v/a "Goreland" compilation CD
[Black Hole]
As the title would suggest, what you get here is just under an hour of totally raw and underground gore grind from 29 different bands, most of whom I've never heard of before. As expected the vast majority of the tracks suffer from sub-par recordings that do the songs little justice, and there are a good number of bands present that simply aren't any good. I assume that most of these contributions are previously released, but I can't say for sure. Either way, you're in for an international array of grunts, growls, screams, shrieks, blasts, and gore... Decomposing Serenity's "Bubbles of Blood" churns out some incredibly awesome riffs, it's just too bad they've got a terrible recording; the Last Days of Humanity track was recorded live so it gets pretty muddy and you can really only hear lots of maniacal vocals and some drums; "The Fifth Chord" by Blue Holocaust is one of the most ridiculously rugged and over the top things I've ever heard, a few steps away from being total noise (largely due to the recording and dominance of distorted vocals), etc. On the better side, even though I hated the full-length I heard from Disgorge (Mexico), their track here is much better, and definitely stands out as far more technical than the other offerings - even if it does still have its shortcomings; Pigsty has more of a hardcore-ish vibe happening and really has a grasp on tight speeds; and other notables are Gruesome Stuff Relish, Haemorrhage, Fuck the Facts, and so on. Strangely enough some of the better songs by notable bands like Regurgitate and The County Medical Examiners are mastered much quieter than the other tracks, so you have to adjust the volume a lot and the pieces feel somewhat weaker than usual. The layout's not bad. I like the high gloss coating, the illustrations aren't so bad for this whole aesthetic, the contact information for all of the bands is included inside, etc. I guess the collage of band logos underneath the CD could have been handled better, but other than that this looks really good. I wish I liked some of these songs more than I do, but compilations are generally a tossup, especially when lots of bands are involved. Admittedly gore grind is not my forte, but what can I say? At the very least, I have to say that this compilation needs a much better mastering job to provide a better listen so that all of the songs would have similar output levels. (4/10)
Running time - 56:00, Tracks: 29
[Notable tracks: The County Medical Examiners, Regurgitate, Disgorge (Mexico), Pigsty, Gruesome Stuff Relish, Haemorrhage, Fuck the Facts]
Black Hole Productions - http://www.blackholemag.com/bhp/

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