SPLATTERHOUSE
Maggot Sermon
Awash In Gore
Splatterhouse mp3
Decom-posers
GRUESOME STUFF RELISH
The Last Survivor mp3
Curse Of The Templar Knights
Don't Feel The Shame
Zombie Madness
Jungle Of The Flesh-Eatin' Beings
Featuring unreleased songs from both bands, this terrifying ordeal marks the debut release for Splatterhouse, Portland Oregon’s newest murder merchants. Taking cues from the early masterworks of Sanitys dawn and Exhumed they rip through 4 horrific tracks of thick and chunky metallic goregrind, including a storming cover of the Haemorrhage classick, ‘Decom-posers’!
Spain’s undead cannibalistic savages Gruesome Stuff Relish resurrect the spirit of ‘Reek Of Putrefaction’ in a voodoo rite sure to thrill and terrify those daring enough to venture into their cursed jungle village.
Bludgeoning and battering with tombstone-heavy riffs and tearing flesh from bones in a rabid grind frenzy, Splatterhouse and Gruesome Stuff Relish will add your shrunken head to their grisly collection of human ornaments, and you’ll fuckin’ LIKE it!
This Split MCD on No Escape Records exists of 2 goregrind bands: the American murder merchants Splatterhouse and Spain’s cannibalistic monsters Gruesome Stuff Relish.
Splatterhouse delivers 3 solid new songs + a sublime cover of Haemorrhage’s Decom-Posers. Splatterhouse offers you tons of sick goregrind with some death metal. 10 minutes of non-stop headbanging terror. But don’t think it stops with those 10 minutes…
Gruesome Stuff Relish provides 10 minutes of pure cannibalistic goregrind. Extremely destructive drums, powerful guitars, some dead vocals and a blasting bassguitar will probably dissect you into several singular body parts to add to their personal collection of rottened human ornaments.
Expect to be DE-STROY-ED!
Splatterhouse Review: This side is the same as the demo cd I already reviewed here. Very effective death-grind with a touch of gore. Elaborate riffs, thrashing, occasionally melodic but very straightforward, tight drumming and dual growling/shrieking vocals... All very well-performed, definitely in the vein of Exhumed. The last song is a very nice Haemorrhage cover version. Very clean sound, powerful production and entertaining gory lyrics.
Gruesome Stuff Relish: This is unreleased (I think) material from GSR, as usual excellent grindgore, amazing, warping sound production, tight and basic song structures, simple and catchy heavy riffs, squeaky shrieks, pitch-shifted gory backing vocals, always in the vein of General Surgery/early Carcass/Necrony/Haemorrhage... Fascinating Italo-spanish horror influenced lyrics... Just 5 really excellent tracks by one of the finest grindgore bands around! With gorgeous artwork and packaging, this split mcd is a must-have for all gore fiends!
Splatterhouse (Portland) kicks things off with three tracks of
vicious
Carcass worship plus a cover of Haemorrhage's "Decom-Posers" (which, of
course, also sounds not unlike Carcass). Not surprisingly they sound
similar
to early Exhumed or Impaled, and hence Carcass, but they've got a
fucking
great recording that really gives their material an edge. The mix is
nice
and even, the tones are thick and retain tons of texture, etc. I
wouldn't
change anything, because most bands of this nature sound like crap by
comparison. Expect a good dose of speed and some chunky midpaced
rhythms
with lots of vocal shifts between sick low growls, midrange grunts, and
bitter high-end sneers, as well as just a smidge of melody buried in
there.
Original? Nope. But they're dead on the money for what they're going
for.
Gruesome Stuff Relish (Spain) knocks out five tracks in less than seven
minutes, again sounding similar to the whole Carcass worship style of
gore
grind. Their recording is a little thin and raw, especially compared to
that
of Splatterhouse, but they can get by I suppose. I'd like to hear more
of a
bass presence and a slightly fuller guitar sound, but it's not the
worst
thing I've heard. Many of the tracks get into a little more speed and
throw
down some quick solos (check the 30-second blast of "Don't Feel
Shame"), but
they knock out some killer breaks as well. The layout's not bad, it's
pretty
straightforward. Most everything is high contrast red and black with
white
text, and the cover shows some zombies tearing a woman's clothes off.
I'm
annoyed by the fact that the cover art is blurry for some reason, so it
looks a little rough, but had it been clear everything would've turned
out
alright. Lyrics are included for both bands, and you should know what
to
expect. Splatterhouse gives you more gore for your buck since their
lyrics
are about four times as long as Gruesome Stuff Relish's, though. This
is a
really brief split, but in my opinion fans of this style should grab
this
fucker for the Splatterhouse material alone. I've heard better from
Gruesome
Stuff Relish, but Splatterhouse is a band to keep an eye on.
Running time - 18:58, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Maggot Sermon, Awash in Gore, Splatterhouse, Don't
Feel
Shame, Zombie Madness]
Splatterhouse/Gruesome Stuff Relish split CD
7/10
My favourite Aussie label again stepped up to deliver another Grind masterpiece, a split between the ultra heavy gore maniacs Splatterhouse (the name alone should give you an idea!) and my favourite Spanish grinders Gruesome Stuff Relish (the name alone… wait…). Both bands acting like out of control zombies who got their hands on instruments; trashing and violating about every rule in the good book they slip their oozing, grubby little hands around your throat and squeeze tighter and tighter.
First up are Splatterhouse, relatively newcomers to the game but already sounding like gut wrenching and blood spewing veterans, bringing to the table four songs, three of which their own, the last a very good version of the popular Haemorrhage song “Decom-Posers”. Hefty songs around the 3 minute mark make up about 12 minutes of this 19 minute split. Filled with extremely heavy guitar work that chugs along at moderate speeds until the drummer starts itching for a blast beat, then the band members throws themselves into overtime and trod along at break neck speeds. It’s versatile but not exactly mind blowing. Totally conforming to the rules that seem to be set in stone (or a random faceless corpse if you prefer), total fun none the less and their part of the split is extremely entertaining.
Second to step to the plate are Gruesome Stuff Relish. Now I find it hard to ever say anything bad about these guys, their grinding ways have pleased me since the day I first heard them, however, I’m sad to say that there is one downfall to their side of the split… it’s *too* fucking short! Fast and funky Rock ‘n Roll inspired Grind core that spits a bloody phlegm into your face and then gurgles up another and another at insane speeds. Leave it up to these guys to bring you the most insane sounding Spanish masterpieces time and time again. If there was a Grind core hall of fame, Gruesome Stuff Relish would be one of the bands on the top of the list (if it were up to me anyway). You can put this on and party hard, dislocate your neck at 5 places and *still* find enough inner strength to keep head banging!
Both bands added my shrunken head to their grisly collection of human ornaments… and I fuckin’ liked it! Pick this up ASAP!
When you remove the CD from the backplate in this jewel case, you're greeted with the words "FREAKIN' OUT SPLATTERED GOREGRIND" in big print. Well, I couldn't have said things better myself. Splatterhouse from the West Coast, USA have teamed up with Gruesome Stuff Relish from Spain for this cross-contintental ode to all that is bloody and brutal.
Splatterhouse take the stage first and deliver three songs of early Exhumed worship. Each song is about three minutes long so they really have a chance to develop rather than those grind songs that are over even before begin. The guitars sound like chainsaws and the vocals are scathing. They play a fourth song as well, but it's a cover of Hamorrhage's "Decom-posers". Very fitting.
Gruesome Stuff Relish shorten up the songs a little bit. Each song is in the minute to a minute and a half range and these guys are really just sick and twisted. The sound quality drops off a little on their tracks which I don't appreciate, but musically, they're just as vile as their split-mates. This one sounds more like early Carcass material with a bit of the Napalm Death idea of "do as much as you can in the shortest amount of time". The vocals here are so guttural they sound almost vulgar.
As disgusting as this split may be, it makes me smile. This is what goregrind is all about.
Watching the cover makes me thing of a horror/splatter, maybe
something from the early 80's, when zombies eating huge
amounts of innocent people were a common thing in the world
of horror/splatter movies, very nice and I think back on
the days when I used to watch horror and splatter all day,
oh, the memories :). Well, anyway, lets start with the music.
First of on this demo is Splatterhouse, just heard their name
when surfing around the net for music, but never really
heard their music until No Escape gave me the chance.
I was stunned after the intro (from some gore movie, I guess)
was over and the music itself made its appereance. The first
things that came up in my head was Sanitys Dawn-Mangled in
the meatgrinder and older Exhumed and I actually got very
happy by these fine tunes of brutal and catchy goregrind,
never thought the day would come when I would say this, but
this music makes me happy, like, if I am down, I could just
put this on and I would start smiling and the sad face would
go away.
Splatterhouse is definantly one of the better goregrind bands
I have ever heard and I like the intensity and the cathiness,
but also the heaviness and the very good vocals, although
its nothing special, pretty basic grunts and highs, in the
same vein of Exhumed, Haemorrhage, Sanitys Dawn and bands
similar to them. The production is kinda rough, but not
rough in the way that its hard to make out the instruments
and vocals, no, in fact everything is well balanced, and
its pretty "dirty", the way I love my goregrind.
Also the lyrics are very entertaining, hillarious rhymes
and good vocalpatterns as well, about gore of course, gore
in huge amounts. One of my favourite lines are: "I gorge myself
on muscles, organs, gristle and grime. Nothing will go to
waste as your flesh becomes one with mine."
This side of the split gets 4,5 out of 5. Splatterhouse
took me by storm and I cant wait to get the chance
to review a fullength with this very promising band.
Keep your eyes open for these guys, they sure know how to
write well-written and catchy goregrind. If you like
Exhumed and Sanitys Dawn, then you will love this.
Btw, a great idea by Splatterhouse to cover the old
Haemorrhage classic "Decom-posers".
4,5
Then its time for Gruesome stuff relish and this band I
have encountered before when I reviewed "Last men in gore"
and from what I remember when I listened to them the last
time and now that I read the review of that cd, I liked it
very much. It seems like this time things have slowed down
a bit and they are now even a bit more catchier than before.
The vocals sound a bit different as well, a bit more into
the Haemorrhage vein, but since I love the vocals in Haemorrhage
I think its for the better and the harmonized vocals sound
as usual, not bad nor that good either hehe, but it needs
to be there to make it more complex or else it would get
boring way to fast.
Basically, Gruesome stuff relish and Splatterhouse are pretty
much in the same vein and its pretty much the same concept
as well as musically as lyrically, although GSR has shorter
songs and thats to bad because I want to hear more, guess that
I have to get a new fullength to be able to do that, because
GRS is that kind of music that is best experienced when
having more tracks 5 tracks where the longest one is
2:50 and the shortest one is 0:11. Although GRS dosent
let me down, they play basic goregrind just like Splatterhouse
and they do it well, but personally I liked Splatterhouse more
on this split since they were a new band and they had a more
powerfull recording as well as longer and a bit more
complex songs.
Something that is cool though is that the idea behind the
song "Curse of the templar knights" because it sticks out
a bit more than their other gore lyrics, the lyrics for
this song sounds more like a crazy ghoststory about tourists
visiting a castle and how they get chased around by a gang
of undead knights of an medieval order. Haha, maybe someone
should do a movie about that, but I guess that its already
done though hehe.
This side of the split gets 4 out of 5. GRS didnt really turn
me on as much as Splatterhouse, but that doesnt mean that
GRS are bad or anything, they are really good and I would
like to hear more from these spanish maniacs. This is definantly
the best split this year. Keep up the good work guys!
4/5