SKULLSMASHER "Rocket Hammer Brain Surgery" GOREGANG "Neon Graves"

SKULLSMASHER Rocket Hammer Brain Surgery

GOREGÅNG Neon Graves

Here are two new opportunities for you to grind your brain into guacamole. Harshing grinding metal!

GOREGÅNG is an American duo with ties to Swedish bands like RIBSPREADER and WOMBBATH, so they know a little about raw metallic mayhem. Neon Graves is like many releases in the extreme metal realm these days, in that they definitely know what they are doing but they don’t really stand out from the pack in any spectacular way. That being said, their combination of savage Swedish death metal sounds and D-beat crust punk thuggery is fairly satisfying. There’s a good mix of fast, medium and slow riffs to keep things fermenting and occasionally there’s something like the catchy skank parts of ‘Goregãng’ and ‘Spray of Teeth’ or the gnarly opening of ‘This Era of Human’ to really grab your attention.

However, it pales in comparison to the absolute grindcore annihilation of SKULLSMASHER! This is rawer than roadkill and heavier than a plutonium isotope. Think of bands such as INSECT WARFARE or SQUASH BOWELS or even Japan’s S.O.B. It hits that hard and there’s a sizable REPULSION inluence as well. So much so that that band’s ‘Festering Boils’ is covered here. The whole thing is over in a flash, like a nuclear strike, but the likes of ‘Involuntary Dependence’, ‘Bonehammer’  and the title track are just knee-buckling in their intensity. But also based on super catchy punk like riffs! This is textbook grindcore that will likely not be bettered this year.

Both bands are good, but SKULLSMASHER absolutely live up to their monicker!

TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY

GOREGANG

SELFMADEGOD RECORDS

SKULLSMASHER