Rotten Cold/Human Mastication "Split" CD
[Reverb]
First up on this international split is Rotten Cold (Austria), cranking out eight tracks under the general heading of "Anthems for a Collapsing New World Order".  Expect vicious grindcore that blends a lot of classic influences, so there's both intense blasting speeds as well as a balance of crushing midpaced heaviness, plus a few straight up death metal runs thrown in for good measure.  The vocals are forcefully low shouts with a lot of throaty texture involved, occasionally growling or letting out some snarling screams.  Like the band's past work that I've heard, the songwriting is incredibly promising, but they're held back slightly by a recording that needs work.  This time around they've improved the drum sound and given the bass a little more breathing room, but the mix favors drums and vocals, and there's some noisiness in there clouding up the clarity.  I think the added noise is coming from a strangely distant guitar tone that, while ultra thick, has some weird high-end hovering over it.  If they can clear that up and make sure a wall of pounding guitars drives their future work they'll be set.  I can't help but draw some comparisons to Napalm Death here, but there's a little more of a modern groove to the approach as well, and I definitely enjoy the songwriting.  They even close with a slick cover of "Wolverine Blues" by the one and only Entombed.  Lyrically the tracks deal with socio-political content like war, greed, the media, and a general sense that mankind is totally fucked and complacent and that kind of thing: "Contamination is rising ‘til we all will disappear, Take your last breath collapse is near, Contamination is rising ‘til all comes down, And with the victim the killers will drown..."  Not bad at all.  Next up is Human Mastication, from the Philippines, with six tracks of insanely lo-fi death metal that basically does nothing for me since the recording is a fucking joke.  Sorry, I can understand having no budget, but this sounds like a shoddy demo that was recorded on a 4-track with one or two mics or something.  The drums actually sound pretty tolerable, but you can't hear the bass, the guitars are quiet and dirty, and the barked vocal growls are overpowering in the mix.  The guitars are louder in the left channel and the vocals are louder in the right channel, so the entire thing is so raw and unbalanced that I can't believe anyone would agree to release this.  The band's style seems to revolve around midpaced death metal with chunky picking patterns and a good dose of groove, occasionally blazing over into some speedy riffing.  It doesn't seem terrible, but it's definitely boring, and what the recording clouds up in songwriting detail it highlights in performance flaws, so... the entire set of tunes seems premature to me.  Lyrically their material is on the exact same lines as Rotten Cold, as titles such as "Media Enslavement" and "Greed" would obviously suggest, making clear sense despite minor English problems.  "I'm disgusted with this world I see, millions of people starve to death, People lost their faith, people being dumped and being hostile, Children starving on the streets, homeless people left to rot in hell, Disrespected and ignored, pushed into slave by the fuckin' state..."  The layout's all done in black and white and looks okay.  The only thing that's weird is that each band gets their own half of the booklet, so only one of them can appear on the cover, which makes it look like a full-length Rotten Cold CD until you either open the booklet or take a closer look at the tracklist.  Rotten Cold really does deserve more attention, but they've got to stop doing split CD's with shitty bands.  If this were a solo Rotten Cold EP I'd give it a 6/10 without a doubt, as they're the only factor that saves the disc at all.  Their songwriting is powerful and has some energy, plus they are improving with time, so... I'd love to hear them clean up the recording just a bit more and then drop a full-length.  These split CD's, I mean, pairing up with weak bands like that can start to reflect on you after awhile, and these guys are worthy of more. (4/10)
Running time - 31:46, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: A Virus Called Stupidity, Manananso/Fake, Man (Insatiable Atrocious Beast)]
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