A relatively big "extreme" music magazine recently reviewed "Wounded", the debut from Landmine Marathon (on Level-Plane Records), and completely trashed it – suggesting that it was sloppy, chaotic, muddy sounding, and generally worthless. All such suggestions are completely and entirely false, and said "reviewer" either suffers from irreparable hearing damage or has become a severely jaded old fuck who hasn't actually listened to grindcore since the late-80's or something. The fact of the matter is that "Wounded" tears through nine tracks of furious grind in 23 minutes, drawing from both the old and the new with plenty of blasting speeds countered by powerfully churning midpaced breaks, plus completely ferocious vocals. The fact that the band cites "old Earache releases and hardcore/punk" as influences makes it no surprise that a few Bolt Thrower riffs are indeed borrowed on occasion (probably the only accuracy to be found within the aforementioned review in said relatively big "extreme" music magazine) – granted they're usually played at two to three times Bolt Thrower's top speed – but no one said originality was the purpose, did they? Because it's not. Complete devastation is. Level-Plane may seem an unlikely source for such, but for my money this is one of the best grindcore releases of the year. I'm definitely on board.

Landmine Marathon "25th Hour"

If you're on the same page, pick this shit up from Level-Plane's rather large distro, whose service is top-notch:

@ 29 North Records

Another recent debut full-length from Level-Plane Records comes in the form of Graf Orlock's "Destination Time Yesterday", which blows through 16 tracks of frantic and somewhat chaotic grind in 27 minutes. Despite the chaotic edge, the bulk of the playing is pretty controlled (especially the drumming), and the dual vocal attack is one of the more unique and effective I've encountered as of late. I wouldn't call the riffing straightforward as far as grind's concerned, either. It's not really out of the ordinary or anything, but the overall vibe tends to stray from the traditional old school style and keeps away from the throwback angle with plenty of contemporary dissonance as well as a few quick sludgy runs and even a couple of unexpected dashes of slight melody here and there. And, in addition to plenty of samples from various flicks, these cats take it one step further in that most (if not all) of the lyrics are assembled from movie quotes, with tracks dedicated to "Predator" and "Falling Down", among many others, which is a pretty interesting touch. Cool, fitting layout, too. It's been dubbed "cinema-grind", and they've definitely covered all the bases with this one. I mean, "Point Break" samples? Hilarious. And awesome.

Graf Orlock "50 Year Storm"
Graf Orlock "A Chat With the Pentagon"

As above, make the grab from the label's distro if you're into it:

@ 29 North Records