GENOCIDE PACT AND GRUESOME

I was in a death metal mood this morning and spent some time exploring music from death metal bands I hadn’t heard before. From that foray, I surfaced with two offerings that I’d like to recommend.

GENOCIDE PACT

Genocide Pact are from Washington, DC. Two of their members (Tim and Nolan) also play in a grind core band named Disciples of Christ, and the third (the drummer, Connor) is a member of other bands as well. To date, Genocide Pact have recorded a demo that was released in 2013 by Malokul, which I discovered because A389 Recordings is distributing it on 7″ vinyl with cover art by Joshy of DC’s Ilsa.

The four songs on the demo are stripped-down and devoid of frills or fads. They lumber and crunch like a phalanx of huge earth-moving machines that haven’t had a tune-up in decades, belching the smoke of distortion and periodically squealing with feedback as the gears come close to locking up. The rhythms alternately bolt forward in a d-beat-driven rush, chug like a hellish locomotive, and stagger like a dying giant, with the crash of cymbals and the vocalist’s hoarse growls cutting through the cacophony of this brute-force demolition project.

There are plenty of tasty, bone-crushing riffs in this demo, and I really enjoyed the drum work as well. Fans of Bolt Thrower and early Sepultura should find a lot to like in this band’s first outing — and thankfully, it won’t be their last. Genocide Pact have another 7″ on the way via Bad Teeth Recordings and are also working on a debut full-length as well, which rumor has it will be released by A389.

The 2013 demo can be ordered from A389 via this link, and it’s a free download on Bandcamp too. Listen below.

http://genocidepact.bandcamp.com/album/demo
https://www.facebook.com/genocidepact/

 

 

 

 

GRUESOME

Gruesome’s membership roster is damned impressive. It includes Exhumed’s Matt Harvey; ex-Malevolent Creation drummer Gus Rio; Possessed guitarist Daniel Gonzalez; and Derketa bassist Robin Mazen. The idea behind their joining together was to record music in tribute to Chuck Schuldiner and the almighty Death.

Two songs emerged from the project this week. One of them, “Savage Land”, is streaming exclusively at Decibel (which is how I found out about Gruesome) and the other, “Closed Casket”, is now up on Bandcamp as a “name your price” download. Both songs are absolutely kick-ass in their own right, but they are also authentic forms of homage to Death — and they drew this endorsement from Death’s former manager Eric Greif on the official Death FB page:

“A full-hearted, meaty endorsement by me for GRUESOME, our friends Gus Rios & Matt Harvey’s new DEATH-inspired project. Go sick & revel in the glory of the old school death metal we love & worship.”

Listen to “Closed Casket” below and use the Decibel link to check out the other one:

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/a-gruesome-salute-to-death/
http://gruesomedeathmetal.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/gruesomedeathmetal