Crass Dismissed: August 1998

“I hate all music” – Johnny Rotten

Slight Slappers
Very Best of Slight Slappers
12″ Record

This is the second release from Slap-A­-Ham Records that is unlistenable — liter­ally. Like the Spazz 1″ this is just a joke record, but unlike the Spazz 1″ there are actually some of these for sale. 666 of them to be exact. You can’t play a 2″ record and there’s no music on it anyway but this is a cool little piece for all of us dork S.A.H. collectors. As for Slight Slappers, they are not a joke. S.S. are an over the top fastcore band who make mandatory records and put on one of the most energetic live shows I’ve ever seen. They hail from Japan and are really great folks. It would be a shame if this was the only Slight Slappers record in your collection.

Grief
Torso
CD

In spite of persistent rumors that they are calling it quits, Grief are back with another full length masterpiece of slowcore I doomsludge. You’ll be scooping tar out of your speakers for weeks after listening to this puppy. On Torso, Grief have taken the best elements of their two previous full length releases and combined them. They have the sharper focus and better songwriting found on their last album but have recaptured the raw and plodding forcefulness of their debut. As one of the premier bands in their genre, there are very high expectations every time they set foot in the studio and on this record, as always, they deliver. Heavier than most metal, more extreme than most hardcore, and slower than most baseball games…. What more could you ask for?

Rotten Sound
Under Pressure
CD

The powerhouse style of Rotten Sound is so violent that it almost man­ifests itself in physical assaults on the lis­tener. Combining the vehemence of raw crustcore with the sledgehammer riffs of grind this band’s sound is anything but rotten. Like many of the best new breed grind bands, Rotten Sound distinguish themselves not only with their completely insane delivery but also by the fact that they are so incredibly tight. They have a razor sharp delivery that still manages to be raw and uncompromising. Great.

Odes of Ecstasy
Embossed Dream in Four Acts
CD

Odes of Ecstasy take classically influenced death to a new level. Embossed Dreams… is a metal symphony divided into four movements (y’know, like a “real” sympho­ny) with the addition of prologues and epilogues to bookend the piece. The music is a blend of black/dark/death/goth­ic/doom metal with each flavor being given moments to shine, although the gothic and death influences are the pri­mary building blocks. The CD seems to climax during recita­tion of part of Mozart‘s “Requiem” in the third movement titled “War Symphony,” although the denouement in the epi­logos “Vampire Hunters” is the most haunting moment of the disc thanks in large part to heavy sampling from Coppola‘s film Dracula.

Altar
Provoked
CD

This album isn’t so much a step away from death metal for Altar as it is an attempt to incorporate more thrash into their sound. Imagine taking the classic German thrash sound of bands like Kreator and Destruction and merging it with early nineties death and you’ll get the picture. It is a sound that works well, although it may occupy too much of a middle ground for fans of pure death or pure thrash. Altar have also evolved their image so far that instead of emphasizing an angry anti-christian stance like they did on ”Youth Against Christ” Altar are just plain angry this time. The targets of their venom are not limited. The cover shows a guy peeing on an occupied cop car and that is only the beginning of the obnoxiousness and patent fury of the band. The icing on the cake is their cover of Accept‘s “Fast as a Shark.”

Read more Crass Dismissed by Jeb Branin:
Crass Dismissed: July 1998
Crass Dismissed: June 1998

Only the most devoted SLUG fans venture so greedily and so deep. Consider joining our community of donors, you lovely devotee!