GRIND YOUR PANTS OFF!

Well dood's... It's about time... Please don't mind if this grinds from behind. (in the immortal words of Graham... RIP)

This mixxer is gonna grind yo'****in pants off...

If you know what grindcore is, you'll love this... If you don't, grip it up anyways and have a good laugh. Don't miss out though it's got some fun stuff on it...

To some, it might be missing some crucial tracks, but next time, I swear. This is what I thought to be a good cross section of what grindcore has to offer.
It's fast, distorted, and full of growling.

Grip it up, GET INTO IT...


DOWNLOARD NAO!

Lizzy Borden

Lizzy Borden

Visual Lies (1987)

Metal Blade Records

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 Pentagrams

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth 

There are a handful of bands from the 80’s Sunset Strip era that have aged well over time and still remain relevant amongst the metal scene today. Lizzy Borden emerged in the mid-eighties during a second wave of Hollywood Glam bands following in the footsteps of WASP and Motley Crue. While other followers simply cashed in on the success of the glam ballad, Borden offered a darker and more respectable take on things. Although they were featured in The Decline of Western Civilization II next to Poison and other embarrassing LA posers, Lizzy and crew actually had something other to say besides “fuck groupies and party!!”

Visual Lies, released in 1987, contains all the most endearing elements of the 80’s metal sound and none of the god-awful cheesiness. The musicianship and songwriting is excellent throughout. There’s no throw away songs there to pad a couple of radio hits. I don’t know if Borden ever aspired for hit single success. With this record it defiantly feels like a cohesive statement with all the songs relatively equal in quality.

Lyrically, Visual Lies hits on different themes like obsession, alienation and deception. The concepts are painted with such a broad stroke as to leave a lot of room for interpretation. Everything is a hint, a suggestion. The album left me with a feeling of mystery. Lizzy himself has a special vocal quality that is haunting without being menacing. So while the songs are very upbeat and harmonious, an undertone of evil permeates throughout.

On first listen, the sound was very familiar but more perfected. The quintessential LA shine and glimmer. Lizzy just did it better than most everyone else.

Gene Allen and J. Holmes are pitch-perfect with their guitar work. The solos have their own distinct Lizzy feel to them that even carries into the work different guitarists are doing in the band today.

I prefer things that are more aggressive and fast, so my favorite track is “Den of Thieves” off side one. The energy is at it’s highest point, the tempo blistering. On the other hand the album has peeks and valleys in which slower songs are able to take you to different places along the way. All the songs have their own emotional quality that creates a mental cascade of imagery. This is their best record of their classic line-up and would be a great introduction to the band.

I would say that if you appreciate great 80’s guitar metal but want more in terms of a cerebral experience, Lizzy Borden is your band.

TREATS! 4 of them!

This is all the releases of one of my favorite bands, if not my favorite band. This band started by making early Japanese hardcore with crust influences, known mostly as what a band called "Gloom" coined "Crasher Crust". I always loved that term so I always used it to describe those kind of bands, and I know most music people would scoff at that term or call it not a real genre... But this is my post, so it is the truth as I say it. This band for some reason has always made me tingle in the sense I was always blown away by them from their roots to their most recent endeavors. This is a band that truly evolved over time and each release reflected the scene they were in. From their first releases and split with Agothocles being heavily influenced by fastcore / PV & hardcore to their next release "ego and desire", there is a huge leap into more apocalyptic hardcore, that leads into "Why do you live" which is an epic crust masterpiece. Shikabane is one of those bands... Just epic as **** even in their crasher releases.

Shikabane translates into "Corpse".

Here it is... GET INTO IT...

Shikabane - s/t
Split
Ego and Desire
Why do you live?

Plum Mixxer... OVERTIME MODE....

Well dood's I have been working like what, making money like its already spent... Making enemies and acquantainces... Cross dept drama and bullshit like no other but... There was one cool dude, who rose from the shit to make a good impression... The Pizza guy, always the fucking hero, the noble pizza guy! Me and Jeff Deth were both pizza guys for long periods of time and this dude is real chill. He is even in a band (most pizza guys are), and a hardcore one to boot, so hats off to you pizza guy!

Well this Mixxer is for you good sir, a classy gent in a sea of dickbags. Stay golden.

I don't really remember what I put on here... But I am sure it's pretty sweet, I don't listen to bad music...


MIXXER DOWNLOAD!

Well kittens tomorrow I am gonna give yall peeps a treat stay tuned...

butcher Cassidy peacin out to play some neo geo...

Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam (1997)

Directed by: William Lusting

Rating: 1½ out of 4 Pentagrams

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth 

William Lusting really disappointed me with this one. Having directed two films I really loved, Maniac and Maniac Cop, I had some hope for Uncle Sam.  That being said I’ve left it on the shelf for a number of years because deep down I knew it wasn’t going to be good.  The time finally came when I had to be sure, just in case. Well, now I’m sure.

I don’t even know how it went wrong. the script isn’t good for starters. Larry Cohen wrote it and he has a solid reputation having directed some good films himself such as It’s Alive. The premise itself of a disfigured Iraq war vet returning home for more killing has a lot of promise. They could have made the killer really campy and fun. I guess they tried but it doesn’t work for me.  I was left wanting much more.

The other thing is, if you can’t get the story right at least put some effort behind the special effects. Well, they failed in that regard too. The effects suck for the most part. I thought the make-up job on Sam himself was good, it’s the kill scenes that get the shaft. I don’t know if they didn’t have the budget or what but they basically cut away on every kill. If they only made the kills more graphic and outrageous this would have been more worthwhile. I mean after all this is from the guy who gave us Maniac, one of the most brutal and graphic slasher flicks ever.

It feels like Lusting forgot himself making this movie. The political satire that should have been inherent given the theme falls flat. Everything feels fake. All the acting is terrible with the exception of Isaac Hayes who is the only character who is at all interesting to watch. It seemed as if he understood the camp quality potential and no one else did. And for that you have to blame the director because it’s his job to control the performances given.

I was on-board for about the first 20 minutes while I could feel some level of build up taking place. Uncle Sam’s dead body returns home to his abused wife and sister along with the nephew who wants to grow up to become him. Things seemed to be in the right place. Unfortunately, everything falls apart the moment Uncle Sam re-animates without explanation after days of lying dead in a casket. There’s this weird shift in mood where everything just feels wrong. The kills are supposed to be motivated but they all seem random. He just wanders around the town and “wrecks havoc” during the Fourth of July festivities.

There where too many missed opportunities and bad decisions all adding up to a movie that fails to have either scare value or camp value.  It’s been over 10 years since Uncle Sam thudded on the ground and we haven’t heard from Lusting since. What a disappointment that he has yet to redeem himself. Because hey, every great horror director has made a total POS. But what preserves their career and place in horror history is they usually fire back with something good again. In the end the balance sheet is more to the good than bad. Lusting has made so few movies that his place in history is hard to gauge. He has made the two aforementioned classics, two debatable sequels to one of those classics, three action type movies and this forgettable trash. His average is somewhere in the middle I suppose evaluating only his horror work. And I hate to say that because I really enjoyed the early stuff. See this only to know what could have been.

Midas Touch

Midas Touch

Presage of Disaster (1989)

Noise Records

Rating: 2.75 out of 4 Pentagrams 

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

Midas Touch were a very short-lived Swedish thrash band, baring a strong resemblance to many of the German Thrashers of the late 80’s era. I found this cassette on a dollar rack at the Record Collector amongst a treasure chest of other hard to find thrash albums. Given the dirt-cheap cost I grabbed it based on the Noise Records logo alone.  Also, the record cover art gave me a good impression, their logo spoke to me and said, “hey! We’re a thrash band, look at my sharp edges!”

Presage of Disaster shows a lot of promise. the technical playing as well as the interesting lyrical content set Midas Touch up firmly next to bands like Nuclear Assault and Destruction. The album has a good flow of peaks and valleys. like all thrash bands they keep the pace mostly very aggressive and heavy but some of favorite moments where the quite intros or breakdowns.

The vocal style is acceptable but not unique. There actually seems to be a bit of a punk influence in certain parts. The political lyricism is also especially punk tinged dealing with war, religion and censorship. This album is defiantly a time capsule of what was going on in metal 87-90 and if you’re already a fan of these types of bands you won’t find anything disagreeable here. At the same time there’s nothing that is extremely memorable either. 

All in all it’s a nice addition for someone looking to expand his or her thrash-metal collection. For the average or temperate fan this is certainly not a must have masterpiece, definitive of the style. Rather it’s a technically solid debut record by some young musicians at the time trying to break into a fairly established metal scene at that point. And this was Sweden before “Swedish Death-Metal”. Midas Touch remains relatively unknown being that this was their only release. Had they stayed together, toured more and recorded a few more albums they could have had more success. But for most people there really is only so much room on the shelf. But for me, I’ll continue to stack’em to the ceiling till I’m dead.

Street Trash

Street Trash (1987)
Directed by: Jim Muro
Rating: 2.75 out of 4 Pentagrams
Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

Oh my God. Dear Lord. How do I describe this film? I can’t even begin to classify this. What I can tell you is that Street Trash has almost every form of depravity I can think of. Muro and crew obviously set out to make something within the horror/comedy genre that closely resembles a Tromaville production. The fact that Troma had nothing to do with the making of this amazes me.

Quite simply, if you enjoy schlocky bloodbaths like Class of Nuke’m High and The Toxic Avenger, you’ll certainly love this. If you don’t veer in that direction, I can’t possibly see what there is to enjoy otherwise. Horrible acting, totally nonsensical plot development,
repeated offenses against humanity, etc.

But if you’re like me, you will excuse it all given the pure entertainment value of it all. Actually, enjoying this film makes me realize what a sick fuck I must be. The average movie-watching citizen would watch this film and scream in agony. Me? I’m laughing my ass off 70 out of 90 minutes. I’m sick, that’s what I am. And so were the people involved with making this slab of filth.

As I said, the “plot” is pretty incoherent. The main premise is supposed to be about a 60-year-old case of liquor pints that make people melt and/or explode upon ingesting. That basic idea is fine and from a horror stand point it provides the only real horrific scenes to justifiably label it that way at all. Aside from that, the movie documents the pathetic comings and goings of drunken, derelict bums each covered by a literal sheet of dirt and scum. The local liquor shop begins selling off the discovered “Viper” booze at liquidation price, setting off a chain of bum deaths.

A painfully overacted role of tough guy cop is introduced to investigate. There’s all these bizarre human relationship subplots taking place amongst the bums centered around their dwellings of the scrap heap junkyard. There’s a crazy Nam-vet that is either having flashbacks about killing people or he is actually killing people in the present. Mostly other bums in the junkyard. Somewhere along the line a Gangster/Nightclub owner gets involved. Then there’s the owner of the yard and his Asian assistant who tries to aid the bums living on the premise. It’s all a little much when you just want to see people melt. How they shoehorn in romantic interests amazes me. You feel so f’n filthy watching this, the last thing you want people to do is get it on. But they do by God. The intent of this film is to offend and disgust and it does not fail.

Anyway, there’s a couple great melting deaths on the front end that catch your attention but unfortunately this is followed by a 45-minute dry spell where the ridiculous “character building” develops. I was close to giving up when the kills start rolling in again to give quite a strong finish. The drunks get thirsty and vengeful and the melting gets serious. I loved the way they introduced a rainbow of colors to ooze out of the Viper victims instead of blood and guts alone. The F/X crew is the hero that makes this all worthwhile. Created on a shoestring budget and not entirely perfect, the make-up is very cool to watch. Watch this one drunk or sober, preferably in a crowd for maximum laughs.

Hats off for pushing the gore to the limit in addition to the hilarity of exploiting crazed, drunken, Nam-vet Street Trash!