BLAST PICKS: December 2020

Here at Distorted Sound we pride ourselves on highlighting some of the best upcoming bands. We believe that there are a million hidden gems out there that are dying to be discovered and we’ve made it our mission over the years to help uncover some. Now, we welcome our very first edition of Blast Picks, featuring some of the best upcoming bands in grindcore, powerviolence and fastcore. Our writer, Matthew Tilt, will be launching some of the gnarliest music your way to melt your face.

Nothing warms the ole chestnuts more than blastbeats, distortion and glass gargling vocals. 2020 might have been a dumpster fire of a year but there’s plenty of pummelling music out there to help channel those frustrations.

SEXLESS MARRIAGE – Self-Titled, Nighted Throne

SEXLESS MARRIAGE dropped their self-titled album at the start of the month. Ten tracks in ten minutes with not a second wasted, combining the frantic pace of grind with vicious beatdowns and even the odd gang-shout. Mike Morowitz’s gravelly shouts keep the intensity high, bearing down on the listener across the full running time.

Musically, they owe as much to discordant hardcore as they do to 80s grind and powerviolence. Never content to simply pummel, tracks fall away into off-kilter time signatures, before coming back around to give you a good kicking. The final three tracks keep it mosh-friendly and mid-tempo, a welcome reprieve from the relentless pace in the first half.

MENTOR – Chapter Black, Smoking Room

Soaking in the low-fi production, MENTOR’s Chapter Black EP is some unbelievably fast stuff. Mikey Rivera steps up for guitar, bass and vocal duties, backed up by the punishing drumming of Mendo Mondo. Rivera sounds positively deranged as he spits out lyrics over furious blasts of fastcore.

At just 36 seconds, Ghosts and Apparitions epitomises the band, a beatdown sandwich surrounded by two delicious slices of blast. Closer Sinning Tree stretches the formula to the two-minute mark but does so with style. Sounding like WEEKEND NACHOS got into a barfight with CHARLES BRONSON, the EP ends with the exhausted pants of both Rivera and the listener.

WOMBSTONE – Partial Suicide, Self-Released

Folkstone experimentalists WOMBSTONE flit through so many genres in these eleven tracks that it’s impressive Partial Suicide is as coherent as it is. Starting off with soft jazz, before diving headfirst into grinding powerviolence, stitched together with mathcore time signatures and a sprinkle of hip-hop.

Short, sharp blasts like Plumber (with an excellent sample from Chris Morris’ cult BBC sketch show Jam) pepper the album but WOMBSTONE are more impressive on longer tracks like Return to Carbon. Here they have the chance to let their experimentation run wild, breaking up the intensity with moments of calm that spool round and round before bringing the band back up to speed.

FISSURE – Stagnant/Soledad, No Time Records

LA four-piece FISSURE bring gifts aplenty with two new EPs, released through No Time Records. The twelve tracks on Stagnant are straight-forward, brutal powerviolence, full of bile and spite, with crushing knuckle-dragging sludgy moments breaking up the breakneck pace.

The centrepiece, You’re In Weed, CA. Chill The Fuck Out, challenges those strange monoliths for heaviest thing released in December with abrasive guitar lines, thunderous drums and guttural vocals and it marks a change in Stagnant, with the remaining tracks toying with the tempos and throwing in some metallic riffing for good measure.

If Stagnant is FISSURE’s powerviolence record, then the eight-track Soledad sees them kneel at the altar of grind. Screeching feedback, insane drumming and blistering guitar work back up shrieking shouts, it’s the aural equivalent of CONVERGE being mugged by WATER TORTURE. And with only one track breaching the minute mark, it’s all over far too soon.

SLUTBOMB – 2021 Promo, Self-Released

Ohio noisemongers SLUTBOMB have had a prolific 2020, dropping splits with AUTOMATED TERROR MACHINE and BODY FARM. Now they have finished the year with a three-track promo for their upcoming album 8612. Fiercely political, there are obvious nods to early NAPALM DEATH, especially with the seven-second Shellfish, but it owes as much to US hardcore and riot grrrl bands. It’s anarchic and lightning-fast and is a good omen for punk in 2021.

And that rounds off our debut entry of Blast Picks! Be sure to keep posted to Distorted Sound as we bring your our next entry of all things grind and powerviolence very soon!