Kaotoxin Records are one of those labels that comes with an enormous variety in releases, though mainly Death Metal and Grindcore-based. One of the genres they are known for is the Grindcore-scene. In a couple of days you’ll enjoy the review about a split with Mexico’s Teen Pussy Fuckers and Austria’s Vaginal Penetration Of An Amelus With A Musty Carrot (sweetly entitled A Fairytale Full Of Apotemnophiliac Moments – absolutely worth checking out if you are ‘into’ the scene, if you are an amateur of Porn- and Gore-Grind!). But first this French label will satisfy the sickos amongst us with Monsters! (Maintain The Quarantine, Deadly Force Will Be Used To Protect This Area), a compilation featuring six crazy bands from all over our putrefying globe. And just for the completion of informational correctness: Monsters! … has been mastered by Dan O’Hare (who features with the well-known Total Fucking Destruction; see beneath), and it will be released in a limited edition of 1,000 copies only, with no repressing afterwards. The material by five of the acts presented (the French and Belgian ones, for your information) (so, with exception of the already-mentioned Total Fucking Destruction) was released digitally with the subtitle Five Of A Kind, which makes this physical one been subtitled as, indeed, Six Of A Kind too, for your information.
Monsters! … starts with Total Fucking Destruction, the oldest band on this compilation. This Philadelphia-based act features three notorious names: drummer / vocalist Richard Hoak, known from Brutal Truth, and formerly in bands like Exit-13, Caveman, Trained Attack Dogs or Ninefinger; guitarist / vocalist Dan O’Hare, who’s also involved with Brutal Truth (he’s also very active as mixer / engineer / master for lots of extreme Grind and Metal bands); and bass player / vocalist Ryan Moll of Rumpelstiltskin Grinder / Dust Is Everywhere / Divine Rapture-fame. He recently joined the masterly Black-combo Shadows In The Crypt, by the way. And finally, the three of them have another mutual project, Old Head, playing a mixture of old schooled Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and Thrash, but that’s another story. Anyway, Total Fucking Destruction come with three tracks that combine speedy-fast brutality and harshness with grandiose melodic leads and a very varied vocal offer (three ‘singers’, you see). Besides, they are rather renewing with their diversificating approach, and they also bring a pretty torturous and merciless cover of Nasum’s Blinded to impress… 9/10
Next come Department Of Correction, hailing from the capital of France, Paris. This four-piece (Marc Ferreira-b, Florian Chrétien-g, Yohann Dieu-d, and Grégoire Duclos-v) released a couple of splits before, and they seem to like it. Their Grindcore is enormously fast and violent, with edges of Mathcore and the kind of nastiness that made Earache’s Corporate Rock Wars so sickly beautiful. But from all bands on this compilation, Department Of Correction are the most ‘traditional’ (i.e. it comes closer to the traditions of Old à la U.K. or Czech Republic). 7,5/10
Third act is C.O.A.G. aka Coalition Of Abnormal Grinders, one of the many projects by Belgian guy Déhà. With this project he did surprise me a lot at the end of last year, when he released the pretty refreshing digital recording Sociopath; I invite you to check out the update on February 8th 2014. And with the tracks provided on this six-way split, C.O.A.G. once again bring a mostly own-faced, self-invented form of obscure and death-edged War-Grind. 9/10
Miserable Failure from Marseille are next with purely hateful and wretched Punk-Grind, including some down-earthed breaks and a truly massive, monolithic power. The core is based on tradition, yet coloured with injections of eccentricism and extra-vagance. They show that it is good to be square… 7/10
Unsu are a Lille-based quartet (also with two vocalists) that released two appreciable EP’s and a very interesting split (with Atara) in the (recent) past. They feature with two tracks that are the grooviest on Monsters! … Their approach is rather of the Terrorizer-meet-Brutal Truth-kind, exhaling an approach that most Brutal Death Metal fans will surely adore too. 8/10
Monsters! … ends with two pieces d’Art by the Amiens, France-based duo (they worked with session musicians on these recordings) Infected Society. This act, with very experienced and highly active members that share Decline Of Humanity amongst others, is known as well for the release of several splits. Their approach mingles nasty Hardcore-Punk with Traditional Grind and Tech-Death, and there is even a hint of Funk, i.e. the bass lines jam like a tropic party. 9/10
Monsters! (Maintain The Quarantine, Deadly Force Will Be Used To Protect This Area) is a unique compilation for it brings twenty three tracks that are not that heard-it-before at all. All six players within this grinding game are pretty unique and highly qualitative in song writing and performance.