No Clean Singing
That eye-catching cover art depicts an epic battle in the making, the zombie hell horse and the ferocious battle cat about to throw down. Hooves vs. claws (though it looks like the cat is trying to even the score by wearing the cat equivalent of brass knuckles — cats are ruthless when it comes to horse fighting). The artwork (by Glenno) graces the cover of a split release by Hot Graves of Gainesville, Florida and Whitehorse from Melbourne, Australia. I was introduced to Hot Graves when they released their 2011 album Knights In White Phosphorus and it was featured in a guest NCS post by SurgicalBrute (here). He described their music as “crusty blackened thrash” and recommended them to fans of Possessed, Hell Hammer, and Sodom. I’ve been following them ever since. Whitehorse, on the other hand, is a new discovery for me. They’ve put out two albums (the most recent of which was last year’s Progression), plus EPs and numerous splits. I’ll be following them now, too. Hot Graves contributes two tracks to this split. “This Is For You” and “MetalBlaster”. The music sounds like mad scientists mixed thrash, punk, and d-beat, cooked it in whatever makes metal black, and then spun it in a centrifuge at high speed until it exploded and spattered the walls with filth. It’s mainly fast, abrasively raw, and smokin’ hot. It’s the music of a demon moshpit at a dive bar in Hell. The Whitehorse song is a different breed of monster. “Blood Sick” moves at a glacial pace, with the grinding weight of jagged boulders caught in an ice flow, or some sludge-filled battle tank crunching the bones of enemy combatants beneath its treads. Titanic fuzzed-out riffs and skull-caving drum beats hammer away relentlessly, pierced here and there by the drilling sounds of a tremolo’d solo. The vocals are either cavernous and otherworldly or shrieking and otherworldly. It’s a vivid contrast with the Hot Graves tracks but a very nice complement to them as well. Get ready to get filthy.

ThrashHead
This is, to put it simply, a killer little album; blackened metalpunx Hot Graves whose critically well received "Knights In White Phosphorous" really blew my mind, has just unleashed this bad boy along with the noise-sludge masters from down-under; Whitehorse! Indeed, this album is for anyone who digs the extreme; it features two tracks from Hot Graves, The hyper intense "This Is For You" and "MetalBlaster" as well as one track, "Blood Sick", from the Aussies. "This Is For You" is sick, employing the use of a catchy riff backed by blast beat excellence. The song really shows that Hot Graves is refining their craft as a band, combining some killer riffs and even a groovy Cro-Mags like change (the beat is insane!) towards the end which will have you kicking up your feet before diving off the stage. "Metal Blaster" follows it up with the killer metalpunk style which Hot Graves is supreme lords of. It makes you want to throw your elbows in every direction as if you just got an infusion of the "Rage" virus injected into your bloodstream and are about to unleash on some crazed, uber-violence fed moshing...good stuff! Finally the album comes in with Whitehorse's unique sludge, down tuned and as heavy as a horde of orcs after feasting on a dozen plump Halflings, the song takes your spirit into another direction with industrial strength growls and some eerie shrieking about halfway through, dark, evil...plain gnarly, an absolute must hear for those folks who didn't catch 'em at Chaos In Tejas when they were on their U.S. tour this year and are into some serious toxic sludge. All in all an awesome fuckin' album, definitely worth your time to score so as to support both of these bands...remember, if you don't buy, DIY bands can't create. Did I mention you can get it on vinyl too? The cover is fucking awesome, with a zombie horse going to war with battle kitten! Kudos goes to Glenno for the work!