"Cursed"-Rotten Sound

You feel the warm trickle down your jaw. You slowly reach your hand to your face in disbelief, but before you can even wipe off that first wound, you get hit again so hard the wind is knocked out of you. That is "Cursed" by Rotten Sound: uncompromisingly brutal grindcore that tears up cement in the fierce onslaught of its attack. Rotten Sound did for Scandinavian grindcore what Napalm Death did for American: said hey this music is hard let's make it 10 times more intense. "Cursed" does not have a song above 3 minutes; but there is a great amount of diversity on the album in terms of tempo, rhythm, vocals, and tone. The only thing consistent is the volume and noise. And the songs' titles; no title is longer than a single word. Saucy's picks: "Alone" is a great opener, setting the tone for the rest of the album, and "Hollow" starts with a great guitar solo that leads into a pounding dirge of despair.

"Capitalism Is Cannabalism"-Vex

Political Filipino grindcore. That's right kiddos, and it comes with a heavy dosage of the kickass. Vex makes up for their lack of a good studio, good instruments, and good intentions with a brutal spine-snapping grind that will split your ears and make you play the 24 minute album over and over. Like a lot of grindcore albums, a significant portion of that 24 minutes is devoted to random sound bytes (mostly in Tagalog but there's one clip of some government official speaking in English about the benefits of a partnership between government and free-enterprise). Also the last 7 seven songs are all different versions of the same song, "Cum and Taste Our Revenge," but this proves to be very entertaining rather than redundant. There's even a cover of a Standfast (infamous Swedish punk duo) song, "Self-Righteous Bastard", and a jab at fellow grindcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed "Agorephobic Saliva Spitting Basstard." Vex is what grindcore is all about, which is having fun, mocking authority, and being incredibly abrasive. Saucy's picks: "Ultra Poverty=Ultra Tragedy", "Capitalism Is Cannabalism", "Basura", "You're So Cool", and of course "Cum and Taste Our Revenge."