Artist: Gonkulator
Country: USA
Label: Final Agony Records
Formats: LP
Year: 2026
Everyone who lived through the 90s and early 00s and had an insatiable love for underground, morbid music must at least have come across Gonkulator or the Fudgeworthy Records label that was run by the same people in the band. Gonkulator put out a string of split 7” EP’s with such renowned underground acts as Lymphatic Phlegm, Minch, Black Mass Of Absu, Slough, Haemorrhage and Final Exit. And the label was responsible for some rather cult releases by such noteworthy Grindcore bands as Anal Cunt, Rupture, Groinchurn, Rot, Psycho and Machetazo as well as Black- and Death Metal bands like Blood, Pagan Winter, Gaurithoth, Satanik Goat Ritual and Kratornas. Perhaps most of these names only ring a bell with old farts like myself or very enthusiastic Extreme Music archaeologists, but whether you were there or not, Charlie Infection, drummer of Gonkulator (as well as of Jesus Chrust, Bulge and a bunch of other bands) and the person behind Fudgeworthy Records, played a prominent role in cultivating noise of all kinds in those roaring 90s, especially in their native American scene.
Charlie Infection’s penchant for Grindcore, Noise(core) and Black Metal didn’t just reflect in his label’s releases, on a musical level, Gonkulator too found itself in the centre of all that. It appealed to fans of the raving Grindcore/Noisecore scene of the 90s and early 00s as well as to Black Metal aficionados who craved for something that sounded less like Darkthrone, but felt rather close to Havohej, Profanatica, Abruptum and Beherit/Goat Vulva. In recent years, bands such as Ride For Revenge and Flooded Church Of Asmodeus (it’s always those Finns, isn’t it?) have expressed their admiration for this ultimate cult act.
It was therefore not entirely surprising that in 2010 the Finnish label Bestial Burst, run by Sami ‘Harald Mentor’ Kettunen, a permanent member of both Ride For Revenge and Flooded Church Of Asmodeus, re-released Gonkulator’s debut album. He released ‘Satan’s Burial Ground’ on cassette, whilst the original had been released on CD by Charlie Infection himself via his Fudgeworthy Records in 1998. What was missing was a vinyl release.
And that is precisely what has now been rectified by Final Agony Records; ‘Satan’s Burial Ground’ has finally been pressed on vinyl. Obviously, I don’t know the reasons behind it, but a wild guess is that this wasn’t done for commercial reasons. I find it hard to imagine that, some thirty years later, it will suddenly be flying off the shelves. But that only makes a release like this all the more charming. And from a musical-historical perspective, this is certainly an important release; it not only captures a slice of the zeitgeist but has also served as a vital link for lovers of morbid music, a sort of window allowing you to peer from one genre into another. You could even call it ground breaking.
Although I never actually owned an original copy of this album myself, I was a fan of some of the aforementioned splits featuring the band, particularly the first one with the Australian band Undinism (featuring vocalist Neil Cuthbertson, who later joined The Kill), and an early split cassette tape with Agathocles also regularly found its way back to my Walkman. Perhaps that is precisely why this blend of Black Metal, Grindcore and Noisecore puts me in a rather nostalgic mood. And now that all this is still fresh in my ears, perhaps this is actually the perfect time to re-release it. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in noisy Black Metal bands that draw heavily on Grindcore and Noisecore principles. The current underground ‘hype’ surrounding a number of bands from India/Sri Lanka, and acts like Kiloton/Melth are also doing quite well. So who knows. I certainly wish Gonkulator all the best in reaping some rewards from their pioneering work.
