For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week

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.
What up? Talk about beak, I mean bleak—these upcoming releases are about as barren as the Jundland Wastes on Tatooine…

What can be said about KITTIE that hasn’t been said before? I mean, really, who likes this band? A slightly heavier sound comes with the release of I’ve Failed You, their sixth record. This record should be titled, Hey, Hot Topic, HERE WE ARE. Crunching riffs, screamed black metal-style vocals, into singing parts. At least Mercedes’ looks have held up. Someone should tell attempted shredder Tara McLeod that her solos really kind of suck, in like an “I just learned to play guitar” sort of way. It’s just WAY too easy to hate this kind of boring pap, so, I mean, if Kittie is your thing, you are going to like this; if not, it pecking sucks. At least this effort is a bit of a marked improvement from previous efforts. I’ve Failed You will indeed live up to the title after your first listen. Kittie? More like Shittie. (C’mon it HAD to be done.) 3 Fucking Pecks.

life cover

Hey, Remember the Crumbsuckers? Remember the record Life of Dreams? Yeah, that was a GREAT crossover record. Remember when the Crumbsuckers broke up and became Pro-Pain? Yeah, not a lot do. Well, proving that mixing metal with hardcore and being old-school doesn’t necessarily mean you are deserving of attention, PRO-PAIN release the CD/DVD collection 20 Years of Hardcore. Not just a collection for you PP fans, all three of you, but this contains four new tracks, some cover songs, a best-of section, a live DVD, etc., etc. Not that anyone cares, or really should for that matter. It’s beaking baffling why some label would go through the trouble to retain the rights from nine (?!?!) different labels just to re-release “God Only Knows” off of the Foul Taste of Freedom record. Who knows, maybe your old boy Waldo can’t see the forest for the trees and there is indeed a market for Pro-Pain’s unique brand of groove metal, but assuredly this thing is a complete letdown. 4 Fucking Pecks (only because two members used to be in a cool band).

New Kids on the Block—no, not Donny, Danny, Joey, Jordan and Jonathan from Boston, but ATRIARCH from Portland come at us with Forever the End on Seventh Rule. Equal parts, death, doom, crust, black; if you name it, and it’s intense, it’s in here. Pummeling moodscapes build up to earth-shaking devastation. Definitely a band too look out for. The recording is a retro-style black metal sound draped in reverb and ambiance, which in this case really augments the intensity of the music. Check these guys out, this is pretty squawking cool. 6 Fucking Pecks.

My old feathered ass is going to go with the aforementioned Crumbsuckers. OG Combat Core, really good, Life of Dreams is a bit superior to Beast on My Back, which just has a more sterile recording, but the Xover riffs are crucial. Truly an underrated band.