Today I’m going to review a sampler called Split Roast by Condate Records, that includes songs by Colonel Blast (pictured on the upper left), Cancerous Womb (upper middle), Diascorium (upper right), Magpyes (lower left) and Dyscaphia (lower right).
Five Death Metal bands from the UK, twenty songs, almost 60 minutes of music and the CD only costs five British pounds. Sounds like a good deal to me but first, let’s listen to the album to see if it’s worth these five pounds. Make the jump for my review of Split Roast and take your time, it’s going to be a long one.
Condate Records – Split Roast
Colonel Blast:
1. Power By Proxy – 4:33
2. The Crime Is Passion – 5:04
Cancerous Womb:
3. Torn From Gunt To Cunt – 3:10
4. Tepid Decrepit – 3:50
5. Austrian Basement (live) – 4:42
Magpyes:
6. Lord Ov Swords – 1:12
7. Warning – 0:44
8. The Creeping Hand – 0:55
9. Willem Fucking Defoe – 3:42
10. Sir, You Forget Yourself – 0:50
11. Wolf Bukkake – 0:50
12. North West Smash Test – 1:20
Dyscaphia:
13. Impious Conflagration – 4:18
14. Altars To The Wretched – 4:24
15. Enshrined In Pestilence – 6:31
Diascorium:
16. My Own Exegesis – 1:33
17. The Mechanics Of Serenity – 2:52
18. Interjection… – 1:03
19. Reduction To The Absurd – 3:45
20. Self Modifying Game (Incandescence Remix) – 4:21
So before I review each band individually, let’s take a look at the artwork. The artwork was done by Steve Myles and it looks pretty cool for a sampler. All the bandnames are carved into a decapitated head, that seems to be floating around. Seems a bit weird? Well, here‘s the full picture. And now, on to the music.
Colonel Blast
Colonel Blast:
Colonel Blast play a kind of progressive Death Metal. The songs are technical but not overly. The songs display a good mixture of progressive, brutal, groovy and yes, even slower, melodic parts. ‘Power By Proxy’ is a moody song, with an epic ending. The last two minutes are definitely the highlight of the song. ‘The Crime Is Passion’ starts off faster and features an interesting mixture of Black Metal and Grindcore-ish riffing. These two songs are a great start for this sampler, because Colonel Blast understand how to warm up the listener.
Cancerous Womb
Cancerous Womb:
This doesn’t pick up where Colonel Blast left off. Cancerous Womb play fast Deathgrind, that’s quite technical. ‘Torn From Gunt To Cunt’ is a bit too busy for me, especially the drums are a bit too loud in the mix. ‘Tepid Decrepit’ is a bit groovier than the first song but the drums are still bugging me. On this song, they don’t sound quite… real. I quite like the mid part and the ending of the song though. The live performance of ‘Austrian Basement’ is a great recording, I must admit, but I don’t really like the vocals on this recording. Not as good as Colonel Blast but not bad either.
Magpyes
Magpyes:
Magpyes. Blackened Grindcore? Blackcore? I’m not sure what to call this. One thing is certain though, you can barely make out any instruments or vocals on these recordings. ‘Lord Ov Swords,’ ‘Warning,’ ‘The Creeping Hand,’ ‘Willem Fucking Defoe,’ ‘Sir, You Forget Yourself,’ ‘Wolf Bukkake’ (wtf?) and ‘North West Smash Test’ are all pretty much equally chaotic. ‘Willem…’ starts off quite doomy but it turns into musical gibberish quite fast. At times, the riffing isn’t even that bad but the vocals are bad. Really bad. Black Metal vocals are mostly bad and so are Grindcore vocals, now try to imagine what a mixture of those two vocalstyles sounds like. Bad.
Dyscaphia
Dyscaphia:
Now, ‘Impious Conflagration’ starts off with a piano intro, then goes right into Grindcore and then Brutal Death. I like the mixture. The vocals are extremely low, the way I like it. The overall tempo is quite high and the guitar work is fine, reminds me a bit of The Faceless at times. The songs are busy but not too busy, like in Magpyes’ case. ‘Altars To The Wretched’ features pretty nifty guitar playing. I like. ‘Enshrined In Pestilence’ also features nice guitar playing. By now, I can safely say that I enjoy the guitarists work. Overall, I can enjoy these songs, especially the guitar playing and the vocals. The drums fall flat, as it’s quite average Deathgrind drumming but overall, this isn’t bad.
Diascorium
Diascorium:
Diascorium, the last band. Technical, brutal Death. Now, that’s what I’m talking about. The band sounds a bit like a mixture of Jack Slater and The Faceless to me, two bands I love. At times, the songs are quite groovy, as in the case of ‘The Mechanics of Serenity’ but the songs are mostly very technical. The drumming is great, the guitar playing is superb, the vocals are not bad. I like this band. The vocals should be a bit more noticeable but that’s my only complaint really. ‘Interjection…’ is a moody and nice… well, interjection. Not really a song but I like it. ‘Reduction to The Absurd’ is a bit too Tech for my taste but it’s a good song nonetheless, especially the breakdown is pretty brutal. The last song is a remix. I don’t like remixes and this song sounds quite useless to me. It doesn’t drag down the overall quality of the songs before though.
Verdict:
The overall quality of this sampler is quite high. Colonel Blast, Dyscaphia and Diascorium are good bands. Cancerous Womb aren’t bad but Magpyes are bad. When I worked out the ratings, I came to the result of 3,2. Taking into account that you’re getting 5 quite different bands for only 5 pounds, I’ll give it a 3,5.
Condate Records homepage and on Facebook.
Colonel Blast on Facebook.
Cancerous Womb on Facebook.
Magpyes on Facebook.
Dyscaphia on Facebook.
Diascorium on Facebook.
