PremieRing #2: Letterbombs - Mansuit (from the up-coming Demersal/Piet Onthel/Letterbombs/Vientre Split Tape)

About four years ago I was asked to participate in a four blog premiere, where each blog shared a song from a four-way split LP that featured Massa Nera, Thisismenotthinkingofyou, Yo Sbraito and Ef'il (released via ZBR amongst other labels). It was called the PremieRing. Now I'm super happy to be involved in PremieRing #2, alongside Miss The Stars, Idioteq and Open Mind Saturated Brain.

Once again, we're promoting a four-way split (this time on tape) that's being released by ZBR's sister label Tomb Tree, alongside UK label Witch Elm Records. As with previous splits, it contains bands from different corners of the globe in the form of Demersal (Denmark), Piet Onthel (Malaysia), Letterbombs (Finland) and Vientre (Colombia). It is my great pleasure to be able to share the song 'Mansuit' by Letterbombs. Here's a quick snippet of what they had to say about this one:-

'Lyrically the track is mostly quotes from Donnie Darko (2001). Musically we wanted to try something a bit different. Something more straight forward with some twist and turns here and there.'

(Photo Credit: Ville Luosa)

All four of the bands involved in this split have been super active recently, but if you've missed any of their previous releases for any reason then this one is the perfect place to start! If you love screamo and emo-violence, you'll love this.

Demersal - https://www.facebook.com/DemersalOfficial

Piet Onthel - https://www.facebook.com/pietonthelpunx

Letterbombs - https://www.facebook.com/sendmeletterbombs

Vientre - https://www.facebook.com/vientre7

The tapes are with Tomb Tree already so it won't be long before they're available from them and Witch Elm Records. Here's a peak at the variants, including pictures (minus the test dips though):-

46x clear/blue/purple swirl

20x multi-color swirl

5x red/black swirl

5x test dip w/matching swirl case

Links to their stores and social media pages are below:-

Tomb Tree - 

http://www.zegemabeachrecords.com/tomb-tree-tapes / https://www.facebook.com/tombtreetapes

Witch Elm Record -

https://witchelmrecords.bandcamp.com / https://www.facebook.com/WITCH-ELM-records

To hear Demersal's track 'No Need For Stories Where We Never Come Alive', make sure you head over to Idioteq's PremieRing article here - https://idioteq.com/premiering-danish-emoviolent-screamo-act-demersal-unveil-new-uncompromising-track-4-way-split-premiering-now.

Also, to hear tracks from Piet Onthel and Vientre, head over to https://www.missthestars.com and https://openmindsaturatedbrain.blogspot.com respectively.

The Scum - Dead Eyes EP

Labels: Self-Released/Wild Noise Productions

Formats: Digital

Release Date: 01 May 2020

Tracklist:

1. Dead Eyes (Feat. Dave Ingram of Benediction)

2. No Forgiveness

I'm sticking to my review a day policy this week. I may write a second one today but it depends on time. Also, on a separate note, the Blogger platform has been updated again and they've changed the format of the editing tool that I use to write my posts and to be honest, it's not as good and quite why they decided to remove the built-in spellcheck functionality I'll never know. Rant over. 

Anyway, this little review features Colombian death metallers The Scum. They recently released a new two-song EP, which features the vocals of Dave Ingram of Benediction on the title-track. The band originally formed in 2013 as Scum and released their debut EP Self-Destructive Race in 2015. They became The Scum in 2017 and followed the name change with their debut album Ashen a year later. Dead Eyes is notable because it was mixed at Sunlight Studios in Sweden by Thomas Skogsberg.

Here we go. Straight away The Scum whips up a storm with ‘Dead Eyes’. It’s a song filled with old-school riffs and precise drumming. The overall sound on Dead Eyes is quite clean actually and the vocals take the lead in the mix. When they rest, the whole band comes to the fore with some great soloing and neck-snapping tempos.

Second song ‘No Forgiveness’ is a lot faster with elements of thrash and grind being thrown in for good measure. At times, it seems that the vocals are struggling to keep pace with the instrumentation but that’s only very temporary. There’s a mix of low growls and higher-pitched shrieks here and also a lot more atmosphere, especially during the mid-section. 

This is a very solid EP, but to me it feels like The Scum were holding back somewhat on the title-track. It was a different story on ‘No Forgiveness’, which shows how extreme these guys can be. They’re writing more material as we speak, so hopefully they’ll kick on from this with added extremity.

You can stream and download Dead Eyes below:-

The Scum - https://www.facebook.com/thescummusic/