Reviews

Enemy of the Goat

Choke / Döpemess split cassette

Music aside for a second—maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I don’t understand why each half of this split is being hosted on two separate Bandcamp pages. I’m aware that this is first and foremost a cassette release, but the majority of the folks who will be listening to this will be doing so digitally. I feel like it would make more sense having it all in one place. Regardless, it’s a pretty groovy split. Both bands sound different enough for it to be interesting. As a two-piece, DÖPEMESS does a fantastic job filling any and all gaps. Drums are incredible and never waver. Fast as all hell. Dual vocals give the tracks a real call-and-response vibe. CHOKE is much more slow and low, reminiscent of SPAZZ and CAPTAIN THREE LEG-styled powerviolence with their barking vocals. Drums sound almost impossibly fast at times. Comes complete with samples that are almost longer than the song. Good shit.

Gosh Pig Skinner cassette

Oakland’s GOSH embraces the hate on their latest cassette Pig Skinner—three tracks of violent, anti-cop hardcore that range from slowly lurching to quickly pummeling, with grind and powerviolence influences appearing here and there. All three tracks are impressively diverse, but I prefer the final track “Synthetic,” the thrashiest of the three, which has a cool POWER TRIP vibe. Overall, a solid batch of songs that must be fun as hell to hear live.

Merked Murk Mob cassette

Oakland’s heavy hitters MERKED play twenty tracks of sinister, grinding powerviolence with a gruesome slab of sludge, recalling HARD TO SWALLOW and UNRUH. Excellent stuff that does not tire on the ears like some forms of PV can. Punk grind attitude, somewhat sloppy at times, in a fluid way. It sounds like they are having a good time doing what they love and I like that. A three-piece that sounds like a mammoth, lots of breakdowns and some mid-tempo moments. I got through the entirety of the twenty tracks and it sort of felt like a play. There is definitely a story here and they don’t overdo it; the tape simply slams start to finish. I reviewed CHOKE from the Bay Area some months ago as well, and still have yet to see them. Lame of me, but it would be rad to check both these bands out. That would vibe nicely, I think.

Kageneko / Merked split cassette

Great split between two grindcore bands from the West Coast. Both sound pretty similar, but MERKED has real drums and KAGENEKO is a classic cybergrind band with the drum machine playing impossibly fast beats. Reminds of something you’d find in some random distro in the early ’00s. Nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s fun as hell.

Merked / Slag split cassette

Total and complete grindcore devastation. The samples of righteous violence between MERKED songs make everything even more intense (“I swear on my fucking mother, if you touch her again you’re dead”). Dark and heavy grind-churn savagery that makes me scared to flip the tape…fortunately, I’m playing on an autoreverse deck. SLAG continues the savagery on the flip, pure San Jose grind supremacy. Of all of the records (and tapes) I’ve listened to this month, these are absolutely the most brutal sounds I have heard—fans of grind and violence are well advised to not sleep on this shit. Absolutely colossal release.

Choke / XGrifoX split cassette

Yoooooo—where the fukk did this come from!? CHOKE fukkn explodes with three pieces of churning, anti-pig grindcore. I picture a room full of people chanting “defund the police,” and it gives me chills because in that moment, you know that room feels like change is actually possible. And that, young punk, is the fucking power. XGRIFOX fills their side of the tape with ruthless PV/grind from the GODSTOMPER school. Just one dude named “El Grande” beating the shit out of a bass and a drum kit and trading high/low vocals with himself. Sounds like it was recorded in a tin shed in the backyard—and if you know what’s up, then you know that’s precisely how it’s supposed to sound. Got my ass handed to me with this one, and I’m anxious to hear more from both bands.