MONDAY MORNING MONTAGE OF MAYHEM

Most of the music we write about here at NCS is the kind of thing you’d see in the dictionary as examples under the word “bludgeoning.” But for today, we were all set to write about a couple of new albums over on the more melodic side of extreme metal — with some actual clean singing! Ah, but you know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men (to quote Robert Burns, they “gang aft agley”).

So, one of our readers (“death’s embrace”) had tossed out a few band recommendations over the last few days, and we thought we’d give ’em a quick once-over before starting on those reviews we had planned. We did that — just a wee taste to see what the music was like — and promptly veered right off the rails and down into a big brier patch of nastiness.

We’re still picking thorns out of our butts, so the melodic music will have to wait another day or two. Today, we have a montage of the mayhem we discovered courtesy of that thorny detour from our appointed path. If you’re looking for metal about (and possibly played by) cannibalistic zombies, read on.

FACEBREAKER

We knew what we were getting into with this band. If the name “Facebreaker” hadn’t been enough of a tip-off, we also had the following note from “death’s embrace” as a clue: “IMHO, a great death metal band from Sweden. Plus all the songs on their last album are about zombies.” Well, who could resist that kind of teaser? Not us!

The band’s latest album crawled out of the grave in 2008 with the title Dead, Rotten and Hungry, and the songs are indeed about zombies, with such mouth-watering titles as “Slowly Rotting”, “Night of the Burning Dead”, and Unanimated Flesh”. And the sound is indeed classic Swedish death metal, in the vein of Dismember and Grave. It’s punishing, but with meaty hooks — rusty chainsaws spinning at full speed and flinging gore in every direction, plus suitably demented guttural vocals. We like it!  (more after the jump, including music to stream . . .)

On April 13, Facebreaker announced on its MySpace blog that it had signed a deal with the Cyclone Empire label. The band is working on its third album (to be called Infected) for a projected release sometime this summer. Here’s a track for you to stream from 2008’s Dead, Rotten and Hungry. Facebreaker’s music is available on iTunes.

Facebreaker: Soul Eater

HUMAN REJECTION

This band is from Greece. Again, we had a few advance clues about what we were getting ourselves into.  Like the name of the band. Like the album cover over on the right. Like the name of their most recent album, 2009’s Decrepit to Insanity. Again, how could we resist?

The music falls into the category of slam metal — the kind of ultra-brutal death metal pioneered by Devourment. The band’s main objective seems to be to take your head and pound it on a rock until it splits like a grape. The music is fast, super-distorted, and technical, with slamming guitar riffs, nail-gunner drumming, and vocals that consist exclusively of pig squeals — and it’s got those lurching slam breakdowns, where the tempo slows to a zombified crawl without losing any of the music’s brute-force impact.

Sure, listening to this stuff for too long will turn your brain into porridge, but man, there’s some fun to be had on your way to oblivion. Check out a sample from Decrepit to Insanity via the link below. Human Rejection is now working on their third album.

Human Rejection: Zombified Society

HUMAN MINCER

Human Mincer is from Madrid, Spain, and released their third album, Degradation Paradox, last year. Like the first two bands in this montage, Human Mincer doesn’t fuck around. The axes grind like industrial machines in need of lubricant, the drums pound mercilessly with inhuman speed, and pig squeals and shrieking are the order of the day in the vocal department. The rhythms leap from one time signature to another in rapid succession as the nimble-fingered guitarist and bassist go berserk on their instruments.

Mixing grindcore, death metal, and slam, Human Mincer shakes you by the scruff of your neck with brutal efficiency, waiting to see what comes out your ears and nose. Their music is available on iTunes, and doubtless elsewhere.

For your listening pleasure, here’s the title track to Degradation Paradox:

Human Mincer: Degradation Paradox

*************

Well, our cat is cowering in the corner, and we’ve developed a taste for human flesh for breakfast. So, we’re gonna go prowl the streets in search of food. See you tomorrow.