RAZORMAZE

Holy shit, is it 1992?  Putting on The True Speed Of Steel will surely make you think it's somewhere around that time frame.  These guys are absolutely sick, sick, SICK thrash metal.  A nice throwback to when thrash metal wasn't downtuned and had death metal style vocals to it.  These guys know how to keep the listener interested and leave you wanting more.  They've got some damn good riffs and licks, catchy choruses...I often find myself during the course of the day belting out "SLAUTEROTICA" in a high falsetto voice like my name is Rob Halford.  Forget Bonded By Blood, Razormaze are far more deserving of your ears.  Technical riffs but still staying tasteful and true to what thrash should be about.  You've got your pounding hooks that make you start banging your head, then you got some nice tremolo picking riffs that just make you want to start punting babies and putting that shit up on youtube.

Like most other bands in the Boston/Massachusetts scene, I feel these guys are really overlooked to the rest of the metal community.  These guys are another whole package deal.  The drummer really rounds out the music here.  On top of the perfect fretboard mastery and at times reminiscent of bands such as Sodom and Annihilator, the drummer really holds it down.  To me, a drummer can really make or break a band, no matter how good your guitar players are.  This guy knows when to switch up beats and keep the music interesting.  He knows when to show off, and he knows when to relax and just groove and let the guitars take a hold of your ears.  The guitar playing in this band is phenomenal.  Like I said before, the riffs just jump out and grab you, shake you, poke you in the eye, and then shreds you apart with a blistering solo.  Nothing melodic here, just good ol fashioned thrash solos, the way they should be.  Listen, and you'll know what I'm talking about.  The bassplayer isn't anything special, but the bass is audible, which makes me happy.  Being a bassplayer myself, I really enjoy hearing the bass, and this guy really keeps it solid.  He goes off on his own and plays some small fills of the tasteful variety and hold down the low end something fierce.

All in all, these guys are something else.  If anyone hasn't heard them, I highly suggest you run out right now and buy whatever you can by this band.  Rob an old lady, beat up your little brother to get the money for the CD, do nude flips for cash, run and see them play live.  They're worth every penny and every minute of your time.  I really hope to hear more stuff released by these guys as they really are a TR00 thrash band, no death mixed in, if anything there could be a VERY TINY bit of crossover hinted here and there, but nothing too punkish if you know what I mean.

Check them out on myspace HERE

until next time, keep it fucking metal and support your local scene!

-Pat (the boston underground)

HIVESMASHER

Now here's a fuckin' band that is a great breath of fresh air in the grindcore/death metal scene.  Finally, a grind band that is tolerable to listen to, and are virtuosos on all their instruments.  Their myspace headline reads "music for people who don't like anything", I don't think any statement could fit any better for these guys.


The name Hivesmasher suits them well, as the tone of their music is comparable to bees swarming out of their hive.  The guitar tone is high and tight, the bass guitar sounds meaty and gritty, but still packs a powerful punch with the low end.  The drummer in this band is absolutely incredible, his style of drumming reminds me of some really complex jazz/fusion, and it fits the music perfect.  The vocalist sounds similar to J.R. Hayes of Pig Destroyer and Jon Chang from Discordance Axis.  His high pitched screaming vocals combined with the killer bee guitar sound and the gritty bass, and the technical jazzy drumming complete this band in a flawless manner.


Each song I hear by these guys are all out of this world.  Frenzied technical fretboard mastery isn't something this band strays away from, and they're a band that can pull off wanking on their fretboards, but still have the listener able to hear what's going on, nothing gets mudded up, which seems to be a big problem with a lot of the newer bands coming out today.  These guys can PLAY their instruments, and do a damn good job at it as well.  I feel there's too many bands who don't put the grunt work in on their music and make it tighter and tighter.  Well, Hivesmasher are tighter than a nun's cunt.  When they aren't covering the sound of a swarm of a trillion killer bees, they're playing you a nice groovy breakdown, but not breaking into any other 'core' aside from grindcore.  You won't find anything close to resembling hardcore, metalcore, deathcore, mathcore, or any other kind of fucking CORE that has been breeding in the metal scene for the past couple of years.


Yes, Hivesmasher are another band from Boston that have a great following and loyal fans.  I haven't had the privilege to see these guys live yet, but from what I hear, they put on a great show, have tons of energy, and sound just as good if not better than they do on CD.  I urge you to buy their album, Ascension Into Dismal Stages.  These guys have busted their asses to make some of the best grindcore in Masscahusetts, and it puts a lot of the grindcore in the rest of the world to shame.  If you can't find the album in stores, or can't afford it for one reason or another, you may download it here.


Check 'em out, smoke crack, hail Satan, support local music, and above all else, keep it fucking metal.


-Pat

this is TBU, featured band: DEATHAMPHETAMINE

Pretty much this blog is going to just be me rambling about bands I think are awesome and deserve some exposure, or bands that I think suck and are ruining the scene.  I love death, thrash, and grind just as much as the next person does, and lately I've been putting my work in with some bands, such as weed asphyxiating death grind act known as Forced Asphyxiation, playing the bass and doing back up vocals, my brainchild of a thrash band,Eargazm, and currently have a few projects I'm in the works of ironing out some details with.

Right now, I want to focus on a damn good band in the Boston scene right now, thrashing death metal heavyweights, DEATHAMPHETAMINE. These guys combine all sorts of great elements in this band wrapped in a nice package. The name alone is enough to make me want to check them out, and the music keeps the listener more than interested. Combining elements of old school thrash, technical death metal, hardcore (dare I say), and some power metal thrown in here and there, Deathampetamine are a band that once the right person hears, will join the ranks of bands like Revocation and Converge in terms of popularity within the scene.  They've got beautifully executed technical thrashing riffs that you just can't deny your head to not bang to, they've got the catchy choruses and some pretty goddamn brutal break downs.  Don't be deterred by how the band is described, they aren't your run of the mill thrash/death band that gets lost and drowned out with the rest of the bands in the scene as a whole, these guys stick out like a sore thumb, and for damn good reason, too.

I've got to hand it to these guys, from the small bit of research I have done on these guys, they've gone through a bunch of line up changes, had been defunct/disbanded for a short period of time, and they came back stronger than ever.  All their material is a bit different from the last release, but it's all Deathamphetamine, and it's all in your face, balls out, kick ass heavy fucking metal.  All killer, no filler, the way bands should be.  They don't mud up or sound like this band or that band.  They're one band within the scene that are well worth checking out, don't pass these guys up or sell them short


All their material is availible for download HERE, and trust me, they are worth the download.

I guess that's all I got for right now, I'll post up more bands here and there, and give updates on what's going on with my projects and all that jazzy shit.

Keep it fucking metal.

-Pat