This is cretin death metal for death metal cretins, as if that wasn't obvious from the title and cover art. No surprise, it's not as if the genre hasn't always been a refuge for degenerates and losers, though in Maim's favor, it must be said that their particular brand of death is far more schlocky b-movie horror/gore-obsessed than anything else. Thankfully, there's nothing even remotely approaching the distastefulness of Cannibal Corpse's "Fucked with a knife" and beyond that, I honestly doubt they take their lyrics all that seriously so neither should you. Anyhow, it's nice to see this album finally get a proper vinyl release at long last as that is the proper format for this sort of maggot-minded metal and Niels Nielsen's appropriately filthy, but extremely well-balanced production. Anything else you need to know can probably be gleaned from their country of origin (Sweden) and their choice of cover tune (Autopsy's "Ridden with disease"). I'll sure there are legions of people out there ready to start the backlash against the current old-school death metal revival trend, but as long as bands like this keep putting out solid new releases, I'm all for it. - Avi Roig
is putting out a limited 3xLP boxset for legendary Swedish psych act Pärson Sound, the band that later morphed into similarly legendary acts International Harvester and Träd, Gräs och Stenar. Said collection will include various recordings from 1967/68 (both live and studio) as well extensive liner notes (in English) and plenty of photos. Limited to 1000 copies and officially out on May 28 -- preorder/more info here: http://www.subliminalsounds.se/DOK/news.html
Tystad, the solo alias of musician/soundtrack composer Andreas Alfredsson Grube (Waver, Prins John), has posted a couple new tracks streaming at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tystnadmusik
Two Grande Roses EPs in a single year? Amazing! Even more amazing, the band shows palpable growth between last year's "The farm" and their latest, "Say it to my fervent heart". A little darker around the edges, a little less overt twang... a little more "mature." I use quotes because the band has always had a bit of gravity to them, especially on songs like "Factory", but their approach was a bit more frantic and loose in the past. Now they're dialing down the tempos a bit further and chucking a few more shovel-loads of dirt onto their supposed punker past. A few more steps in that direction and I might start to tune out, but they've got a good balance going for the time being so I see no reason to withdraw my support. Especially if they keep on doing EPs; keeping things short-and-sweet suits them well, as it so often tends to do. 5 songs in 15 minutes is just about perfect.
Iron Lamb will be going into the studio on Friday with Bobbi Rokk to begin recording their debut full-length. "Expect the worse (sic)" they say, sarcastically I'd imagine, but I'm not so sure I doubt it. Listen to a newly-posted 7" track at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ironlambofficial
Maim