Reviews
Giants of Grind 2: DVD-compilation
31/05/06 || Lord K Philipson
For the first fucken time in the fucken history of fucken GD we got a
fucken DVD fucken sent to us from some fucken label fucken located
somefuckenwhere. That’s very cool. Very, very, very cool. We dig DVD’s.
We just noticed. We also dig labels who work like this. Sending us free
shit so they get the only opinion that matters: Ours. For that, we should score this DVD a 10/10.
But that’s not likely to happen.
“Giants of grind”, you say? I suppose this collection contains… ehm… grind? I don’t have the greatest feeling about this disc, to be honest. For a few reasons actually. One is that I’m not a fan of grind in general. Sure, I dig some Nasum and I love Terrorizer, but besides that… Nope. The second is that I have heard or heard of, like, three bands on this compilation. I don’t think that’s a great sign either. There must be a reason the remaining ones are unknown to me, you know. Probably becoz they suck, but we’ll get to that in a bit, I’m sure.
First, let’s go to the actual bands and songs on this DVD, before mentioning anything about the extra-material, which mostlikely is nothing out of the ordinary. It never is. All of these songs and videos are taken from a gig at JKW Forellenhof, Salzgitter (Germany, I guess), on the 3rd of September, 2005.
Antigama’s drummer looks like a heroin-addict and the guitarist wears a cap while playing his Jackson. None of these helps though. Antigama are boring as fuck and it seems like the audience of 5 thinks the same. Oh, and the bassist wears glasses. I’m not talking sunglasses either, regular glasses. It all screams “very much not metal” as far as the visual impression goes, but the music says different. Poor grind it is and I’m not impressed in any way shape or penis. But at least I have heard their name before, even if this was the first (and probably last) time I heard their actual music. 3/10.
Total Mass Confusion. Never heard of, has a guy the size of Empire State Building on vocals. And I’m not talking “gym”-big either. I was hoping for a little deeper vocal-chords though, but he’s doing ok. Definitely better than Antigama, but that’s not too hard a task to accomplish. Total Mass Confusion ain’t all that grindy either, by the way. More death metal with some hardcore-ish riffing thrown in. None of it very good. Also, they look bored as fuck playing in front of the “crowd” at the place where these shots was taken from, but not nearly as bored as the afore-mentioned band. More Jackson-guitars displayed here, but still it doesn’t help all that fucken much. The drummer not only looks like he’s about to fall apart when he plays, he’s also not very tight when it comes to double-bass. A plus for the upside-down cross on one of the guitarists’ straps though. Oh,and learn how to fucken tune yer instruments before going up a stage. 4/10.
Third Degree, also completely unknown to me, knows their shit better than the 2 others’, that’s for sure. Visually they look like a skin-band, but their death metal is saying something else. Good vocals, some fuck up by one of the axe-men in “Piggsy”, but overall quite decent. Good to see a vocalist who moves around a little for once, that’s more than can be said about his bandmates. We are not talking headbanging-championship either. This gig must have been a blast for everyone involved… The ending of the second track is quite nice though, quite Meshuggah-like to say the least. 4/10.
Mastic Scum is yet another of the bands I never heard of. If it’s bad enough to have a cap on while playing metal, it’s not exactly top-notch to wear a fucken beanie. With stars on. Oh, man… The pain… Some hardcore/death bullshit, much like the others’. I can see why all these bands apparently are on the same label… The vocalist are throwing a few nice headbang’s though, that’s always something. While not being the tightest performance ever (especially those double-kicks), “My mind is mine” is actually a decent track, complete with Barney Greenway-vocals, but worse. 4/10.
Dysmorfic is another one of those bands I have never heard a thing about. A bassist/screamer with a cap, a guitarist/growler that jumps around like his ass was on fire, rounded up by a drummer with bitch-tits. Yeah, you know this shit is awesome by now. Overly distorted bass, shit-vocals etc etc… What a fucken load of crap. The drummer looked really funny when I played him in rapid motion though, I’ll give them that. 1/10.
Depession. Can’t say I have heard about them before. Suprisingly enough these guys start off with a mellow shit-riff before blasting into some absolute shit. 2 vocalists are sharing duties (at least in one of the songs) on stage and they both sound fine as far as growling goes. The long-haired growler is wearing some Hannibal Lecter-ish mask. That really brings this performance up. By a thousand. 2/10.
Mesrine, from Quebec and unknown to me, starts off with some smooth-talking about how happy they are to play with the rest of the shit-bands on the bill. The pony-tail and glasses-equipped drummer is… ugly and looks retarded while blasting. I give him A+ for that. At least he seems to have his bassdrums down most of the time. Pig-vocals and growls combined with shitty music, what did you expect? 2/10.
Suppository might be one of the shittiest names in the scene, but at least they have the music to go with it. Ahem… The Meshuggah-shirt on one of the guitarists seems kinda out of place, I just have to mention that. Suppository’s death/grind is supposedly… crappy. It doesn’t help the overall impression that they have a few heavier breakdowns. Too little, too late. When the vocalist says ” Thanx alot. You guys fucken rule, thanx alot ” to the crowd, I don’t even wanna know where the fuck these guys played before. 3/10.
F.U.B.A.R. Are caps a norm in the grind-scene? The only one who gets away with it is the late Mieszko. This sounds like everything else I have had to go through with this fucken DVD. The bassist is fun to watch though. He’s really into this shit. I wonder if he’s deaf. At least these guys are showing some energy on stage. Still shit though. 3/10.
And finally, Jigsore Terror. I know these guys personally, but never saw them live and can’t say I liked their “World end carnage” album all that much. Guitarist Tobias is one of my dearest friends, but since I’m a pro, I won’t let that get in the way of this review. There’s a huge difference between this band and the rest of the acts on this DVD though; they are tight and they play a brand of death/grind that actually holds some memorable riffing. Bonus-points to bassist Hampus for wearing a Carnage-shirt (and one of the ugliest hair-do’s ever), and multiple bonus-points to Tobias for looking completely shit in his leather-jacket and rockabilly-approach. On top of that, the guitar-sound is fucken awful. 6.
And the bonus-material?
Photogallery, teaser and interviews with Depression, Dysmorfic, Mastic Scum, Mesrine and Jigsore Terror. All the interviews are boring as fuck, I mean, how fucken fun can live-interviews be? It’s fun to see Jigsore’s Tobias talking English though.
Ending-rant: No matter if the actual DVD is cheap, which is a nice thing, if you fucken buy this I’ll slap you in the mouth. With one of Peter Forsberg’s hockey-sticks. Then I’ll piss on you. And the Grind Finale (thanks, Nasum) would be to set you on fucken fire.
- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Power It Up
- Running-time: 106 minutes
- Website: www.power-it-up.de
- Tracklist
- 01. Antigama: Imperfection
- 02. Antigama: Search
- 03. Antigama: The view
- 04. Total Mass Confusion: Mass individual
- 05. Total Mass Confusion: Nice day to kill you
- 06. Total Mass Confusion: Mind control
- 07. Third Degree: Piggsy
- 08. Third Degree: Ojcze moj
- 09. Mastic Scum: Human scum
- 10. Mastic Scum: My mind is mine
- 11. Dysmorfic: Walls to self-expression
- 12. Dysmorfic: Assmouth
- 13. Dysmorfic: Psychopathia sexualis
- 14. Dysmorfic: Let down again
- 15. Depression: Amputations for my rations
- 16. Depression: Unfection
- 17. Mesrine: Andre’ Gagnon
- 18. Mesrine: Ernst Jean-Pierre
- 19. Mesrine: Moose
- 20. Mesrine: Behram
- 21. Mesrine: Restricted
- 22. Suppository: Shape
- 23. Suppository: March of corruption
- 24. Suppository: Retrieve
- 25. Suppository: Seperate the wrong
- 26. Suppository: Numb
- 27. F.U.B.A.R: Normen en waardeloos
- 28. F.U.B.A.R: Uniformed loser
- 29. F.U.B.A.R: Your excuse
- 30. F.U.B.A.R: Dogmatized
- 31. F.U.B.A.R: Way of the fool
- 32. Jigsore Terror: Insane torture
- 33. Jigsore Terror: Scattered cranial remains
- 34. Jigsore Terror: Skeletal decomposition
