Abigail & Vorkuta - Speed Metal Motherfuckers EP (2007)

I am a cursed man, cursed to enjoy just about anything a Japanese band like Sabbat, Metalucifer or Abigail involves itself in. If that means I need to dig through a slew of short run live recordings and rare split releases with the seedier bands from around the world, then so be it. But here on the Speed Metal Motherfuckers 7" from Necromancer Records (aka Speed Metal Motherfuckerzz if you have access to the cassette version on Hammer of Damnation), your favorite Engrish butchers may have just met their match in Hungary's Vorkuta, a prolific group featuring current and former members of bands like Witchcraft, Dög, and Drünken Bastards.

Vorkuta take the first two tracks, and they honestly don't sound like a far cry from Dög, as both bands basically channel Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost into an even more disgusting and degrading black mass. "At the Threshold of Hell" seems like it might have fallen off the back of Morbid Tales, a shriveled tumor, except for the faster segments which bound along like jackrabbits thrashing about beneath a buzzsaw. "Helldrinkerz" is even sicker, with an infusion of grind and punk ballast that writhes beneath the blacker, alcohol seared throat like a lizard with its tail severed. I am only familiar with the one Vorkuta full-length Into the Chasms of Lunacy, which I seem to recall as rather average, but if this split is any indication, they may have more to offer than initially thought.

Abigail's half begins with the venomous, filthy barrage that is "Satanik Lust", and you'll know quickly that this is one of the band's more 'serious' songs, where they sound more like a phalanx of hellish mercenaries hungry for slaughter than their usual bitch-flaunting street metal selves. As far as I'm concerned, they're sexy either way, and this track is no exception if you like dirt in your wounds, plain and simple execution and utter hostility. They've also included a live track "Rocking Metal Motherfuckers" which sounds as if it's being taped from the bathroom of the bar, Yasuyuki's vocals probably driving out half the poor souls that thought they would just show up for some beer and conversation, not realizing that the Devil's own drug dealers were going to be present. It sounds like a wonderful mess, but sadly it's the least interesting song on the split.

I've railed on an off about EPs, collectible releases and the like, and how they're generally a waste of your time and spending. In a perfect world, I'd rather have a CD available to be which collected all this detritus. But if you're going to take the plunge, I insist you purchase any Abigail split or vinyl you come across, if only because the band's DIY mentality and wise choice of scumbag cohorts is just too endearing to resist. Vorkuta prove themselves worthy here, but I would have preferred another Abigail track to the junky live (though it brings back a lot of memories of gigs I've played at or watched.)

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://vorkuta.uw.hu/index.html