One On One With The GRIM 1

A few words on Deform, a defunct death metal band most people have never heard of, but whose posthumous contributions still reverberate.  The death metal dynamic duo of Mike Churry, left, and the late Tim Ninerell. In 2015 I went out on a whim to see my friends in Bearstorm play Philadelphia, and it became "A Dangerous Meeting" that hugely affected my life. I arrived early to catch one of the opening bands, Deform.  Holy hell. The first thing I noticed about Deform was their drummer. I knew this kid was something special even before he took the stage, because he wore a baseball hat with a Morpheus Descends patch sewn on. Morpheus Descends is one of those cult death metal bands whose very existence is usually only known by the truest of bangers. Behind the kit, he played effortless double bass and blast beats like the second coming of Dave Lombardo and Pete Sandoval, but with his own chaotic flair. Their guitarist shredded on an old Ibanez RG model, rockin...

Cannabis Corpse's Phil "Landphil" Hall, center, along with his brother Josh "Hallhammer" Hall, and newest recruit Adam Guilliams. Photo by Kip Dawkins Death metal and weed punsters Cannabis Corpse are back with a new album, Nug So Vile.  Once again, these green fiends deliver a high-larious mash up of blazing riffs, with each song title a play on words from famous death metal numbers.  Cannabis Corpse's Phil "Landphil" Hall is one of the busiest shredders in the metal business today, and definitely a HIGH functioning stoner. Landphil splits his time between Cannabis Corpse, Municipal Waste and Iron Reagan. I conducted this phone interview with Phil, as he prepares to hit the road in Europe with Cannabis Corpse and Municipal Waste in the coming weeks. HELL-O Phil! What's your favorite song off "Nug So Vile," and why? We did a music video for the song "Dawn Of Weed Possession." We actually got director David Brodsky t...

Budapest, Hungary's Crippled Fox kick off their United States tour tonight in Philadelphia at Century. Scroll below for their full list of tour dates. THRASHCORE IS BACK by Crippled Fox For those who enjoy grindcore speed with the circle pits and slam dancing breakdowns of old school punk and crossover thrash, this band will definitely feed your hunger for aggression. I conducted this email interview with Crippled Fox members Speedy Gonzalez, Dontsee Turkey and Fox Of Grind (F.O.G.) on the eve of their United States tour. (edited for length) How do you describe Crippled Fox in your own words?  Speedy Gonzales: Punk, hardcore, thrash under a minute with old school Venice beach vibe motivated by D.I.Y. attitude and fun. F.O.G: Thrashcore. Dontsee Turkey: Fast punk, that’s how i like to say. What gave you the idea for Thrashcore?  Speedy Gonzales – I was out of the hardcore scene from 1999 – 2005. I lived in another country and after my return, my older bother ...

Lately it seems like every day, another old school death metal band claws out of the underground with the ravenous intent of an undead horde. The latest band of this ilk is Chthonic Deity. These maniacs live up to the subterranean aspect of their name, and deliver a dank dose of death from the darkest depths of Colorado in their debut EP,  Assembled In Pain . This one is a decidedly primitive approach. The chainsaw guitars drip with a rich, wet tone, and it imparts a really slimy texture to the overall production. Assembled In Pain  boasts of a massive low end presence, with a rich distorted bass driving its ghoulish atmosphere. The guitar tones cuts through like the slimy tendrils of a Lovecraftian behemoth summoned from the underworld. The drum work rumbles with a combination of double bass kicks and thrash rhythms, a bit reminiscent of Chris Reifert's work in Autopsy. Blast beats are scarce, but they emphasize the bombardment like a drill to the d...

Fantasmi is the new album from cinematic horror project Dolore. This record plays like the soundtrack to a classic Argento film, with creeping bass lines and heavy synths to build a supernatural ambiance. Dolore mastermind G iorgio Trombino is a busy ghoul.  This Italian multi-instrumentalist also plays in death metal bands Haemophagus and Assumption, as well as the stoner rock band Elevators to The Grateful Sky. Even more impressively, all these projects have released new albums within the last three years. Fantasmi will be released on October 31 via Philadelphia's Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. I conducted this email interview with Giorgio Trombino on the topics of his new record, and the scary elements of music and film.  Congratulations on joining up with HPGD. What's on the horizon for you in the future? Thank you. Dark clouds are always gathering actually! I'm already working on a new concept and on some ideas for the third  Dolore  album...

Getting old is grim. How do you keep a scene alive when it physically hurts one to stay up past 11 on weeknights? Today, we feature a guest column on the topic from Jessie May, who plays in the bands Owl Maker and Turkey Vulture, and also runs the music site Alternative Control CT . How To Support Underground Bands When You're in Your Thirties and Don't Care Anymore By Jessie May As an underground musician and music enthusiast in my mid-thirties, I've come to a startling realization: most of my friends don't care about The Scene anymore. Even friends I used to be in bands with! They've found better things to do on the weekends than stand outside while three shitty bands play, just to hear one good one (or to pretend they like my band, or to perform with their/our band while other people go outside). And I can't blame them -- we all spent our twenties going to shows and pretending to like other people's bands, and after a decade-plus it gets tirin...

Louisville's most salacious shredders Stonecutters are back with a two-song EP, The Living Dead. You can listen to it here . This is a short and sweet follow-up to last year's Carved In Time, a stylistic smorgasbord of big arena rock guitar leads a  la Metallica and Slayer with the contemporary death metal brutality of Behemoth and Morbid Angel. The first song, The   Living Dead tears into the flesh with a chunky guitar groove in the pocket. It's got a more streamlined, hardcore sensibility than the non-stop noodling that characterized their previous release. The vocals are screechy and the drums kicks it into overdrive with a bombastic blast beat to keep things spicy. The second track "Outside The Presence Of God" shows hell hath no fury like a metalhead growing up in the bible belt. This one's got a more black metal edge with some spooky guitar melodies. The vocals here feature a more gutteral bellow, as the voices trade off growls and screeches in the sty...