play. No that would be five seconds later after I turned down the volume a little. I figure it's from HPGD then it'll be good. I was actually expecting some soothing death metal but alas.


Anyways this is the first proper release by RETORTION TERROR. Prior to this they put out a split with INVIDIOSUS which was also on HPGD Productions. RETORTION TERROR's claim to fame is that it features guitarist Takafumi Matsubara of GRIDLINK. Now I've got a funny GRIDLINK story for ya but before that let me give ya some history. If you haven't been following along then maybe you didn't know that a few years back Takafumi Matsubara had to retire from playing because of a disease that made him fucked up in the head. Well thankfully he's ok now and back to creating music.


As for my GRIDLINK story, alright so around a decade ago I did a review for GRIDLINK's debut CD. Let's just say I wasn't impressed with it. Yes I know you're shocked. Now afterwards I saw a review of it from a website that caters to hipsters. So at that time I was also a member of a few metal discussion sites. Don't laugh because you were probably involved with a few yourself. Anyways I had this audacious idea that if I posted links to my reviews on the sites then I'd get more people checking out my blog.


Well it didn't work out so well. You see when I posted my review of GRIDLINK's debut release I also included the statement "Grindcore for Brooklyn hipsters who just discovered a Korean Tofu BBQ food truck." So yeah I got banned from one site. Two others, which were basically controlled by a few douche-bags, really trashed me every way you could think. Oh well I learned a lesson. But still I can honestly say I never got into GRIDLINK.


But I sure as hell like RETORTION TERROR. This is death grind pure and simple. First off the vocals by Kiyo Nishihara of Japan's WORLD END MAN are deep, ferocious and threatening. Musically this is straight at your throat to crush and kill type grind. We're talking old school punishing riff type of stuff which I've always liked. Matsubara finally cuts loose into his trademark guitar wankery at the end of this release. Hey it's only a six and a half minute release. In the end I'll take this over GRIDLINK any day.


http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/retortion-terror