BOSTON STRANGLER - "Outcast" demo (2010)

There's been a lot of Boston media coverage in the past few days for obvious reasons so this seems pretty appropriate. Boston Strangler needs no introduction, they've been quite hyped over the past couple of years, paying tribute to the old hardcore scene of the city, and doing it well — bands like SSD and DYS immediately come to mind upon listening to them. For some reason the LP didn't totally convince me, partly due to a rather sterile/clean production. The rawer production on this demo suits them much better IMHO.

BOSTON STRANGLER - Outcast demo (2010)

MORTIFIED - "Drivel" demo (1991)

After the Kulturo live tape I posted a few days ago, here's another weird occurence from the UK. There's hardly any info to be found about Mortified on the internet, other than the fact they had at least another demo. Their music itself is hard to describe: slow, dirgy, heavy and dissonant — there's elements of doom metal, crust, industrial, noise rock, an early Godflesh / Pitch Shifter vibe maybe, a little Amebix, although this isn't a remotely accurate description. Download and judge by yourself I guess? If you happen to know more and feel like sharing info, feel free to post in the comments section below.

MORTIFIED - Drivel demo (1991)

OTAN - "Jodeles" demo (2003)

Otan was one of those bands that helped put Barcelona back on the punk map in the mid '00s. Not that the scene over there was dying or anything, but this new breed of angry anarchist hardcore/punk bands caught the attention of many punks abroad. They released two 7"s and this 11-track demo, which may well be my favorite of the bunch. I bought it at a show in Barcelona in 2005, the same night that I met their singer Teodoro for the first time, struggling to communicate in broken Spanish. A truly unique character, this hombre! Otan has featured members of Destrucción, Invasión, Firmeza 10, or Absurdo among others.

OTAN - Jodeles demo (2003)

KULTURO - Live @ Planet X, Liverpool, 13th April 1991

I don't know much about Kulturo other than the fact they existed from 1989 to 1991 and featured two ex-members of Antisect. They had a pretty experimental approach to music — loooong songs with elements of Hawkwind, Killing Joke, post punk, heavy metal… kinda like a prog version of Zygote maybe? They never released any studio recording. I've heard rumors of an unfinished demo but I have no idea if any of it is true… Or am I confusing this for the infamous incomplete 2nd Antisect album? Either way, I have 4 different live sets on cassette and picked this one pretty randomly as the sound is good (soundboard recording) and I happen to have the flyer for this specific show.

No tracklisting available so this is just one big soundfile.

KULTURO - Live @ Planet X, Liverpool, 13th April 1991

GODZILLA - "Possessed" demo (1997)

Some of you might have heard of the French metal band Gojira, who are well established in mainstream metal circles now. Not my thing at all, but they started out as a pretty good straight up death metal band. They released a couple of demos under the Godzilla monicker before changing it to Gojira (which is the Japanese name for Godzilla, as you may know). Being from the same area, I got to know and see them early on. I was mightily impressed, they were so young yet so tight and creative — especially coming from a rural area that was not exactly a fertile ground for metal. "Possessed" is their second demo tape and you can guess Morbid Angel and "Human"-era Death were major influences at the time. The drummer Mario was about 15 when this was recorded, was self taught and had only been playing for a couple of years. No wonder he's such a beast now.

I just saw on their Discogs page that this demo was reissued on CD a decade ago. Oh well. This is taken from the actual demo tape. I will most likely post the first demo in the future.

GODZILLA - Possessed demo (1997)

LAWLESS - "Nite Of The Wolf" demo (2012)

I never visited Oakland, CA but I have this (distorted?) vision of it is from Eric Miles Williamson novels: a dirty, dangerous, and stinky place. Lawless hail from there and are a pretty acurate soundtrack to this representation of the city. Sick, ugly death metal from the gutters, whose motto is as blunt as you can get: "We do what the fuck we want. Bow to None." If this isn't enough to make you want to check them out, you may be reading the wrong blog. Featuring members of Acephalix and Vastum.

LAWLESS - Nite Of The Wolf demo (2012)

DISTURD - "Studio Trax" demo (2012)

Yes, the name Disturd is abysmal but blame it on the bad Engrish spoken by most Japanese punks and get over it 'cause this band rages harder than your own shitty band anyway. Formerly from Kobe but relocated to Tsuyama (or is it the other way around?), they're very similar to the almighty SDS (Societic Death Slaughter), churning out apocalyptic metallic crust to perfection— think late Antisect, Axegrinder, Sacrilege, etc. There's no info at all on the tape besides an email address, but I believe this 2-song cassette is only sold at shows. Even though I met their guitarist in Japan a couple of years ago, I never got to see them live, but my friend Momo was nice enough to grab this tape for me at a recent Disturd gig in Kyushu. It has a harsher recording than their recent 7"s, but it sounds damn great. Buy their records too!

DISTURD - Studio Trax demo (2012)