Artist: Cremations // Sightless Pit
Album: Dissolution of Balance // Grave of a Dog
Genre: Hardcore // Experimental
Country: Germany // USA
Release Date: 21st of February, 2020
Released via Isolation Rec. // Thrill Jockey Records
Cover Artwork © Isolation Rec. // Thrill Jockey Records 2020
It always sucks when you are late to a party. Especially when it comes to bands that have just reached their peak and then break up shortly thereafter or their career ended just when it was about to begin. For me two of those bands are Trap Them and Genghis Tron.
I discovered Trap Them when my fellow blog colleague Roman handed me their album Blissfucker. Shortly after that they released their last album Crown Feral (the one I listened to the most). However, as the introduction suggests, they disbanded after the tour-cycle for that album. I really liked the guitar sound and the kinetic feel to their brand of Metal, I just couldn’t sit still while listening to them.
Genghis Tron broke up after one EP and two great albums (remix albums/EPs not counted). I discovered them after I heard that Kurt Ballou produced their debut record Dead Mountain Mouth. I was confused, intrigued and hooked by the wild combination of eletronic elements (not gimmicky but a real element of the music), Metal and Chaos (I read concert reviews about them opening for Dillinger Escape Plan and even their fans were confused). Their final album (Board up the House) was about a zombie-apocalypse, what more can you ask for…
But what does this all have to do with the new records of Cremations and Sightless Pit? As the title also suggests, they kind of fill the void, those two aforementioned bands left in my musical horizon.
Cremations are a German band from Hannover who like to play fast, metallic Hardcore. I can’t recall how I stumbled upon them, but I’m glad I did. Their debut Dissolution of Balance has the same kinetic effect Trap Them releases had on me. The moment I heard the first harbingers “Nothing” and “Aftermath” I knew they got me. Every track on this album incites immediate movement. Upbeat + mosh-part = a smile on my Hardcore-loving face. The bleak atmosphere, brilliantly conveyed through the album cover is just the icing on the cake. Stand-out-tracks for me are „Aftermath“ and „Broken Shell“ (great finale).
Sightless Pit are a completely different type of monster. Consisting of members of The Body, Lingua Ignota and Full of Hell, Sightless Pit create something that produced a big “?” above my head, something that does not happen too often. The three songs released prior to this album “King’s Corpse“, “The Ocean of Mercy” and “Drunk on Marrow” left me wondering and curious about how the full album was gonna be. Once this album starts you are in for a lot of aural surprises: throbbing beats („Immersion Dispersal“), distorted voices (nearly everywhere) and a slight melodramatic feeling („Love is Dead, All Love is Dead“). This album works best as a whole, but if you want to start somewhere try “Immersion Dispersal“ and „Love is Dead, All Love is Dead“.
If there is space in your heart for challenging new music, look no further and give those two bands some precious time of your life.
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