Vaginal Mutilation - Sef Titled

Band: Vaginal Mutilation
Title: Self Titled
Label: Old Lion Recordings
Release Date: 5 March 2018
Country: Indonesia

There is always something sick and wicked in the East part of the world. And just because of this, there are a lot of goregrind, porngrind and brutal blasting death metal acts coming from there. With sick cover arts and lyrics. These were my first thoughts when I heard of Vaginal Mutilation (what a name!) and saw their cover art (what a cover art!) with the mandatory hard-to- read logo.
The four-piece band originates from Indonesia, stating to play brutal slamming death metal. However, their self titled EP actually caught me by surprise me when I gave it a listen. It is built on heavy death metal and hard-core riffs and some catchy groove parts! It is not noise, slams and blast beats. And despite of the honestly gore/pormgrind titles of the tracks about sexual violence and abasement, and deep guttural pig vocals, I consider the album more into the death spectrum containing a mixture of elements pertaining to other styles. I found a lot of influences in general which is not bad for the fans of the the genre. There is a clear difference in the production and the direction of the first three songs on the record and the rest three. In the beginning production is more crisp, the drums sound is definitely not good. Overall first two tracks - Tragedy Ryan Jombang and Butcher of Anal Canal are different in terms of composing too – slower, hard-core- ish with grind moments, and vocals which simply are not fitting for me there. Birahi Getar Klitoris is kind of transitional to the second part of the EP where the songs are more sonorous, dense, into the death metal spectrum.
And my second part of the album is really the one I like. This should be the direction in which the band to continue. Jugun Ianfu (meaning sexual slavery during the Japanese colonial by their army) is a good mixture of melodic death metal and hard-core main riffs and tempos, and a short lyrical romantic end. Human Trafficking is a very good death metal track with the typical Florida riffs and solo (!). From other hand, the last track - Free sex is not the answer, could be another transition towards the first part of the record if you want to play it again from the beginning. I would go again from track 3 though. I am sure that the die-hards for the style will like this EP. Overall, for me it is a strange EP though. It couldn’t really convince me solidly about its strengths. In my opinion the band needs to find their direction, soundwise and stylewise. I think that if they decide to stay more in the death metal part and do change the vocals more into the death metal templates, they could only benefit of. It could be also the recording production of the album, which creates that feeling in me about too much not exciting different elements in this EP currently. 5/10 By Count Vlad


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5/10 Floating in the sea of mediocrity

Midmourner “Adorned in fear and error”

Band: Midmourner
Title: Adorned in fear and error
Label: Old Lion Recordings
Release Date: October 2, 2017
Country: U.S.A.

Midmourner are around since 2014, and according to their FB page, they are stylistically into the Subterranean Dopesick Blues genre. Actually, Birmingham Alabama’s Midmourner provides classy sludge doom, combining the best in the style - heavy doomy riffs, distorted bass lines, and deep slow tempo. Yes, they might have taken some of the solid riff ground played 40 years ago by the Birmingham UK teachers Black Sabbath, and bits by some of the most popular names currently in this particular style. However, Midmourner added their own flavor and developed it in own super heavy and sludgy modern pattern, crushing everything down to the ground.
Even just the cover of the album insists for stone-cold stillness experience in the gothic end. The sound though is so sludgy, dirty and muddy, that I could feel the sticky soil stuck in my throat while listening. Vocals appear to be very similar to a swamp monster, gutturally spitting stagnant rotten soil and hate.
“Adorned in fear and error” consist of six songs, with a total running time of slightly above 29 minutes. It is unnecessary to stand out one or another song, the album ends in just a (last) breath. Very quickly. It is one of those albums which has to be listened just because of the overall experience and feeling it leaves - heavy hopelessness in the mud. It easily pictures stilled waters, rain falling on top of a casket, drowning into the soil.
As I was so keen on the sludge doom in 2017, I was able to dig into many of the popular and not so popular bands and albums. This Midmourner EP really got me immediately - it is so sticky that I listened it on repeat several times, just because to feed the hunger for what it left in me. Definitely, I’ll be looking forward to the full-length album.
Now all the sludge doom maniacs can have this solid start of the band on cassette or digitally. I urge the rest of the fanbase to try it too. Definitely no need of rope and chair, Midmourner are bringing all the soil to suffocate you and throw your body into the deepest swamps. 8.5/10 By Count Vlad


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Bitter Lake (Sco) "Plagues"

Well ... I received this promo from Old Lion Recordings and was even a little curious to listen to it, after having been researching the band a few days before (on Twitter). "Plagues" is the name of this release of the band Bitter Lake. But let's start with the band name. There are two options for this name from this band from Scotland. A name of a lake that exists near Seattle, or (and I think it is from here that the name was used) of a film realized by the English film-maker Adam Curtis  (I looked for info about this and it seemed very interesting. It's one of the things I'm gonna see). Speaking now of the sound of the band ... This work is divided into six songs. All of them related to Black Metal, of that I have no doubt, but ... There is a very present aspect here in all of them. An industrial and even (sometimes) electronic. In the first song of this work "Deadman's Switch" noted well the presence of industrial sound giving a different ambient sound. It even reminded me a little of the Norwegian band The Kovenant (and something that is found throughout this work). The second song of "Plagues" begins with an "intro" and then enters the "chaotic" part, the music itself is always a mixture of ambient sound and the chaotic part. Well done by the way. "Inhaling Chaos" the third song ... In my opinion the most Black Metal music of this work, despite appearing a quieter part through the middle of the music, but always with a bit of the mixed industrial part. The best song of this work appears in fourth place. "Nature Kicks Back", at least that's my opinion. A very powerful riff throughout the song and with a well made mix of "sounds" that makes the listening very good. "Plagues" the fifth song of this work and the one that gives the name to this work, perhaps the most "chaotic" music of this work, and a little repetitive, attention, in the good sense. It did remind some of the older industrial bands that have a powerful rhythm and basically "walk" around it, during the whole song adding sounds and melodies. Of those rhythms / riffs that make the head shake. I like ... And ... "Inhaling Chaos (Grimbit Remix)" the last song ... A remix, yes ... That's right ... And here is the most electronic part of the band, a lot of "beat", a lot of electronic sound ... This music I will not prolong my words much because it is a sound that passes me a little and I have no knowledge, and as such I will not comment on such. Concerning the whole work of this Scottish band. For those who are curious in music and not a "Traditional" I advise the listening, for those who are not ... You lose a band that can be interesting in many ways. One last point ... Better production could give a lot more weight to this work. 7/10 By Me, Myself & I

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