This is the first of the ''metal minis'' series wherein I will shortly review EPs or demos that I can't find much to say about. I will generally review two releases in each part of the series, though sometimes I may review more than two releases. It's really up to me.
The names up there in the title are not release names, but the names of the bands that have released the demo/Ep that I am to review. So now, I give you two fantastic bands:
Innsmouth/Mongrel's Cross - The Plutonian Drug/Starfire Communion [Split]
Here, we have a two way split done with two Australian bands; Innsmouth and Mongrel's Cross. Mongrel's Cross already impressed me beyond belief with the release of their debut full-length, ''The Sins Of Aquarius'', a filthy chunk of spiteful blackened death/thrash with tons of crust and cunning, but Innsmouth are a stranger to me, and if truth be told, the only reason I was drawn towards Innsmouth at first was because their name and content reeked of Lovecraft, and ''Shadow Over Innsmouth'' has to be one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. Books aside, Innsmouth play some seriously heavy, buzz-driven filthy Finnish death metal for the most part, and their brand of old school death metal is surprisingly catchy, melancholic and distorted. There's a heavy stench of Finnish death metal snatched from bands like early Sentenced, Purtenance, Convulse, Abhorrence and alike, flourished with a raw production tone,again, resembling the Finnish death metal bands. Mongrel's Cross also bend towards a more raw and blackened overtone, disposing of the heavy death metal influence that was present on the debut album and leaving dirty, crusty thrash with a chaotic black metal spice on top of it, just the way old schoolers like it. Innsmouth have enough material to make a full-length, and I'm already highly content with the Mongrel's Cross album, so we'll just have to wait while salivating over the thought of a new album.
Uncanny - Path Of The Flesh [EP]
Ah, yes. The Swedish death metal trend continues to spread across the circulatory system of the metal universe like an infectious disease, so common that many already show symptoms of the plague, but fortunately this time we have a band who's actually among giants like Entombed, Dismember and Grave as Uncanny had their debut album released way back, in 1994. So thankfully, they're not exactly imitating anyone, bu they're not exactly bringing fresh meat to the butcher either. Nonetheless, I have a substantial amount of respect of chainsaw oriented madness with the corpulent and copious guitar tone, and Uncanny are inserting a very good measure of groove into their music, sensationally pummeling the listener whilst driving neck towards the edge to destruction. It's frantic and it's still rotten, and even if you don't enjoy this sort of music that the current scene is plagued with, it's good to know that some purveyors of death are coming back from the graveyard dust to smack metalheads with a heavy current of old school Swedish filth. The Ep has only two songs, and it can still be counted as a departure from their former sound, but fans will enjoy it nonetheless.
Innsmouth/Mongrel's Cross: 8.50/10
Uncanny: 7.75/10
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