Every other Friday, Waldo the African Grey Parrot, frontbird of thrash-grind immortals Hatebeak, will get you caught up on the week’s latest “extreme” releases.
Waldo here, and while there’s PLENTY of new metal releases to hate on coming up in the next few weeks, your old feathered friend is going to turn DOWN the hate for a bit. Trying something new for my karma, so to squawk.
THE most metal forehead in, well, metal, Rutan and crew come forth with Phoenix Amongst the Ashes by HATE ETERNAL. HATE ETERNAL is fucking right, too—this thing is evil, heavy, twisted and melodic. Out-weirding Morbid Angel is no easy task, and while HE fall just shy of the mark on that, this thing is fucking sick. DEFINITELY an improvement over their other records. Drummer Jade Simonetto is certainly a great replacement for Roddy. Voivod-esque riffs, off-time solos—this thing keeps moving, like a giant storm crawling its way to pummel your meager existence. What Morbid Angel SHOULD sound like now. Complex, insane: this thing is FUCKED UP. Let’s just hope the live show can catch up with the intensity of the recorded material. Meaner than Chris Brown was to Rihanna. 8 Fucking Pecks.
From the frosty wintry tundra of Brooklyn comes LITURGY with their new one, Aesthetica. Transcendental black metal? What the squawk does that mean? All in all, the production is kinda weak, and there are a lot of choir chant-y parts that this bird brain doesn’t really understand. The vocals are pretty squawking intense, though. There’s definitely some bird shit that doesn’t fit the traditional black metal mold (see track 4, “Generation”). Is that really a bad thing, though? The only bad egg to be smelled in this nest is the idea that one can’t help but think of these guys as some new jack New York hipsters. I know Brooklyn is known for its solitude and long cold nights where feet of snow will pile at your cabin in the mountains, but this isn’t that bad. Interesting take on black metal. 6 Fucking Pecks.
FUCKING WORMROT. It’s about time Earache did something right besides reissuing every classic record they have. Dirge is fucking gnarly, giddyup beats, crust riffs, starts and stops, and the right amount of mosh parts all slammed into one intense grindcore package. This three-piece is from Singapore, so who knows: maybe they just never have heard a modern grind record. All of the classic grind elements are there, of course, managing to stay fresh and not like some rehashed version of Napalm Death circa whenever. A must have. 9 Fucking Pecks.
ZOMBI have broken up and gotten back together more than Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, but they are back (for the time being) with Escape Velocity. This is NOT going to be everyone’s cup of seeds. Gone are the proto Goblin-esque horror film anthems, as are the proggy tributes to Yes. Escape Velocity sounds kind of like something that should be pumped from an Abercrombie & Fitch. Trippy and strange, and dance-y, however it IS appealing on some level. I really want to peck someone’s eyes out to this, but it’s grown on me like feathers after a good molt. If this sounds like it isn’t your thing, then it probably isn’t, don’t get it. For you, it’d probably be more like ZZZOMBI, but in this avian supremacist’s opinion, it’s a fine-feathered release. PLUS there’s a BUTT on the cover. 7 Fucking Pecks.
That’s it; Waldo want a slaughter and will spray some bird shit all over some new releases for you in a couple of weeks.
