Strong Intention - Razorblade Express [2012]

Maryland bad asses Strong Intention have a new album out, entitled “Razorblade Express” and yes, it is full of bad-assery. Combining classic Grind and Hardcore punk elements, Strong Intention delivers a hard hitting barrage of chaos on this new album.

 The only gripe about this album is that it's extremely short. In fact, it is under 20 minutes with only six songs. It's a little hard to even call it an album and would make more sense to be considered an EP, but someone decided this would be the album.

At least there's no filler.

 Having said the above, the music speaks for itself as it kicks your ass quick and good. The two openers being the title track and “Messiah Whore” slam you against the pavement and keeps crushing you with amazing riffs and killer breakdowns while “Holes in the Wall” is a mosh happy gem that would've worked great as a Cro Mags song. It reeks of old school New York Hardcore. “3^rd Space Gorilla Generator,” “Rat Factory” and “Slaughter Intelligence” takes you on a roller coaster through your intestines. There is nothing but rapid fire awesome going on here.

Strong Intention proves that even in this age where everything seems to have been done to death, bands can still pop out gems. The band is all over the place venting their frustrations and refuses to let go. This is a must have for lovers of old school hardcore and classic grindcore. “Razorblade Express” is one of those albums you listen to over and over again.

Rating:  70%

Written by Chris Butera 

Black Breath-Sentenced To Life

I honestly can't understand the connection between the pathetically crafted album art and the album title, but as long as the music is good, I couldn't care less. Black Breath are nothing like like what you've heard before this year. Well, technically they are, but when bits and fragmants of differentiating sounds get sewn together in an orgy of malevolant intesity. ''Sentenced To Life'' subsumes such a vast abundance of musical styles that at first, it wouldn't be a shock if one wouldn't be able to classify this. Fortunately, I was warned before I listened to the album, so the riffs and complication of variation didn't come as a complete surprise. If we are to classy them then the best way would be to call them death/thrash/crossover/punk, which just isn't easy to spell out.

The riffs come in a superb abundance, from clusters of death/thrash insanity, to straightforward death metal tremolos that grind you up, to crushing crossover riffs, all presented to the listener with an intense punk attitude in the background. I just love how the riffs teem and overflow with dense energy, ready to be exposed with a sudden impact of brutality. The music just never bores you, with such variety and little nuances. The songs are all kept at a short length and thus have been abridgened in order to maintain the same level of dynamics through the whole album. And I have to say, the lack of lenght has indeed increased the rate of effectiveness and freshness since the album stops at thirty-two minutes. Some tracks may slightly stray from the pervasive path of pure, crushing and plain assault of riffage. ''Endless Corpse'' is a different tune, dealing more doom than say punk or even death, with its stomping mid-pave moments, brooding melodies and only handful amount of energy. Most tracks go with a steady thrash influence lingering at the back for the most part, and the crushing energy of thrash metal only empasizes the raw power of the album. Luckily death, thrash, punk  and crossover are the only styles prevalent on this album, or else we would had a real hard time trying to comprehend things, getting hit with a different weapon everytime we would turn to understand what had struck us previously.

The vocals are the key to the maintaining the energy here. I can't quite relate the vocalist to any of the singers I know, but he sounds like a frantic death/thrasher with a lot of punk attitude and furious barking most of the time, like the riffs. ''Sentenced To Life'' would not have been the same relentlessly crushing and crazed monster if it weren't for the vocals, guiding the riffs furiously.I come to cunclusion that Black Breath have indeed created something that's different even though, the originality can only boast the quality until so much. Massive Assault, probably followed a similar path to Black Breath, only leaning more on the death side and thus pushing the thrash influence aside. Either way, Black Breath's sophomore is for fans of frantic, frenzied death/thrash that also rots of punk and hardcore to provide that amazing attitude and energy. And the album is probably another good example of the ''Music doesen't have to depend on the artwork'' formula.

Highlights:
Doomed
Home Of The Grave
Mother Abyss

Rating: 89%

Massive Assault-Death Strike

Amongst, tens and thousands of new death metal releases, Massive Assaults ''Death Strike'' stands out by the edge of a sword. Despite the more thrash oriented name and album title, this a death metal album and you can picture a vivid sight of what it sounds like by the album cover. There is a hint of Entombed and other usual Swedish suspects and a nice punk atittude that adds lots much heaviness and aggressiveness to the music. Another note would be that if you are searching the same dark, cryptic atmosphere that bands like Macabre and Disma delivered than look somewhere else, but if you want some skull fracturing death metal which is concise and effective, look no further.

As I mentioned before the album immedeatly kicks off and pummels the listeners pace to the ground with pure punkish savagery. Unfortunately that's pretty much the best thing that the album can offer. The spectrum of variations isn't very extensive and there is little technical skill or musicianship. Though if you push that aside the album is a very solid release. The bass is exceedingly audiable and the riffs and crusty and crunchy with a sort chunky sound applied to the guitar tone. The tone enables the riffs to obtain a cool Swedeath aspect and groove especially heavy sounding with the dense feeling. The songs are short and efficacious, kind of like many hardcore punk and crossover bands that have short but all in all, powerful tracks. The album gains some of it's heaviness from the distorted, thrash tinged mid-paced riffage, especially seen on the song ''Turning Tides''. The song has a much more doomy, nonetheless crushing(yet still failing that tinge of blashemous evil) structure that evocates a graphic image of ancient death/doom monsters Asphyx, Cianide and such. The song ''Pride'', like the aformentioned is a slower track compared to the widespread sound of the album, though in a much different way that draws more influence of a more evil sound(yet still not very graphic), essentially worshipping some Swedeath masters like Gorement, Sorcery etc.

After first couple of tracks the album starts to lose its efficiency though after a certain point the music manages to keep capturing an amount of fascination and interest for the listener until the end of the album. It clearly shows that Massive Assault did not delve into the depths of their imagination of the album but have managed to split a large quantity of necks. With lots of crushing Swedeath groove, this crossover-tinged album leaves a slightly memorable mark on the listeners ear. The album eventually manages to top numerous bands with its most delicately crafted heaviness and aggressiveness but fails to achieve what bands like Nocturnal Torment and Charon have achieved. The lack of evil is a big gap on the album but the bulldozer assault saves it from entirely destroying the energy on the album. The dynamics are great but no better than moshable track played in an underground show place that grabs hold of the crowd only until the end of the show.

Highlights:
Chained
Operation Atrophy
Driven Towards Death

Rating: 81%