Reviews

Sentient Ruin Laboratories

Clan Dos Mortos Cicatriz Técnicas de Morte LP

Blackened death punk from Brazil that is difficult to wrangle. Técnicas de Morte is a genre-blurring affair that pulls the listener in a multitude of directions, often within the same song. From a one-two pogo beat one moment, to a blastbeat the next, CLAN DOS MORTOS CICATRIZ is erratic and at times disjointed. Across the fifteen tracks, you’ll find elements of crust, hardcore, black metal, and even rock’n’roll. The vocals are the most consistent component, with a pervasive echo that’s like Elmer’s glue and doesn’t hold the parts together sufficiently. The lack of cohesion is a shame, because there are some searing moments with consequential riffs. Tasty morsels, but the whiplash is too disorienting to provide sustenance.

Hallucination Hallucination cassette

I’ve been loving all the stuff that’s been falling on my ears from Philadelphia. What a great scene you have there! HALLUCINATION presents their self-titled first cassette, five tracks of obsessive guitar noise that meshes D-beat, rough punk, and crazed crust. Get the cassette tape for the exclusive POISON IDEA cover.  Songs are short and violent with riffs that replicate themselves as they morph into a destructive nuclear squall, scorching a city in just a few minutes. This EP is a place to inhabit, so take your time to listen to it repeatedly and grasp the slowly revealing melodies and hooks, catchy guitar riffs, and pounding drums between the manic thickness of the guitar tone.  Just play this loud and demolish your last vestiges of hope.

Puro Odio Demo 2018 10″

Dim memories of peeping this one back in the year of its original cassette release, giving it the thumbs up inside my brain and then not pursuing PURO ODIO in any serious way: a fool’s gambit, because this demo nailed the blackened Oi! sound as well as anyone in recent years. Reissued by Oakland metal label Sentient Ruin (Basque skinheads Mendeku also put it on vinyl earlier in 2020), these six songs are fixated on death and hell—both, in the case of “Darby Crash”—roll at a sinister pace, often cranking up the briskness but always coming off like they’ve got an extra gear to really hammer ya, and are recorded impeccably, cold and buzzing but with every instrument ringing through. Crucial shit if SEXDROME, HOAX, early RASPBERRY BULBS, and earlier CELTIC FROST turn your head when appearing next to each other like so. There was a PURO ODIO 7″ in 2019 too, but I could stand to hear plenty more from these two Spaniards.