The Essence of our Art is Hatred / The 3 AM Conspiracies  (Circus Of The Macabre Records)

 This split Cd compiles the first After The Last Sky work, “The Essence of our Art is Hatred” released in 2004 and Inert second demo, “The 3 AM Conspiracies” released back in 2003. Both bands belong to the most brutal and savage depths of the UK’s Underground. The first half of this disc, the first three tracks to be precise, belongs to After The Last Sky. This band started as trio called Animosity in 1997, releasing four works before changing its name. The band, currently a quintet, delivers at this split brutal doses of their “Blackcore” (the term they use to refer to their raw blend of Death, Grind, Sludge and Black Metal). Opening this first half is “Art School Lebensborn” a mid to fast paced piece of grinding brutality,  full of Sludge references and inexplicit Black Metal structures, which is reflected in the grim, brutal vocal work of Benjamin Hoare. “Dragon Teeth Harvest” continues with a strong piece of chaotic Black/Grind Metal, with complex structures and brakes that will take your breath away, the vocals are still blackish but adding some Deathly grunts and even some clean voices, which sound slightly similar to Phil Anselmo adding some Pantera-like atmospheres. Closing this first half is “Regretting Those Drunken Words”, my favourite track (starting by the name) and the longest one of this half, with six minutes fifteen seconds of mutilating “Blackcore”, this track also includes the most visible Black Metal influences, which is reflected in intense dark guitar lines, but the Sludge is also present during the whole song (sounding even Doom in some passages), with varied structures and some harsh guitars.  

 The next four songs belongs to Inert, this band delivers a somewhat Blackened Grind/Death Metal, but their music still fits perfectly into the Death/Grind parameters, it sound more inclined towards the traditional Grindcore than anything else, including even the obligatory B rated movies samples. Musically this work embraces the fast velocities and infernal atmospheres, with obscure, blasphemous down tuned auras driven by the turbulent, blurry guitars, maybe Cryptopsy could be a good point of comparison, but more varied and slightly more obscure. The vocal work here is as brutal as the whole music, mixing low grunts with occasional high pitched grim vocals. The voice of Mr. Hoare sounds as insane as his work with After The Last Sky (yes, here’s the connection). The production of both works included in this split is very powerful and well sounding, not completely flawless but strong enough. Another interesting detail is the cover art; both covers are included in this split, so you can get the original artworks of those releases with this Cd…  A great work and a wise move of Circus Of The Macabre Records. (AP)