A389 MIXTAPE SONG BY SONG REVIEW

So my friend Jerry and I were discussing music, and realized we dont see eye to eye on a lot of what we like. His awesome band, The Love Below, is releasing a record on A389 Records, who recently put out a free mixtape. To show Jerry that I just call things for what they are musically and not because I'm superior or snobbish. I'm going to do a song by song review. And here we go:

Deathammeer "In Baltimore There Is No Law" : First thing, the whole one h/two h in the name thing must have been one hell of a series of conversations. I have to say the single h was definitely the right move. Musically, we kind of have a winding intro of dueling guitars, remiscent of Saviours but with a little more testosterone. Whoa, now the vocals come in and were thrashing. Cool for what it is. I was kinda feeling the riffy stuff more than the DRI parts, but its still sweet.

Ancient Shores - "B.T.K." One of those Neurosis-ish bands that attempt on that ritual, rhythmic aspect of Neurosis, which is refreshing as far as this genre of bands goes. So for the last minute of the song, they go all d-beat/old Neurosis. Would be big in the East Bay. Killer.

Hatewaves "Poser Politics" I usually find that it doesnt take long to call someone out some bullshit. Super fast, angry old hc with a touch of a Charles Bronson vibe. Prolly cool live.

Homewrecker "Internal Morgue" Violent and negative. Great songwriting. Remove for vocal sound improvement that I think can only come with experience. Lots of promise here. Fans of Trash Talk need to recognize.

Full Of Hell "Rat King" There's a lot of mixing very slow, doomy parts with fast hardcore d-beat parts. As a doom guy it just ends up fucking with my high bro. Can't get me all nodded all mellow then get all "1 2 FUCK YOU" to the end of the song. Again, not dissing these dudes at all. The blast beat part into the mosh part at the end kills.

Pulling Teeth "From Birth" - I've heard these dudes before and because they were all on Deathwish I figured they were some like noisy youth crew thing. My bad. I don't know what to call this: raging metal? crossover? Feeling it.

PALA "Don't Ever Think That You're In Conrol" - This is interesting. It had a mid-90s emo thing on the intro, theh went into an Eyehategod esque part, yet more technical. Now its Mastodon but less technical.

Gravehill "Kill All That Lives" - Is this the same Gravehill that's leading the keeping death metal "old" campaign? Sorry, Job For A Cowboy called and said "U Mad?"

Integrity "+Orrchida" - Integrity. It's better than "Integ2000", its not as good as "Systems Overloaded".

Seven Sisters Of Sleep "Passed Out Standing" - I like a lot of stoner and doom metal, and a lot of my more hardcore have been pushing me to get into these guys. It's decent, the vocals could be so much cooler than just screaming. Just me though. Go for yours.

Weekend Nachos "Black Earth" - Easily one of the greatest band namds of all time. A name I've heard for a long time and a band I've heard before. Six years ago I would have loved this. Not a snarky "I'm so old comment", just saying I liked faster music then. Would prolly rule live.

Withdrawl "Rotten Hell" - The more metal side of dbeat/hardcore. Sort of in that no mans' band between being like Cro Mags moshable or Discharge as far as moshablity goes. Not a fav. Sorry dudes.

Witch-lord - How did I know this was gonna be stoney? Very "Supercoven"-esque Electric Wizard influence with SUNN/GNAW THEIR TONGUES noise/samples/creepy vocals. Would want to hear more of this.

Seraphim "Frustrations" - Whoa...this threw me for a loop. The first minute of this had me thinking this was going to be a Red Sparowes/Moving Mountings metalgazey thing, and out of nowhere they break into a sludgey Crowbar verse and chorus. Yeah...Crowbar, Tad, Soundgarden...their guitar tone live must be out of hand. Vocally I think there's room to grow. Decent for sure. Bonus for epic trippy guitar outro.

Anne "Get It How You Live" - Reverby metal influenced indie not too different than the up and coming True Widow. I really like what they are doing to their guitars during the verse, and the chorus has a fucking awesome stone roses vibe to it. i WANT this.

Roses Never Fade "Goodbye To You" - In general I hate acoustic guitars, especially when when aging pop punk dudes starting using them, but this is a fucking awesome cover.

Mighty Sphincter "Ressurction" Like if Rikk Agnew used distortion on the first Christian Death record and Rozz was trying to be Peter Murphy. Does goth exist anymore? Cool for playing music that a lot of people aren't really fucking with right now. Want to hear more of this too.

Xibalba "Bright Sun" - I've heard they're the mexican Disembodied and that they tried to fight Comadre for commenting on Xibalba being a band that brings the mosh. Sold.

Phaoroh "I Murderer, I" - This song could have been about half as long. The first minute of that same riff went nowhere, and then the vocals come in like its a different song. Too much stop/go here for me. Very 90s though.

Ringworm "Voluntary Human Extinction (Live)" - Ringworm. Live. No elaboration needed. Awesome.

Triac "Hole" - Fast, angry hardcore. Proficient at what they do, just not my cup of tea.

Rot In Hell "Erebus (Live)" - A lot of my fellow retirement home hardcore dude friends love this band. I've listened a few times and its cool, but I don't get the hard on they get. Great Clevo style HC from the UK. Dude can shred on the guitar.

The Love Below - "Rotten Fruit From A Shitty Tree" Ah, the product of Jerry's hard work. I back the tempo and the semi-decipherable vocal style. At times, vocals have a Born Against vibe. Musically, very dark and East Bay. Reminds of El Dopa at times. Want more.

Gehenna "Cavemen" - Gehenna...you love them, hate them (and secretly love them). You think they're horrible people or you love how little they give a fuck. Personally, I feel their best work was their demo, but this new song was like grind/powerviolence than past releases. Interested to hear more/see them live.

Penentration Panthers "Wasted Mind" - These guys sound like dudes who got those 3 CD Englush punk compilations, and then just stopped looking for new bands. Would be cooler if they upped the Thin Lizzy or Stooges vibe. Not a lot of dimension here.

Pick Your Side "Help Me Forget" - I think this is the singer of Haymaker's band. Sounds like Haymaker. Really angry/pissed off hardcore that can only be made by those old enough to have suffered on their own.

Blind To Faith "RJ" - Heavy Integrity influence but with a bit more of a early Black Flag aire about the vocals. Like Integrity with more of a west coast punk vibe. I can't put my finger on it though.

Oathbreaker "Downfall" = These dudes love Integrity. They do it well. If you love Integrity, you'll love these dudes or call em posers. Not really doing it for me.

Creepout "War Against" - THIS RULES! This reminds me of Oxnard, CA legends In Control. Fun. Great singalong parts. Hardcore is missing this.

Mindsnare "Final Call" - Slayer-ish thrash with harder vocals. Awesome for thrash...just not a thrash dude. Could see these dudes touring w 3 Inches of Blood, Skeletonwitch, and Early Man and killing it.

Children Of God "You Will Suffer' - This is the best aggressive music band in California. Pure, unadulterated anger. Defies words. Brutal as fuck.

Pale Creation "Bleed The Soil" - Classic metal trying to covering whatever vocals with a lot of reverb? Some of the guitar parts has potential, but could use reworking. Now were at like, a post metal Quicksand part into a bad solo. Maybe this was a better idea at the bar in a conversation.

Amen Ra "Am Kreuz" - "hey....lets scream over the same thing for a minute, then stop, go into a long instrumental interlude with dynamics and female vocals that's incredbile." That whole first minute could be outta there.

Integriteeth "New Manson Family" - Pulling Teeth with Dwid Integrity on vocals. Sounds like Integrity with more metal oriented dudes in it. Wouldn't be able to distinguish from an Integrity song without info so that sums that up.

Shin To Shin "Driftning Away" - Kind of this odd blend of death metal vocals with black metal reverb over speed metal parts with the occasional NYHC mosh part. Weird.

Oak "Cowards & Undeserving (Part II)" - Gnarly vocal/drum intro. Very evil. Real slow death doom similiar to Coffins. I like the melodic understones. Nice to see someeone playing stripped down death/funeral/doom. Everyone in Europe is going nuts with extra instruments. Can't hang. This is good stuff though. Want to hear more.


There's my review Jerry.