Sick Terror / Cathode, split 7″

Alright, get ready, ’cause Sick Terror (Brazil) tears through side A in less than five minutes with five tracks of almost ridiculously fast hardcore with high-pitched yelling vocals occasionally trading off with standard shouts. This is seriously the fastest stuff I’ve heard from this band to date, it’s just nothing but blazing blasts and ripping picking patterns with pounding basslines that somehow all manages to stay rooted in hardcore rather than tossing in enough metal to sound like grind. “The Torquemada Operation” slows down to an unexpectedly sludgy churn for a brief time, but other than that it’s all fucking go with absolutely no looking back. They even close out with a cover of Heresy’s “Despair”! The recording could be a little heavier or clearer, but for as fast as the material is they’ve actually pulled it all off pretty damn nicely. The lyrics are mostly in Portuguese but the English translations offer insight into their pissed off, smartass attacks on religion, consumerism, etc. Cathode (The Netherlands) follows with two tracks of their brand of crushing hardcore/punk with a crusty undercurrent, and hot damn am I loving it! The longer “Parasites” is totally furious and maintains a pretty standard approach that utilizes only minimal dissonance and one or two killer metallic breaks at that start that exemplify just why this band is so god damn awesome – dropping back to pulsing distorted bass and sinister clean guitars towards the end to close things out on a more creative and moving note. Impeccable. Then it’s over towards “To Fill the Empty Spaces”, which combines heavy old school hardcore power chords with a slower and more menacing set of rhythms that highlight more of the band’s discordant metal influences. Lyrically the tracks are as dark and oppressive as the music: “The smell of death and piles of flesh will soon be beautified, They will become the next place of monuments and remembrance, Then death marks the fields with white crosses where life once was, And it winks to the crows for a new existence…” The 7″ is housed in a matte black and white sleeve with one half devoted to art and content for each band, and that’s about all there is to it. Sick Terror has never totally blown me away, but they’re getting closer and closer with time, and Cathode continues to devastate with this material, so this one’s certainly worth looking into. Good work on all fronts. (7/10)