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 VARIOUS ARTISTS – This Comp Kills Fascists
(Relapse)
The Skinny: The longest track on this album goes for 2:47.
If there were any badge of honour for a grindcore album, it would be how many ridiculously short songs can fit on one album. Clocking in at 51 songs, the Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed)-compiled This Comp Kills Fascists achieves well. The album is totally unrelenting as it jumps between tracks, from power violence bands like Weekend Nachos to the grindcore assault of bands like Kill The Client. The highlights of the compilation are numerous, Total Fucking Destruction’s three-song contribution stands out, as do the Brutal Truth tracks, the first they’ve laid to tape since 1997. The main strength of the compilation however is the fact that it has put material from a bunch of excellent, albeit obscure and largely unobtainable, bands together in to one package that most stores will sell.
It’s Worth Checking Out For: The album artwork and the CD design, which includes George Bush’s face surrounded by a swastika of dicks.
*****
 ROBOTOSAURUS – Manhater
(Skull & Bones/Stomp)
The Skinny: Feminist literature it is not.
From the doomy dirge of opener Muddy Water Is Muddy Water, the debut album from Adelaide act Robotosaurus establishes itself as something removed from the often derivative Australian scene. Grindcore with the sonic intensity and vocal similarities to Calculating Infinity-era Dillinger Escape Plan, Manhater is an intelligent, genre-defying kick in the face. The frantic interludes in songs like Never Alone In Hell give the album a dynamism that will make even the most reserved wanting to get up and slam dance (even if they’re alone in their bedrooms). While the schizophrenically layered melodies in tracks like Vision and Sleep will pummel listeners into total submission. There are some albums that you’ll always remember the first time they blew you away, Manhater is definitely one of those albums.
It’s Worth Checking Out For: Seeing what early Dillinger would have sounded like without those “math metal” parts that sound like computers having sex.
*****
 THE ROTTED – Get Dead Or Die Trying
(Metal Blade/Stomp)
The Skinny: New name. Same sound. No complaints.
Previously Gorerotted, the Rotted’s new album is the continuation of British band’s three previous full-length efforts. The most noticeable difference between Get Dead Or Die Trying and the LPs recorded under the Gorerotted moniker is the removal of the gore, both from the band name and the lyrics. But unless you’re a horror movie junkie or a die-hard Regurgitate fan that won’t matter and Get Dead Or Die Trying will leave you totally satiated. The dual vocals are still there and the ironic song titles (Angel Of Meth, Get Dead Or Die Trying) are as poignant as ever. Despite the name change, this is clearly a Gorerotted album.
It’s Worth Checking Out For: Angel Of Meth and Nothin’ But A Nosebleed
****
 TOXIC HOLOCAUST – An Overdose Of Death
(Relapse)
The Skinny: The beginning of a crossover revival? D.R.I. were wrong, I win, you win.
Good on Toxic Holocaust, when most bands are still trying to jump on the thrash revival bandwagon, they’ve gone one step further and wrote a record that sounds equal parts hardcore punk and metal. The gloriously ridiculous title is a taken to heart, songs like Nuke The Cross, Endless Armageddon and Feedback, Blood & Distortion don’t allude to much lyrical depth. However it’s more than compensated for by the Jack Endino-helmed production. The album sounds excellent, each note is pronounced and the album’s crisp guitar tones just beg to be air guitared to.
It’s Worth Checking Out For: The fact that you’re probably bored with Municipal Waste’s The Art Of Partying by now.
****
TOM HERSEY
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