Age Of Woe - "Inhumanform" CD

Crusty Swedish metal

Sweden seems to be the home of the best metal these days, with the likes of my own favorites, Watain and Meshuggah hailing from that very destination. Age Of Woe's debut doesn't reach that watermark level of metal brutality nor complexity, but "Inhumanform" is a solid work of downtuned "d-beat" mayhem, nonetheless. And they're from Sweden.

"King Of Thieves" is a rollicking metallic joyride to hell, while "Black Rain" is a sorrowful, doom-laced piece. "At First Light" is a speed-laced, fuzzed-out rocker that channels both classic metal and hardcore. The rest of this 38-minute album follows closely behind. Maybe it's not so unique, but Age Of Woe certainly have the momentum and potential to join their aforementioned brethren.

Give Praise Records

Age Of Woe bandcamp

Age Of Woe site

Accion Mutante - "Worse Than A Virus" CD

Brutish grind-punk from German thugs

Accion Mutante is a veteran grind metal/punk act from Germany who's been around since the late 90s, but they haven't released a proper album since 2002. Well, they make up for that with this 17-song gutter-grind-punk barn-burner.

Opening with the spoken word intro, "Narcissism of Mankind", the band launches into the primitive punk/metal of "Stop FGM". The remainder of the tracks are equally as barbaric -- steamrolls of classic  grindcore chug and vomit-style vocals. With bands like Accion Mutante, the tracks nor their subjects matter. After all, this could be political, or it could be about the pain of an ingrown toenail. The gutteral grunts are competent, but hardly unique, and the bare-bones music is, well, really quite forgettable. 

Power It Up Records Germany / Give Praise Records USA

Accion Mutante site

Accion Mutantespace

Soil Of Ignorance / Wadge - "Split 7""

This split 7" features a pair of underground Canadian metal/grind bands who can shred well, thank you very much. Soil Of Ignorance's side is a series of bursting, gutteral grindcore blasts that remind me of classic, early Napalm Death. Cool retro noise for metalheads. Wadge, on the other side, are more crusty speed/thrash metal. Their "Maim To Please" starts things out right, with lightning-speed guitars and spastic drumming. "Sir Gimply Biscuits Of Gibletshire III" shows the group's sillier side. "Topsy's Curse" is a violent minute or so. A lot of fun, for the 10 minutes you get. (Give Praise)

Soil Of Ignorancespace

Beer Corpse - "Keg Nuts" 7"

10 songs, 11 minutes. Beer Corpse are an Aussie band who scientifically examine the correlation between gore/splattercore and, umm, beer. Or, in other words, this is an ear-clogging boat-load of drunken grindcore metal. Either way, it's a fun, if juvenile and sick set of blurry and grunty noise silliness. Me likes. (Give Praise Records)

Beer Corpsespace