Cassette Review: Dysmorfic "Tape Sessions"

[€5 // Edition of 20 // https://dysmorfic.bandcamp.com/album/tape-sessions]

"Tape Sessions" begins with heavy static and it just has that feel where you know it's going to kick into something before it does.    It's harsh screaming, chugga chugga guitar riffs and just good old fashioned grindcore.     I remember when I was listening to bands primarily in this style- in the early 00's- and it was when cassettes were basically obsolete.   I always wondered how some of those albums would translate to cassette and as Dysmorfic is proving right here, the answer is: good, very good.

Bands like Converge, Backstabbers Inc., Daughters, Every Time I Die, Dead to Fall, Darkest Hour and even Sick Of It All come out in this music as it goes from Side A to Side B.   It has elements of metal on Side A, though it is mostly just fast and hard.    Then on Side B it takes on a much more traditional metal feel, with those guitar riffs and all in place.

There is this whooshing static at one point and this reminds me of a band I would have been introduced to by either Deathwish Inc. or Robotic Empire (I think both of them still exist, so why isn't one of them the label behind this?)   Overall the feeling is just one of violence and I like it.

I'm not sure when the last time I heard a band like this was.   Could it have really been since I was last living in Connecticut, when I was getting promo CDs from those hardcore labels and discovering demo CDs from grindcore bands as well?   Has it really been since before Bandcamp and Facebook and everything other than Myspace?   That's a long time to think back to, and I know I've dipped into a little bit of the hardcore last year with Gas Up Yr Hearse and Coma Regalia, but it just doesn't feel the same as this.    This really just takes me back and I'm glad music like this still exists.