Vinyl Fetish: Flourishing- The Sum of All Fossils LP Pre-order

The Sum of All Fossils was one of my absolute favorites of 2011. It's nearly a year later and I'm still having a ridiculously hard time trying to choose between it and Mitochondrion's Parasignosis to crown with album of the year honors. Regardless, they're both in the top 5 death metal records I've heard in the last decade and I'm jazzed this is finally being released on the only format that matters through Australopithecus Records. 300 copies are being pressed, 50 on 180gm black, 50 on maroon and 200 on white. A limited edition t-shirt to celebrate the vinyl release is also available for pre-order.

TSOAF is a challenging record and not just in terms of technicality (though it is that). It's challenging in that it completely defies pigeonholing and the listener's expectations at every turn. Swirling technical death metal riffs  that would sound at home on a Mitochondrion or Portal record butt up against Am Rep style noise rock bits. The Godflesh-esque industrial stomp of the rhythm hammers throughout. The entire record is sprinkeled with ambient parts, grindcore sections and completely triumphal riffs. Even the vocals are hard to pin down, being alternately death metal growls and shouted noise rock fare. I know it sounds like a complete hodgepodge, but what makes this album so great is that Flourishing don't just manage to "pull it off", they make it sound as if combining the influences that make up their sound is completely natural and we were just too blind to see it. Fans of Gorguts, Human Remains, Pyrrhon or even Am Rep style bands with at least a tangential interest in metal should definitely check this out, it's a completely unique record.

THE SUM OF ALL FOSSILS

Psudoku- Space Grind (2011)

Rob keeps telling me that a) he's not dead and b) he's going to post something eventually. I don't believe him on either account.

Trondheim, Norway's Psudoku is the brainchild of Papirmøllen, who is also the man behind the anarcho-grindcore assault that is Parlamentarisk Sodomi (who happen to have cartoon dicks on most of their record covers, but I digress). However, unlike the hardcore-rooted Parlamentarisk Sodomi, Psudoku isn't so much rooted in anything, more like blasting through intergalactic space at a pace approaching the speed of light. There's only one thing I've ever heard that sounds even remotely similar to Space Grind and that is East West Blast Test. Yeah, when I compare a band to one featuring two of my musical idols (Dave Witte and Chris Dodge) that's a pretty gnarly endorsement. If you've heard the East West Blast Test records you should have some idea what to expect, completely weird, avant-garde, perhaps even jazz-influence grindcore. But, no offence to two of my favorite musicians, this album blows both of theirs out of the water. Why? The goddamn riffs. I don't want to call the guitar work on this album "riffage" or "shredding" as either would be an insult. The guitar work on this album is riff-craft. It's a fucking work of art. It's some of the most precise grindcore riffing I've heard since The Inalienable Dreamless. Oh, and Scott Hull should watch out, because Papirmøllen is looking to usurp the throne as the best drum programmer in grind.

One of my favorite grindcore records ever. Don't sleep on it.

SNORT SPACE DUST

Buy it here:
Digital (Amazon)
LP

Vinyl Fetish: Converge/Napalm Death- Split 7" Pre-order

Haven't done one of these in a while! A year or so removed from their split with Dropdead, Converge teams up with another bunch of old dudes band with a long, storied history, Napalm Death. I will say I wasn't quite as keen on Napalm Death's most recent effort as many, but I'll be picking this up regardless because a) it's Converge b) Converge do a fucking ENTOMBED cover (Wolverine Blues) with guest vocals from Tompa Lindberg and c) the Deathwish exclusive vinyl looks fucking sweet. I wish Converge had chosen to do something off of Left Hand Path, since doing a straightforward death metal song would have been more outside their wheelhouse, but I'm excited regardless. Available from Kingsroad on yellow and pink vinyl and from Deathwish on randomly colored swirly "vinyl bong" vinyl, which is a pretty boss manufacturing technique used by Gotta Groove Records. No pressing info is available at this time.

 

Deathwish 

Kings Road 

Vinyl Fetish: Graf Orlock- Los Angeles 7" Pre-order

Graf Orlock return with their first release since the tremendous Doombox EP. 10 whole minutes worth of grind on this bad boy! Actually, half of that will probably be samples, but the 5 minutes will be totally worth it. Issued by the band's own Vitriol Records and limited to 600 copies on black vinyl, there are 3 different covers available. Each cover features actual bullet holes shot through it by a member of the band and comes with a fold out poster (not sure if the poster comes with bullet holes as well). These go on sale Saturday around 9pm Pacific Time.

Grind or die.

A Scanner Darkly- A Scanner Darkly (2006)

I had started in on doing a lengthy writeup on this album before I went to the A Scanner Darkly last.fm page and realized that the description on said site was as good if not better than anything I was going to write. So here it is:

"As a humble tribute to Philip K. Dick (one of the greatest science fiction writers- and one of the best novelists of the 20th century) A Scanner Darkly draws influence from Dick’s hallucinogenic alternate-realities and the seemingly incompatible musical worlds of sludge, drone, grindcore and prog-rock to create their own synergetic brand of sci-fi metal that is as intelligent as it is brutal!

Alternately lightning fast, brutally crushing and whimsically self-referential, ASD’s self-titled debut is both a tribute to- and an embodiment of- the paranoid, psychotic world of Philip K. Dick."

Combining some totally awesome tunes with a devotion to all things Philip K. Dick (Dickish?), one of my favorite writers, is a huge win in my book. Don't make the same mistake I did and dismiss this band as simply metalcore and ignore them for years. 

Get it for FREE from Gilead Media's bandcamp.

This guy is out of print, but Amazon seems to still have physical copies.