Artist: Discard / Agathocles
Country: Belgium
Label: Agnostic Record
Formats: Split Tape
Year: 2004
Yet another Agathocles release, this time on tape – yeah, they are still being released every once in a while. It was released through a little obscure tape label from Indonesia. It is presented as a split tape with Discard. First of all I need to say that this label did an awesome job for this release looks awesome: a full colour booklet and a professional tape. Class.
Discard opens the split, but since this is a totally new band to me it is impossible to tell something about their history, or any other bio information. So, I’ll stick to the music, which is the only thing that counts at the end of the story, doesn’t it? The music is best described as mid tempo death metal / grindcore (with Napalm Death as main influence), that must be placed somewhere with the rest of the mediocre bands. Its not that bad but it is not really good or impressing either. Its not (yet) the thing that will be able to impress, entertain and interest people. And saying that “Scum”-alike grind songs are original? I liked playing this side of the tape quite a lot but I have to be honest and say that I don’t think that I’ll ever play it again.
Agathocles, on their turn, provides us with eight live tracks that were recorded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1996 – some time ago, actually. Playing these songs it immediately pops up that they’re all recorded really well, really clear and clean. I have to be honest on this one, I have about a few dozen of different live sets but most of them are kind of sloppy and messy, but this one – as said – is remarkably good. And since this is a live set you can expect what you should expect: a best-of set. From “Razor Sharp Daggers” to “Teachers” and from “Lay Of Me” to “Christianity Means Tiranny”. Well, most of the Agathocles enthusiasts will already have a scary amount of releases of these Belgian mincers with the world-record of the amount of releases, yet I find this one really pleasant, only for the good and worthy recordings.
