Squash Bowels - Love Songs
Searching for the KillRuthless Rabble Lifestage Productions2005 I suppose the social value of a goregrind group called Squash Bowels naturally comes into question. However, this Polish band brings the urgh, and that’s all I ask for. I have no idea what the band is growling and gurgling about, as no lyrics come with its most...
Antigama / Third Degree / Herman Rarebell - The World Will Fall Soon and We All Will Die
Polish metal week grinds on, so to speak, with this 2004 three-way split on Selfmadegod, the big name in Polish grindcore. Let’s face it, grindcore’s typical 30 songs in 30 minutes can get old fast, so mixing up bands adds much-needed variety. Antigama, Third Degree, and Herman Rarebell are all key players in Polish grind,...
This Week: Polish Metal
This week is Polish metal week at Invisible Oranges! It’s not intended as a definitive guide, as Encyclopaedia Metallum currently lists 1788 Polish metal bands (theoretically, a productive blog could focus on Polish metal alone). Instead, it’s more a result of noticing that many albums on my desk happened to be from Polish bands. The...
No Heaven Awaits Us - Irony of Pure Hatred
Hateback Lifeline2005 No Heaven Awaits Us plays metalcore the way I like it – heavy on the metal. No bullshit, no technical nonsense, just riff after righteous riff, with death growls and bulletproof production. I could do without the requisite lyrics about hardcore punk, but when metal does lyrics about metal, it’s often awesome, so...
In Twilight's Embrace - Buried in Between
The Hollow Men Lifeline2006 Given the volume of music that I review, I sometimes attach post-it notes to albums with short descriptions for reference. I’ve labeled this one “generic metalcore,” which must have been evidence of initial distaste. However, on further listening, I’ll disagree. Sure, In Twilight’s Embrace has the “Swedish riffs by a non-Swedish...
13th Draft - Where Do We Go From Here...?
Fallout Lifeline2006 I really shouldn’t like 13th Draft, but I do. Emo is pretty much its third strike after metalcore, but I find this Polish band’s debut EP oddly listenable. Mostly, it’s because the singer has a strange stubbornness to soldier on with screams even when choruses beg for the requisite clean singing. There are...