Nunslaughter/Acid Witch - Spooky EP (2014)

The Spooky split assembles two of Hells Headbangers more distinct and entertaining acts into a union of what I would have assumed to be a contrast of the slower Acid Witch death/doom camp and the more blitzing death/thrash of Nunslaughter. Yet, to my shock, the choices on this EP really seem to complement one another, with the latter putting on the reins for some of their slower, chunkier, and Acid Witch revving up their engines for the closer on the B-side, which places them on an evil motorcycle pacing with the Catholic Church's favorite band. But beyond that, the material both of the band's is spewing forth here is among the best I've heard from them. Nunslaughter is on a tear, granted, their last record Angelic Dread kicking the cathedral doors down and shredding every habit in sight; but I just wasn't feeling the new Acid Witch EP covers EP much (more on that later), so it was a blast to hear that when it comes to their own material, they've certainly still got it.

The Acid Witch tracks are savage, organ-endowed paeans to darkness and damnation with a bit of that ol' tongue-in-cheek nature added in the lyrics and the stoner-Sabbath grooves that occasionally erupt in the rhythm guitars. "Evil" and "Fiends of Old" are mixed a little rough, giving them an airier garage quality, only if that garage was a co-op they were sharing with a serial killer wearing a clown mask and chainsaw in the 70s. The growls and organs in unison sound absolutely fucking amazing, and I hope a lot of this unhinged energy carries through to their next batch of original stuff. On the other hand, Nunslaughter has the tighter, cleaner production punch of the last album, so there is a little bit of disparity, the two bands don't blend so well in the mix alone. It's the style where it works, and "Spooky Tails" is just a slower, doom/thrash bit with a very simple hook and just blood-gorged vocals that reflect a lot of their Teutonic thrash and proto-death metal influences, with maybe even a little bit of a 90s Carcass thing in how the riff grooves. "A Sordid Past" is cast and carved from a similar vein, only with more gusto and triplet chugging.

It's only 12 minutes of music, but it's engaging and fun all the way throughout, nothing wearing its welcome thin and the cover art is just amazing, with that old horror vinyl cover finish and a colorful image that any creepy comic of the 60s or 70s would have been honored to bear. Except lyrics that focus heavily on Midwest death & thrash metal nostalgia, in particular "Fiends of Old" with a few shout outs to other bands. Nunslaughter have a lot of experience on splits, of course, but I believe this is a first for Acid Witch, and they pull out the tops. The songs might not always feature the catchiest riffs in existence, but both of the bands seem on top of their grisly games and constantly remind you what it is about them that you've ever found entertaining. If, in fact, you have. If NOT...well...you are one tough crowd, brothers and sister. Tough crowd.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Acid-Witch/146053698843172
http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/nunslaughter-news.asp

Nunslaughter - Angelic Dread (2014)

Long a staple of the American underground, and essentially our alternative to the great Sabbat of Japan due to their proliferation of releases. Rarely, however, have I heard Nunslaughter go on such a vicious tear through all good taste as on Angelic Dread. A real bitch of a thrasher, heavily focused on a slew of simplistic and punchy riff patterns which, granted, have all more or less been done, but in the capable hands of these blasphemers seem to take on a renewed vivacity, fleshing out the speed/thrash metal undercurrent with some obvious nods to death metal, punk, and hardcore, sticking to their traditionally conservative, tight song structures which tend to involve 1-2 riffs and hover below the three-minute threshold.

The production on this album sounds lethal and bright, but otherwise pretty bare, with a great, clapping and crashing drum mix that supports the cut muscle of the guitars, which are performed with the grace of a butcher and have this meatiness which, strangely enough, reminds me of the band Vengeance Rising on their first few records (anti- the Christianity), and possibly also a little of Sweden's Witchery before they became boring. Don of the Dead's vocals are the fucking flagship here, gnarled rasps which are often balanced off with these higher screams which only catalyze the level of excitement coursing through every track. The majority are mid to faster paced in the vein of old Slayer or Possessed, maybe some late 80s Razor, with bass lines largely matching up to the rhythm guitars, but they're also not above throwing in a few doomier grooves as in close of  "Looking in the Abyss". There's also a little overt camp, like the horror voices thrown about in a tune like "The Bog People", which reinforce that this is not a band to take itself quite so seriously.

Overall, there isn't a massive amount of variation in the riffing progressions, and so due to the large track list you've got a good deal of redundancy which might have been better served by stepping a little further out of the safety box. But on the flip side, you can expect a solid 36 minutes of the same incendiary blitz, without many interruptions, sort of how classic thrash discs like Reign in Blood or Violent Restitution maintained that level of pacing straight into legend. Okay...this isn't THAT good, not even close, but it's nice to know some bands still aren't interested in dicking around for the sake of fattening their recordings with a bunch of nonsense. It just wouldn't work within Nunslaughter's medium. Having said that, Angelic Dread is somewhat of a treat, because it includes a second disc loaded with re-recordings of limited press 7" material that most will find difficult or obnoxious to track down. Collectors which want the individual vinyl products might not be so keen on this, but those of us who really only pay attention to their full-length albums are getting an impressive value along with the strong new material...arguably just as good if not better than anything they've put out to date, even if it's written in a more streamlined, sadistic style.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.nunslaughter.com/

Nunslaughter - Cerebus EP (2003)

Though originally released in 2003, Hell's Headbangers have recently reissued Nunslaughter's Cerebus EP as a part of their 7" vinyl initiative, adding gorgeous artwork to the disc itself, and a pair of bonus tracks for an additional value. Though the songs "Mother, Cunt, Whore" and "Cerebus" have actually been available before on demos and a rare compilation, this is only my first exposure to them, and I must say that I am officially impressed: these are two of the best individual tracks I've actually heard from the prolific, longstanding goat-perverts of the US underground. So if you're interested in their catalog, enjoy the vinyl format and can spare a few bucks, this is as good a place to start as any.

As usual, this is death metal which wears its speed/thrash influences plainly on its sleeve for all to behold; characterized with gruff if not incredibly ominous vocals, and crisp fretboard attacks that call to mind 80s extremists like Slayer, Possessed and Razor. Nunslaughter has always approached its music with a brazen authenticity that couldn't give a fuck about higher technical standards, originality or heavily polished studio production, but nonetheless Cerebus is pretty clean sounding. The drums pop, slap and kick without much ceremony, and the presence of the bass is minimal beyond its role of supporting the guitars. Vocals are bloodied, brief barks without any heavy saturation of effects, and the whole thing honestly sounds like the band is giving a pristine performance in their rehearsal room. Of the two cuts, "Mother, Cunt, Whore" is more of a blistering, psycho thrash abuse, while "Cerebus" incorporates a slower mood, more tremolo picking and a primal death metal undercurrent more effectively. The two work quite well together here, and all the breakdowns and tempo shifts are well structured if mildly predictable.

The one caveat to this is that the rehearsal versions of the songs, which comprise the EP's bonus content, are really not all that much of a boon. The vocals are more cavernous and shook my headphones, but the drums are heavily oppressed by the raw guitar tone, and it sounds more like an ill-recorded live gig where some primitive recording device was unable to pick up the band in its entirety. For some collectors and hardcore fans, the rehearsals are a thing of importance, purportedly meant to represent the band at its most sincere and uncluttered by studio wizardry, but in many cases they just sound like shit, and were never meant for the audience's consumption. I'm afraid that these two lean towards the latter class, and add little to the EP other than to show you just how much better the studio incarnations are. So, really, if you're going all in for this, it's for the better dressed tracks, disc art and collectible nature; and considering how rare the other releases including the songs might be, it's probably still worth having if you really love this band (and don't already have the original EP).

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (made of spite and horn)

http://www.nunslaughter.com/

Nunslaughter - Hell's Unholy Fire (2000)

Known largely through their prolific body of work, as if they were a spiritual North American counterpart to Japan's Sabbat, and also their highly irreverent and memorable band name, Nunslaughter are nuntheless one of our most prized staples of fringe US extremity. I must admit that I've never held the group with the same adulation that other underground purveyors have expressed, but I do think they deserve their piece of pie, because if nothing else, they're really goddamn (and god-damned) fun. Hell's Unholy Fire was originally released in 2000 through Revenge Productions, but as its a bit of a chore to track down, Hells Headbangers has honored us with a CD reissue featuring modified artwork and packaging and a bonus live album which will likely thrill longtime adherents and collectors.

Nunslaughter has long been considered a 'death metal' band, but perhaps it's best to consider the context with which they are thus labeled. They draw their sound from the abusive, early thrash of Possessed and the raw grime of Venom circa 1980-1982, so while aesthetically they earn that brand, the music itself, at least on this album, is a pure manifestation of violent and mosh-worthy thrash with a lot of pretty standard riffing progressions that fluctuate between a muscular mid-paced headbanging meter, and bursts of early Slayer-like speed and screaming ("Cataclysm"). There are certainly enough old school tremolo bursts in the guitars, and a more growled timbre to Don of the Dead's vox to place it on the cusp of the genres, but just don't go into something like this expecting death metal of the Floridian or early Scandinavian scenes, because Nunslaughter are successfully paying tribute to a more archaic sound than either of those.

The 18 songs of the debut were kept quite short, generally hovering between 1-2 minutes but occasionally eclipsing this pattern as in the opener "I Am Death", which is almost 3 minutes due to the holocaust of the intro and the goofy laugh which settles into a Hellhammer like mid pace thrash groove. Here you are introduced to the raw fiber of the guitar tone, the capacity for the band to incorporate blast beats and warlike fills under the most primitive of riffing, but this is one of the more extreme songs on the record alongside the grinding blasts in "Killed by the Cross" and "The Dead Plague". The rest fall into a more simplified pattern with two or perhaps three riffs, rarely the sort that feel innovative or fresh (even for the turn of the century), but quite loyal to the crunchy brutality of late 80s or early 90s thrash somewhere between Nuclear Assault and Demolition Hammer.

I'm not going to lie, there are some admittedly pedestrian sequences throughout the album, even in lieu the band's established modus operandi. Songs like "Death by the Dead" and "Killed by the Cross" don't do a hell of a lot for me, and sound as if the band spent all of two minutes coming up with the basic structures and notation. But these are counterbalanced by a few swanky instances of sacrilege like "Burning Away" where they play around with the counterpoint guttural vocals and early Corrosion of Conformity crossover style songwriting, or "Nunslaughter" itself which follows the contour of another caveman thrash riff interspersed with the eyebrow raising lyrics that you definitely don't want to bring along to C.C.D. class next Sunday. I'd also say that the vocals are in general pretty average, voluminous grunts that are more of a muscular spin on crossover thrash but seem far more effective when they're balanced off with the more expressive growls.

I'm still a little lukewarm on this record, even despite the fact that I love the grimy sewage of the guitar tone and the simple and effective morbidity in a lot of the lyrics. But few if any of these cuts really stick with me, and considering that this took about 13 years and a large number of demos and splits to manifest in the first place, it's not all that impressive (I think I prefer the sophomore, Goat from 2003). That said, Nunslaughter has never held any disillusions about what it was creating, and Hell's Unholy Fire asks nothing more than you bang your head and writhe around in the hellfire for a brief time before moving on. At the very least, it's a reliable record that holds a measure of appeal to fans of sinister proto-black/death metal, crossover or truly old school death from the demo period of the mid-80s, and a firm fist up the poop shoot of the moral majority.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (for you there is no salvation)

http://www.nunslaughter.com/