Non Opus Dei & Morowe - Dwizki Dwie [Split] (2013, Witching Hour Productions)

Since the late 90's Non Opus Dei have graced Europe with several albums of black metal from their stronghold in Poland. They represent the old school of the genre, but aren't shy of pushing the boundaries a little every now and then - Something that they make evident on their split with country-mates Morowe. And when I say that Non Opus Dei are more old school I mean that strictly in the sense that their approach to song writing is more straight forward. Morowe hail from a different part of Poland, and in the same manner as Non Opus Dei, their approach is tinged by the tendencies of the time in which they started out. In Morowe's case, that means a much more modern take on black metal, often lending them the definition "post-black metal".

Using the split-release format for something particular is always more interesting than two bands that sound exactly alike or that are worlds apart making a split for no apparent reason. On the Dziwki Dwie split-release, we find two bands from the same country, but from two different currents of the black metal subgenre. While not entirely removed from one another, the stylings of Morowe and Non Opus Dei compliment each other sufficiently to communicate the general idea and to promote each band and their individual strengths.

Both bands offer up three choice cuts created especially for the split. And both offerings are good for quite a few listens.
I suppose you have to be into simple song progression with a clinical edge for it to have lasting appeal, because mostly I found especially the songs of Non Opus Dei to be a little too ordinary. The highlight on Dziwki Dwie for me remains Kat Kota by Morowe after many a listen. The riffs presented there are unique and interesting while being easily recognizable and different - Something that precious few bands master. This, coupled with their unusual rhythm section has swayed in their favor, which is something that isn't easily done as I find the whole "progressive-posty-wosty black metal" thing to be usually more of a shitty gimmick than a descriptor that holds any real merit. What it usually means is riffs starting and stopping awkwardly to the sound of poorly timed drums and drugged out vocals, or extremely long stretches of useless noise or acoustic guitar. Yuck.

Dwizki Dwie is a great example of exactly how to make a split. The bands compliment each other without overlapping too much in regards to style and purpose, and it certainly helps when the songs don't sound like throwaway garbage that wasn't good enough for the upcoming album. While the great old ones of the genre are busy reinventing themselves as a speed metal outfit or playing opera houses accompanied by huge orchestras and choirs, this is the part of the scene that still knows what it's all about. Ass-kicking blast beats and gruesome riffs. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Non Opus Dei - Dziwki Dwie
2. Non Opus Dei - Kres Hanby
3. Non Opus Dei - Szaleniec Glupiec Opeetany
4. Morowe - Czij to Glos
5. Morowe - Kat Kota
6. Morowe - Obustronne Oczy Patrza

MOROWE official site
NON OPUS DEI official site

Amnion / Balmog - Grim Repulse of the Southern Lodge [Split] (2013, Filthy Cave Records)

Spain isn't exactly the first country that comes to mind when thinking of black metal. Nevertheless, Spain is the country that both Amnion and Balmog hail from, and on the "Grim Repulse of the Southern Lodge" 7" split from 2013 they showcase the best of what Spain has to offer in terms of black metal. Both bands have over 10 years of experience in the genre, and both bands have as such released a slew of miscellaneous demos, splits and EPs.

With Amnion there are no obvious influences - Their style bears a resemblance to so great an amount of bands that singling out specific elements or influences would be to do them injustice, and it is exactly this that also makes "Semper Mors Erit Dux Tuus", Amnion's side of the split, stand out. You can talk for hours on end about "this little riff", "that small portion", "those blastbeats" and "that bassline", but in actuality the Spanish trio's music is best if taken for what it is: A mishmash of black metal sounds centered around a morbid cacophony made of guitars and a cavernous atmosphere. Though a great portion of the track is of a blastbeat-driven disposition, Amnion still have a nice way with rhythm that is seldomly seen in black metal of this sort. It's not a predominant component in the band's music, but does give it a nice touch and much needed variety.

I'm not going to say that Balmog is the polar opposite or the exact same as Amnion. Though there are similarities given that they both fall under the same categorization, there are at least as many differences. Balmog's songwriting centers more around riffing - which some may argue is a more traditional approach - but also has a more modern sound. The way they arpeggiate through their malicious chords and scales are reminiscent of a few contemporary groups, but Balmog's main strength lies with their ear for melody and the way these a put together over a strong, ponderous rhythm-section. They only occassionally lurch into life with faster tremolo-pieces only to soon fall back into the realms of arpeggiated riffs.

The efforts of both Spanish bands speaks of great musical integrity and a creativity that many current groups and bands lack. There's not much new under the sun about neither Amnion nor Balmog, but their songwriting styles both contrasts and complements each other with their vast differences and many likenesses. If you're expecting the next big thing in progressive, experimental black metal, you need to keep looking. But if you're into varying degrees of traditional black metal with several twists and turns, look no further. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Amnion - Semper Mors Erit Dux Tuus
2. Balmog - Putrid Emanations from the Tomb

BALMOG official FaceBook
Filthy Cave Records official site

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Filsufatia / Twilight Fauna - Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow [Split] (Self-released, 2013)

Black metal's reputation for being badly produced and easy to play has brought with it a ton of "bedroom black metal bands", often of the one-manned kind. In continuation of this there are a lot of below-bootleg quality EPs, demos and splits in general cirkulation.
On the "Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow" split two one-man black metal bands with a token appreciation for the origins of atmospheric and depressive black metal give their own impressions of how to emulate that familiar sound and feeling of bands such as Burzum, Drudkh and Alcest. Though Ravenwood's Twilight Fauna and Deep's Filsufatia don't resemble the afforementioned bands as such there is definitely the tinge of clear influences among their compositions.

Hailing from a place as unlikely for black metal as Malaysia, Filsufatia has since 2006 released a steady stream of demos with Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow being the first split. Filsufatia's music consists of a myriad of decent guitar melodies accompanied by sombre piano tones, but the music is ultimately dulled down to near unlistenable garbage because everything is more or less programmed or at the very least hugely processed through a computer. The melodies come off as alright, but the tunes themselves can't bear the weight of the music. The amount of horrendous FL Studio-sounding instrumentation really numbs the experience to the point where it almost seems like it was made for someone else to practice to.

With Twilight Fauna from Tennessee, USA, we're back in a familiar setting this time more appropriately billed "atmospheric" rather than "depressive". Twilight Fauna started out in 2011 and has since released a few albums and splits. Ravenwood's compositions in Twilight Fauna consists of a ragtag collection of drums with some monotone unthoughtful pseudo-riffs thrown into the mix. To top it all off are his harsh vocals which are delivered at such a whispering volume that they hardly qualify as such. The end result is a rather unmelodic collection of chaotic bedroom "black metal" with little rhyme or reason and little consideration for rhythm.

All this aside the two bands go well together. Though they are billed as depressive and atmospheric black metal respectively their music is rather similar. Perhaps even too similar. If I didn't know any better I would be inclined to think the two one-man projects were one and the same, because the small differences in the songwriting aren't that big. Filsufatia is more melody oriented, and Twilight Fauna more inclined to atmospheric riffs, and these qualities are also made manifest in their different sounds. I suppose this is where they distinguish between atmospheric and depressive black metal.

The best track on the split is by far A Silent Agony by Twilight Fauna. It's mostly text book guitar chord compositions with a few haunting melodies and vocal parts thrown in the mix (think Diablo II's soundtrack). It's not something entirely out of the ordinary, and it certainly isn't metal, but it works rather well compared to the additional contents of the split. It's not much, but it's something. Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow is bland and straight up boring. Filsufatia doesn't make depressive black metal sound melancholic, emotional, painful or beautiful and Twilight Fauna doesn't manage to put enough atmosphere into atmospheric black metal (or maybe the problem is that it's so atmospheric it stopped being music). 3/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Twilight Fauna - The Cold Air of a Solitary Night
2. Twilight Fauna - A Silent Agony
3. Filsufatia - Laverne (A Million Miles Nowhere)
4. Filsufatia - The Grand Eulogy (Welcome Home)

Twilight Fauna official site
Filsufatia official site

Various Artists - 8 Way for Destroy the Music [Split] (2011, Shit Music for Shit People)

Music has become progressively more aggressive since the dawn of time, more or less. There will always be individuals who seek to push the boundaries. But with genres like powerviolence and grindcore is it even possible for music to be more extreme without seizing to be music, like the noise genre? The bands featured on this split are certainly pushing the limit with their individual mixes of grindcore, noise and droney industrial. It's something called noisecore and the title says it all.

It starts off with Culo from Chile. Culo delivers 18 songs coming in at almost 3 minutes. Their style is mostly headpounding noisecore with vocals screamed at the top of the lungs and saturated with inaudible guitars and blasttastic drums. The Chilean band sets the tone and grindmasters Disinterested Handjob from the land Down Under quickly follow with their 6 equally short bursts of rapidfire, though their general outlook is abit less noisy than Culo.
The Equadorean band Menso Noise offers a lengthy track mostly consisting of a guy talking in portuguese with concentrated blasts of grind. On the next quest to destroy music is the American band Gorgonized Dorks which is somewhat a surprise on this release as the music could probably best be described as industrial drony noise with occassional explosions of ear-tearing screams and distorted instrumentation. Quite apocalyptic, really.
Going in a different direction the Danish shit-themed grindcore band Fækal Omsorg (Fecal Care in English) are the only band on the release to have actual riffs and what could very well be actual song structures. The Danish toilet-warriors have a more well-defined sound and a much better vocal performance than most of the bands on the split.
Next comes Drongo, another Australian grind-mutant. Drongo's 11 cellphone mic-quality songs sort-of stand out from most of the music on this split by having parts that sounds predominantly black metalish. The last two bands, the Americans "Infecting the Dissected" and "Video Nasty", are more of the obvious Anal Cunt worship that's generally going on here on this split. Borderlining plain noise these two enemies of melody and harmony offer their cacophonous paroxysms of noise as a final prayer and sacrifice to the gods of noise.

The average song length on the split can't be much, and it would seem that this tendency to blink-of-an-eye lengthed tracks is an ongoing trend amongst noisy grindcore bands. The influences from Napalm Death's first album "Scum" and the noisecore legends Anal Cunt are numerous and obvious, ranging from the songs that are barely even music to the "micro-songs" that have become so fashionable in grind music.

I must say that rating and grading a split like this is a rather troublesome task. The music is utterly chaotic and mind-numbingly vile, but since this is most likely the goal it would seem that the bands of the release have succeeded. And then, if I give them a low grade like 3 or 4, would it be seen as a great compliment or a grievous insult?
For the most part I'd say that it was very difficult to enjoy this split. Perhaps that was intended. Be that as it may, I enjoyed Fækal Omsorg's part and I was rather surprised to find that I also enjoyed the one track by Gorgonized Dorks.
All in all I think this split deserves 3/10 guitars. Whether this is good or bad, I'll leave for the readers to decide.

Tracklist:
1. Culo -18 Songs
2. Disinterested Handjob - Vashta Nerada (Count the Shadows)
3. Disinterested Handjob - We're All Fucked Now
4. Disinterested Handjob - A Commentary on Reznor in the Late 90's
5. Disinterested Handjob - Tainted Meat
6. Disinterested Handjob - F, F, SF
7. Disinterested Handjob - Stop Hating on Pigs
8. Menso Noise - FUA!!!
9. Gorgonized Dorks - Untitled
10. Fækal Omsorg - Soup
11. Fækal Omsorg - Filter
12. Fækal Omsorg - Crap
13. Fækal Omsorg - Spinach Cunt
14. Fækal Omsorg - Puke-Bomb
15. Fækal Omsorg - Turd Explosion
16. Fækal Omsorg - Noise Lung
17. Drongo - 11 Songs
18. Infecting the Dissected - Swarm of Flies
19. Infecting the Dissected - Decomposing Entrails
20. Infecting the Dissected - Delayed Corrosion and Decay
21. Video Nasty - Secticide
22. Video Nasty - Impaled Hell
23. Video Nasty - Suicide Kult Kill
24. Video Nasty - Divine Art of Shit Sex
25. Video Nasty - Madness Made Machine
26. Video Nasty - Clan with a Plan
27. Video Nasty - MagiSick
28. Video Nasty - They Burn like Witches

SHIT MUSIC FOR SHIT PEOPLE official site

Krotchripper / Mass Murder Messiah - Split (2010, Sevared Records)

Krotchripper from Illinois, who formed in 2009, have already since their creation released one five-song demo and this split, both in 2010. Mass Murder Messiah from Wisconsin formed in 2007 and released one demo in 2009 and this split in 2010. Brutal death metal as a genre has had a huge surge in popularity in the last few years and has experienced much musical advancement and has changed from the lo-fi production of the 90's to a more clean sound during the 00's. Krotchripper and Mass Murder Messiah, to me, represent the epitome of modern brutal death metal.

Right from start to finish this split delivers the unrelenting blast-brutality that you have come to expect from the slamming brutal death metal bands of today. Seldom does this release ever slow down, and mostly only because of the few samples that are scattered around the tracks. Krotchripper delivers great slamming parts with groovy headbang-forcing riffs and guttural throat-shredding vocals. While the riffs are not very varied or memorable, they still fit really well into the tracks.

The eight tracks by Krotchripper all fit well together. The flow throughout Krotchripper's part is great and the only interruptions are the samples. The consistency of the songs is remarkable and most of the tracks are outright awesome, although they are not exactly memorable. The vocals and songs in general feature very little variety, and some tracks are somewhat mediocre and standardized. Structure-wise the tracks are not very different from each other.
Only the last track "Echoes of the Trollish Wake", which sort-of serves as an outro for Krotchripper's part, really stands out from the rest of the material by being more intricately composed than the rest of the tracks. There does seem to be a tendency to just do chug-a-chug riffs during parts of some of the songs, but generally the riffs are okay.

The production is fitting for the genre, but sometimes it can be a little muddy.
Overall Krotchripper's part of the split is a magnificent show of brutal force, but it features no surprises whatsoever. Krotchripper is 100 % straight forward drummachine powered slamming brutal death metal, and if that is what you're expecting, you won't be disappointed.

With gurgling guttural vocals, more intricate song structures and fast as fuck blasting drummachine, Mass Murder Messiah continue the same fast-paced brutal death metal that Krotchripper started out with. The few samples seem somewhat wellchosen and are better incorporated into the tracks than what is customary for brutal death metal bands. The modern sound is representative of the newer sound of slam and the tracks are generally well composed and have a sort of technical expression.

Compared to Krotchripper, Mass Murder Messiah's part of the split is more varied, both tempo-wise and songstructure-wise. The groovy riffs make this part very enjoyable. The last of the ten Mass Murder Messiah tracks, "Kiss the Muscle", features guest vocals from Shaun Lacanne of Putrid Pile fame and from the producer of the split, Scott Creekmore. A nice touch, but not something you would notice if you didn't know it was there.

The tracks by Mass Murder Messiah are mixed much louder than Krotchripper's and it seems a little wierd that the volume rises when Krotchripper's part is over.
The production of Mass Murder Messiah is more clean and less muddy than Krotchripper, providing a more clinically precise sound.

There's no doubt that Mass Murder Messiah deliver exactly what you would expect after having listend to Krotchripper. More of the same kind of fast and heavy brutal death metal with incredibly deep vocals. Unfortunately Mass Murder Messiah suffer from some of the same problems as Krotchripper. Many of the songs flow together and aren't very varied, but this band has more intricate compositions which make the tracks a little more interesting.

All in all it's a great split. The bands fit together perfectly, as they are very similar but without sounding the same. The tracks flow along excellently and there are no tracks that except themselves from the general brutality of this split.

The very fitting coverart of Mike Majewski from Devourment is only ruined by poor printing. The back cover looks like it was xeroxed on a 15 year old printer and the front cover just doesn't have a very high resolution.
If you are into bands like Putrid Pile and Insidious Decrepancy you will definitely love this split.
Despite the slight lack of creativity and variety, this split has so little bad about it that it deserves a staggering 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Krotchripper - Krotchripper
2. Krotchripper - Here Kum the Troll
3. Krotchripper - Putrescent Pools of Piss and Bloody Chunks
4. Krotchripper - No Escape
5. Krotchripper - Bloodbath (feat. Goremonger)
6. Krotchripper - Terrorfucked (feat. Devon)
7. Krotchripper - Rotten Meat Rottisserie
8. Krotchripper - Echoes of the Trollish Wake
9. Mass Murder Messiah - Live Human Dissection
10. Mass Murder Messiah - Parasitic Bacterial Infections of America
11. Mass Murder Messiah - Trache Fuck
12. Mass Murder Messiah - Left for Dead
13. Mass Murder Messiah - Suffering Through the Suffocation by Means of a Gore-Filled Colostomy Bag
14. Mass Murder Messiah - Frozen Torture Tomb
15. Mass Murder Messiah - Purification Through Uncreation
16. Mass Murder Messiah - W.A.M.W.
17. Mass Murder Messiah - Penance Through Dismemberment
18. Mass Murder Messiah - Kiss the Muscle

KROTCHRIPPER official site
MASS MURDER MESSIAH official site
Sevared Records official site