Waaay back in the 90s, before mp3s and home studio computer setups, one man drum machine grind bands were actually a rare novelty. In the early nineties, a band called Slough from Illinois released a series of limited edition homemade death metal tapes with extremely disturbing perverse lyrics and imagery. At the same time, Catasexual Urge Motivation from Japan was doing something very similar with a more dark and artistic take on the genre. They inevitably hit it off like champs through the thriving pre-internet global tapetrading scene and together with other bands like Libido Airbag, gradually broke down misconceptions that you need drummers to make death metal. Alot of drummers are dicks. Have you been to a Buckshot Facelift or Biolich show? Keith from Arti. Brain and Pete from Dimentianon are solid bros, but so far alot of these double bassy drum bastards have rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, this guy Tyler Gein was in Slough for a few releases and eventually did his own thing with a whole slew of different projects under the umbrella of Extreme Scene Records. Of all the different projects, I think it is safe to say that The Secret Life was the figurehead of the label and the "Murder may just be part of my secret" cassette in 1997 was the manifesto. Tyler performed and wrote most of the material, with a guest appearance by his label mate Colon Pete on the song "My soul divided into the stars". Tragically, Tyler died 8 years later. To listen to that song, with its eerily foreboding title, as well as the impressive one man cover of Incantations "As our souls roam horizons lost", is to witness the epic and beautiful poetry of life and death play out in a perverse lofi one man goregrind project.
R.I.P. Tyler Gein. A goregrind artist.
free downloads are all over the place at
EXTREME SCENE RECORDS
Warning: Extreme Scene is very explicit and, um, extreme
(Pictured is the Slough side of the Slough/Gonkulator split 7" from 1996, as well as a photograph of Dan Olivencia.)
I met Tyler once at a metalfest in Illinois in 1997, I think. He seemed fairly stand-off'ish, but maybe because I'm the least "metal" guy in the scene. Naked Rick and I, however, had many lengthy phone conversations years ago and he seemed totally cool. He eventually found god and told me he was turning Slough into a Christian goregrind band. That was the last I heard from him, probably 2000 or so. That Extreme Scene stuff was the best.
ReplyDeleteIm Rick and i never went christian or said i was. Tyler Gein died.
DeleteSlough os still semi active.
You can find SLOUGH by searching slough grindcore and Extreme Scene Reords at Discogs is a good link to all side projects
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