I
guess everyone who is interested in the Japanese underground scene is
familiar with this band. They have been butchering the ears of Grind
fans for almost 20 years; they play many gigs around our dirty globe…
Of course they havea lot of records, but the fact that they have
released their first full length just now is a bit weird to me.
Anyway they did it well. I know that there are a few different
editions of “North Of Hell” with various cover arts and formats.
For this review I will review the vinyl version. It was released by
German Power It Up Rec.
Regular black color and fantastic front
cover. Creepy butchers that are trying to carve a giant half rotten
head that looks dreadful and is probably one of my favorite pieces of
cover art for this year. As for the noise...
This album has more of a
Death Metal sound but, I can’t call this album 100% Deathgrind. I
caught a lot of other elements. Just check the first song… “Join
Us.” It has so many groovy tunes; sometimes it reminds me very
mutated stoner metal with a Deathgrind base. The whole production is
very tight and that helps this release stand out. The guitars are
heavy and fast, yet clear when the blasting grind ensues. Half grind,
half death their riffs are like a butcher knife, easily cutting off
flesh from the listeners. The bass is bone-jarring, and mixed into
the sound well. I like that Butcher ABC used two different kinds of
vocals; one is clear and second is pitch shifted. Of course distorted
vomit roars brings a huge load of Gore madness into this mess. Call
me crazy but, I think that the drums sound more like Death Metal.
There is a lot of middle tempos and slow and deep cymbal crashes.
There are not many blast beat parts… But that does not mean that
the drums suck, no, in fact they fit perfectly into this bloody sound
hell.
This album starts with an unusual groovy song and it ends with
very similar manor. “North Of Hell” is a very long song, coming
in at 8 minutes, it consists of massive slow and heavy tunes. It
sounds like weird mix of Doom, Death, Grind and Psychedelic genres.
Maybe it’s strange to use such approaches in grind music, but that
helps to highlight this album.
Rating:
8.5/10 ButcherABC bc ButcherABC fb
You can buys this LP at www.power-it-up.de
