20100126

Slavebreed
'Pain syndicate' CD
L'Inphantile Collective
Scene no.1: Slavebreed back in 2005, in the one of their first shows in Polytechnic university in Athens... My ex-band played along with them and Cerebral Turbulency from Czech Republic in one hell of a show with a lot of funny moments for those who remember.
Scene no.2: Praha, Czech Republic, July 2009, visiting a local pub with my girlfriend and all of a sudden a huge Slavebreed tour poster hanging on the wall. 'They are big enough' here, we agreed.
Slavebreed have managed to become 'big enough' in the european underground grindcore scene through all the hard work they did all these years and thanks to their dedication in the non-mainstream scene. Their first full length album was released by the Czech label L'Inphantile Collective, and features 12 songs of uncompromising grindcore with a more crust than metal approach. You all know that this kind of music is not my cup of tea (even if I re-discovered it lately, so who knows? haha!) but this CD blowed my mind away.
The song structure is tight as hell with a strong rhythm section (you have to watch the drummer performing live, trust me...), technical guitar riffs and growls that haunts you by the ex-vocalist of the local sludgecore band Mahakala, plus brutal vocals by John (who is no more a Slavebreed member).
If you wanna draw comparisons better search in Nasum, Regurgitate (as my room-mate claims!), Terrorizer and Napalm Death (of course). They also remind me of three of my favorite local bands back in the early 00s, Homo Iratus, Insidious Browbeat and Erectus.
What I like the most is that these guys are truly DIY dedicated in the scene (check out their guitarist's label Noise Attack, it is responsible for the upcoming Sakatat and Repulsione tours) and not just shitty metalheads like a huge potion of today's grind scene, if you understand what I mean...
Slavebreed have toured almost all Europe with Feastem (great Finnish band), Italy, and Sweden with Birdflesh and The Arson Project ('must' bands in this scene).
The artwork is done by Seth of Septic Flesh fame. Unfortunately I don't have a certain opinion about this because I only have a promo without the full artwork, and that kind of promos kinda make me sick! Only full promos with the original artwork will be reviewed in this blog and Keep It Real fanzine. I just make an exception with Slavebreed because the guys kick asses.
Watch them live with Sakatat next Tuesday (02.02.10) in Katarameno Syndromo, Athens and Saturday (06.02.10) in Kavala and with Vitamin X on 24th April in AN Club, Athens.
http://www.myspace.com/slavebreed
http://www.neonarcis.com
http://www.myspace.com/pavlosgrind