Barbara at C/Z has been raving about these guys ever since that label scored the band for its upcoming full-length. Phrases like "incredible live" and "I can't explain them" and "you'll just have to hear them" kept wandering over Sprint, and so I was rather excited to ply this slab on the table.

Well, side one is an original, and remember how excited I got about the Arcwelder tune "Raleigh"? Well, this doesn't quite approach that, but it's the best single I've heard this year. Straight-ahead punk with rough, melodic vocals. A little more punch and they could stand along side early-eighties punk greats.

Side two is a Killing Joke cover, and a creditable one at that. It's an almost trendy thing to do these days, but it seems to flow along with the band's sound.

A full-length from C/Z in a month? I don't think I can hold the saliva in my mouth that long.

I'd really hate to accuse the guys of it, but Cannibal Corpse exhibits real musical growth and sophistication here.

I know, all of you are used to death metal as fast and slurpy as it comes, but I detect real signs of a little doom influence coming in, and until the end of "Hammer", I didn't hear that alto scream I thought only a steer becoming that way could make.

Due to ignorance and a bad memory (I was told before this came out), I don't know who did "The Exorcist" first, so I can't compare it to the original. But this version is nice. Ditto the Sabbath cover.

While I don't think we'll be hearing any keyboards soon, this EP does bode well for Cannibal Corpse's (dare I say it?) creative future.

The band is now known as "Cords", but they used to be called "Chords", back when this single was pressed. Thus the odd nomenclature. The label is a new venture by TVT to crank out singles of unknown bands before they release the full album on the mother label.

As for the music, it appears the TVT A&R staff is getting a little more adventurous, anyway. There's a lot of noise, not much of it with a real point, but I've always been fan of dischord (ba-dump…ching!) God only knows how they're going to market this to the average fifteen-year-old Nirvana freak. It's worth a shot.

Going-for-the-throat aggression, which I rather dig. The production is a little muffled, but pretty decent as demo standards go.

At eight songs, there is a lot to amuse yourself. And amuse is an appropriate term, as a sense of humor pops up in interesting places. In a genre where some take themselves too seriously, it's awful nice to see an (almost) joke going on. This band doesn't exist any more, but at least three of the members are still around playing in various projects. This was certainly a most worthy one.

Straight outta Minneapolis, with that fine AmRep sound going strong. Is it thrash? Is it hardcore? Is it metal? Is it... Right. All the questions you ask when first confronted by this stuff can't be answered.

Brutish and bruising. I can't see a lot of folks jumping on the bandwagon, because this stuff is so damn nasty. Everything rides down on your brain after a while and you just have to plead for mercy. There is none in sight. Just this heavy guitar that keeps grinding and grinding and...

If anyone will get this, you, my faithful and adventurous readers, will. And should. Good fucking music for those into violence.

One of the few industrial bands (using real instruments, not a lot of machines) who still manage to sound truly evil.

A few years ago, this might have passed for thrash, except that it hangs together well and the band members can play. Nowadays we have a term for it, and we have to live with it.

Asides aside, I am once again unable to write a brilliant review for an album that I really like. I think it's the tax season or something. You realize this little endeavor (A&A) means my preparation time goes from ten minutes to a couple of hours?

Back to the music. This stuff stomps my butt from here to Timbuktu. Another damn cliche. Okay, let's just say I wrote a great review of a great album, and leave it at that.

While the album has its unfortunate occasional Nirvana-like moments, this single highlights the punkier side of their musings. There're still these real familiar bass lines, but I can overlook that if the songs are this fun.

"Stray" and "Can't Be Touched" are on the new album ("Wake" isn't, and I like that one best), and the versions here are far superior. This is a great disc.

(The record will please note that my initial reaction was "This is fucking great!")

Before I got this package from Energy, I was wondering if anyone put out good "heavy metal" anymore. All the big boys and influences have either sold out or broken up, forming psuedo-glam or (even worse) funk-alternative bands. Pro-Pain, the older of the two discs was a fine introduction to this rather great album.

Okay, so I'm flashing back to my early college years now, full of drinking a lot and showing up to class enough to get my "A" (when I stopped partying so much my grades went down... hmmm).

Now that I know why you folks are playing this (and the Pro-Pain) so much, I would like to encourage you to do so for as long as you like. Especially this one. Right now I am bouncing up and down in my chair, breaking just enough to type (and I'm moving quite a bit then, too). This is everything music professors hate about hard rock, and yet it seems to distill the essence for my consumption. I'm trashed.

One thing about Pigface: they're not afraid to milk something more than it's worth. See, I like the "Bushmaster, Bushmaster" version, called a remix, that came with the Spoonfed (I think that's right) EP better than the later Gub album version. This stuff is definitely more experimental and kinda interesting. Coherence is not a virtue.

To be honest, unless you jammed Fook until your brain bled, which I kinda did, you wouldn't recognize many of the parts that show up here. And if you do, it's more of a pleasant revelation.

More of a "well, we figured you'd want to hear all of our ideas anyway" project, this is still great music. Pigface consistently spoil the too many cooks argument, making life a little more surreal for all of us.

Um, some real pissed off folks here. The views are at times a little simplistic, but I'd much rather see people question the government blindly than follow jingoistically wherever the latest demagogue takes us.

The band cranks its views out in the Sacred Reich/Armored Saint style of power thrash, a sound I am rather enamored of. I don't think it will ever catch on as much as I think it should, but maybe that's for the best.

I'm going to be catching these folks with Testament in a week or so, and I would imagine they will clean the floor with those guys. They sound like Testament did five years ago. And I liked "The Legacy" a lot.

A reporter said he didn't know if this was a major release or what. I really don't either, but I've never heard of Tony Nicole Tony Records, and it came in an envelope from Skateboard Marketing, which if I remember correctly is Munsey Ricci's gig.

This is a cool single, kinda glam for all of you to be adding, but then again who am I to say anything about that. I liked it a lot.

If there's an album coming or what, I can't say. This is the one time I wish there had been a little press along for the ride. Oh well.

Not knowing enough to recognize where the two covers come from (circa 1986 and 1987, when I was trying to kick a bad Bon Jovi habit), I will say the two original songs sound a lot alike.

This is a bland version of that weird thing some of us call pop psychedelia. I can honestly say I don't like My Bloody Valentine or Lush or Ride or any of that Limey crap (Is Lush British? I don't care). Just plain dull.

Even as this stuff goes, it's kinda boring. Now, I know lots of people who would love this. I'm not qualifying my opinion, I'm just noting this for the record. Right. Next disc, Cannibal Corpse.

Where does it say the next big industrial revolution will arrive from the land of Bob and Doug? Right here, I suppose.

Malhavoc has two great albums (compilations of various Canadian releases) out, and now this. If Godflesh and Fear Factory got together, the unholy spawn would have to sound like Soulstorm. Real heaviness that impacts my sternum, and a lower version of the sing-song thing Fear Factory does.

An album that will not stop until all first-born Republicans are slain. The undercurrent here will drag you into the silt. I haven't had this much fun since Streetcleaner.

You remember these guys from the outstanding "Things that Are Heavy" 7" compilation, right? Well, these three heavy pop tunes crank me just as much as their short appearance there did.

The "grocery bag" reference comes from the fact the single covers were made of 125 bags the band rounded up. Cool idea.

Hey, even without the wild promotional gimmick, this is some prime vinyl.

I've always thought of Tar as down'n'nasty, with the occasional pop overtone. This EP is showing definite signs of anthemitis.

Yes, the same thing that struck almost all the "big" Seattle acts a couple of years ago. Now, this can lead to some great pop tunes, as it does here. And if it stops at this level, everything is bliss, because this is more attractive and tighter than the Tar I once knew.

I really thought the sound on the split single with Jawbox was odd, but it flows right into this effort. Cleaning up is not necessarily bad. Less ranting and more raving are okay by me.

The hardcore fans may be a little disappointed, but I see big things ahead if Tar stays right where it is.