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New Lows: Harvest of the carcass
29/12/11 || Habakuk
Sometimes, being on Audio Autopsy sucks. “B-but why?”, you ask. “After all, you get to listen to all these kick-ass new releases!” True dat – but newsflash, brother: most new shit is shit. Just like I’ve been preaching for years. Now I don’t know what I like better: being right or listening to good music – but for now, let’s just stick with the topic of music. Admittedly, AA is not a representative sample of what’s new ‘n’ hot these days, with a lot of good shit slipping through underneath its (our?) radar. And that, friends, Romans, countrymen, is exactly why you read the GD forums, where hot metal slabs are thrown at you left, right and center – if only you pay a little attention. Well, from here, it takes only a tiny mental leap to find out how my eyes and ears were turned towards this release.
Bawstoners New Lows, who pride themselves in being one of the most brutal descendants of said city’s hardcore scene and who place themselves “somewhere between Ringworm and Bolt Thrower”, chose to entertain us with 10 songs of filthy East Coast Hardcore for their 2011 album “Harvest of the carcass”. And despite their geographical closeness, they miraculously don’t really sound like Madball or Agnostic Front. Not quite like Bolt Thrower either. I see what they are getting at with that claim though, as the wobbly, bass-heavy drums at least remind me big time of Autopsy. That notion is rooted in sound as well as delivery, aside from the obvious cymbal-driven grooves you seemingly find with everything resembling some kind of hardcore. Also, the thick, meat-scraping guitar/fuzz bass carpet is definitely somewhat death metal-oriented, although I’d rather place it in the dirtiest parts of Sweden rather than Coventry or the likes. The vocals are raspy hardcore shouts in principle, but in a time where every hardcore shouter tries to be the new Jamey Jasta, they are a real refreshing blow in their crusty sound of desperation. Their relatively high pitch is also the only reason that I can find why anybody with a liking for old school death metal could be turned off by this album, as all the other elements are definitely congruent with the tastes of someone somewhat interested in that style.
You know, I never really got the aversion many metalheads seem to have against hardcore, but as far as I understand it, it’s mostly because of the caveman song structure and tough guy behavior. (Feel free to enlighten me.) Whatever it is, both of these are hardly to be found on “Harvest of the carcass”. The songs are comfortably clocking in between 2 and 3 and a half minutes, their groove is straightforward but intelligent enough that no breakdowns-by-numbers had to be relied on, and the lyrics could just as well be from a, say, Disfear album. So in a way, this is a true “crossover” album that combines good shit from both ends of the metal-hardcore spectrum. The filth, the grit, the aggression, the speed, the groove – all are living together happily.
You know however how it is with these perfect stories of bliss, there is always a downside. And here, it’s a real classic: stuff blurs together too much. There, it’s out. It’s in the nature of the sound that “Harvest of the carcass” is almost automatically turning into a rather uniform experience, as hooks, solos and catchy choruses were definitely not on the New Lows agenda. It’s not that the individual songs lack direction, but as a whole the album could possibly use the odd break in its course. That is something that’s only hinted at as it is, for example with the awesome, screamed “An! Guish! An! Guish!”- part ending the according song. With more of that shit, I’d definitely score this a little higher, but then again, it would make this too cavemanish, right? Well, I suggest you just stop mouthbreathing up and give this a go.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Deathwish Records
- Website: New Lows MySpace
- Band
- PBoy: vocals
- Shawn Bredberg: guitars
- David Policastro: guitars
- Jo Kelly: bass
- Mark Sarno: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Stagnant Strides
- 02. Born and razed
- 03. Plaguegrounds
- 04. Last of the rats
- 05. Harvest of the carcass
- 06. The horrible and the miserable
- 07. Bliding grief
- 08. Anguish
- 09. New lows
- 10. The pounding and the hollering
