Some new NATUR

Thursday, September 9. Save that date.

Why? Brooklyn's defenders of true fuckin' steel NATUR will be playing at the Cake Shop to celebrate the release of their first single 7", Decion b/w Spider Baby. It's a pretty monumental occasion since this band is meant for vinyl and the newly founded The Year is One Records (started by Mark from the Casualties, who is a huge vinyl freak) is putting it out. Hail! "Decion" is a brand new cut while "Spider Baby" was given the re-recorded treatment. Of course, in trueness, it was laid down on 2" tape. Can't get better than that, really.

Also on the bill is Mutant Supremacy, who will also be having their record release party. I guess this will be literally a "record" release party since the last one was for the CD version of their debut full-length, Infinite Suffering. I hope you like your death metal extra deadly because these guys bring it. And I hope you enjoy Morbid Angel.

A nice surprise to this fun-filled evening is MR's featured black metalers: Rhode Island's Nightlore! They're one of the very few black metal bands (even American black metal, no less) that I enjoy and I'm really stoked to be seeing them. Fuck!

Sorry kiddos: 21+ only. But that won't stop you, now would it?

POPULATION REDUCTION

I haven't been focusing on the grind and power-violence side of things recently and I feel awfully bad about that, especially when a band like POPULATION REDUCTION exists. Goddamn, do these Bay Area grinders know how to shred. Basically, take the best bits of early grind (Napalm Death, Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror...the usual suspects) and throw in some Capitalist Casualties and a pinch of riffing from Nuclear Assault and you get these guys. The cool thing is that the band is only made up of two people: Dr. X on drums and vocals and Peter Svoboda on guitar and vocals. They do have bass tracks in their studio record, Each Birth a New Disaster, so I wonder what they sound like live. I first heard these guys on their split 10" with the mighty Abscess and was way impressed. Quality stuff here!

PHLEGETHON

It appears that Hooded Menace's highly-talented multi-instrumentalist Lasse Pyykkö is in every kick-ass Finnish death metal bands these days, and PHLEGETHON is no exception. No sirree. In fact, this is one of Lasse's earliest bands (dating back to 1988), which explains why he can't do wrong in the death metal realm.

Basically, what we have here is pure fucking death metal, just the way all of us real death-freaks like it: organic, raw and putrid as fuck. I mean, look at the band name. The band's latest offering, a discography disc entitled Drifting in the Crypt, is the perfect gateway into Lasse's sick history and it even includes the group's latest demo track, "Circle of the Hybrid Statues," which shows the band still going strong with fresh ideas. This is worth checking out!

INFERNAL BLASPHEMIES

A while back, we covered the incredible upcoming Swedish-via-Holland death metal group ENTRAPMENT. There were only a few songs available through the band's MySpace (including a great Nihilist cover) and their only physical appearance was in the recent Invocation of Death Vol. 1 compilation tape from Death Invocation Records...until now.

Belgium's Detest Records (finally) just put out the debut demo tape this morning (EST time) and, of course, everyone needs to order it! It's limited to a mere 350 copies and I reckon it will sell out soon. This is only the beginning for this incredible band!

Also check out Guitar World Magazine's MetalKult blog for a cool feature on Entrapment as part of their Notes From the Underground series!