Vomit Bucket Productions are an underground DIY-label from Germany, started by a guy who calls himself Gag (named after the movie?). Actually it was founded in 2007 in order to release the Vomitous Discharge-recording Festering Carcass Covered With Rot (pro-CD-r) (though, there was some material before as well), and since Vomitous Discharge are an outfit by Gag… Got the picture? Some more material followed, initially stuff from Gag’s own projects, and finally on vinyl and cassette too, mainly with handmade packaging. And as from a certain moment, also other artists could release their material via this small yet ‘big’ label. However, in an era of digitally downloading… This is another sad story about the market and the inherent difficulties for labels and stores, which I won’t tell about right now. You know what I mean. This (narrow-minded, capitalistic) situation made Gag deciding to focus on his own projects only (some names from the present and the past, to give you an idea: Vomitous Discharge, Ataraxy, Sewage Cocktail, The People’s Noise Project, Splattered Nachos, Pesticides, The Thousand Arms Of Compassion etc.), and not being the guy behind a multi-disciplinary (Anti) Music label anymore. You can still buy older works (visit the site to find out), but new recordings will be Gag’s stuff only, and no others anymore.
It’s an older release this review will deal with, but I think it’s an important one, for it was supposed to be the last official recording by Vomitous Discharge, one of the (Christian-inspired!) solo-outfits of Vomit Bucket’s Gag. German Underground Zombie Raid comes in an edition of 300 (hand-numbered) copies (still several available, so check the VBP-site!). The first sixteen tracks (mainly lasting for one to two minutes) are done by Vomitous Discharge, recorded from Summer 2009 to Spring 2010, and mixed and mastered in 2010 in the month of May, all by Gag himself. What makes this material so wonderful is the mostly primal / primitive and simple / simplistic execution, as if this stuff was recorded twenty five years ago. However, despite all this, one might expect a production that sucks. Actually, it does not. Seriously, this material’s sound lacks of expensive multi-layered mixtures or modernised techniques whatsoever. Yet still it is enormously decent, and not just another recording that sounds as if it were registered in an empty container, a stinking garage box or a humid cellar. Actually, I do not know, and maybe Gag used one of these locations, but still the sound is very, very fine; read: fitting perfectly to this smelly stuff. And that smelly stuff, well… Vomitous Discharge bring nothing but uncompromising and archaic Death / Grind filthiness, with most needful ingredients included. With the latter I am referring to, for example, quite some elements from Crust, Punk and Hardcore, as well as different types of sweet vocal lines (no soprano or any other classically skilled operatic voices, but I guess you were aware of that). Besides, I truly like the variety of these ‘songs’ (sixteen times the same sh*t would be annoying after the second track, but that’s not the case right here), as well as the tempo: not lightning-fast whole the time at all; on the contrary, despite the heaviness, the main tempo mainly varies from little slow over mid-speed to modestly fast (with exceptions, of course). And the stuff comes with two cover tracks, which are enormously satisfying too: Totalitarianism Called Democracy by Bestial Vomit (FYI: Bestial Vomit’s Joseph guests on the track Vatican Trash), which truly is a fabulous cover song (!), and Autophagia’s Vomit Yourself, which demonstrates that this Greek outfit has been of major influence on Vomitous Discharge’s approach, I think… So, actually, this final VxDx-recording might be a unique peace, sorry, piece of Grindcore (no more Goregrind à la the earliest years) for those who like their meat still bloody, yet not walking around anymore… Or something like that… Great stuff, sad to notice it did end some years ago… 8,5/10
No One Gets Out Alive (named after the cult-movie? I think it is so) is a solo-outfit by German Andreas ‘Andi’ Schüssler, who’s (currently or formerly) active in acts like Reincarnated, Deadsoil, The Henhouse Ramblers or Crowmatic as well. He wrote and recorded the twelve pieces for this split in between November 2009 and January 2010, and it’s he who took care of the cover drawing of this split-album as well. The twelve tracks bring back to mind a certain, specific late-Eighties / early-Nineties approach of, at the one hand, rather technically crafted and, at the other hand, primitive and basic gore-injected Grindcore with a brutally slamming execution. Apparently it’s one of the last recordings by this project using drum computer, but in this case I do not think it bothers, because the drum patterns / percussion sounds pretty organic (hehe, 'organic' and ‘Grindcore’ in one sentence… Can you imagine?...). For the better part, No One Gets Out Alive’s stuff totally lacks of an own face, of originality, of inspiration, and of persuasion. Many pieces aren’t but cheap collections of primal riffs, Neanderthal rhythm structures and beastly growls and pig screams, evidently thickened with some samples from whatever. Besides, there is too little variation in between the twelve individual hymns, giving me sometimes the feeling I did hear that song, that riff, that specific rhythm a couple of minutes before. No, I am not going to say that this is shitty stuff, because there is quite some fun to experience. But seen the majesty of the Grind-scene lately (and with ‘lately’, I am referring to three decades of sonic rape), this part won’t do. The Belgian, Dutch, German, English and, especially, Czech scene, have more to offer lately! 6,5/10
I think this (old) release is worth taking notice of, at least if it were for Vomitous Discharge’s part. Yet it is a great collection of lullabies for the grind-heads amongst us; no doubt about this. It goes for both projects involved, even though one quite after this release, and the other just grew and bettered after this release.