Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #3: Means of Control/Mentor

Timpani allo Spiedo is literally full of releases coming from Poland. In fact, many partners of this 'zine, as Godz ov War Productions or Mythrone Promotion, are Polish, and the result of this is that I receive so plenty of releases from that country that I can say I know its extreme metal scene as a Polish metalhead hehe! Hence, no surprise that this new appointment with "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss" is entirely dedicated to two bands from Poland. They are very different but somehow connected through hardcore punk tunes.

MEANS OF CONTROL - "CENA ZBAWIENA"

Last year Selfmadegod Records released a lot of album played by veterans of the Polish/International grindcore scene such as Psychoneurosis (very recommendable!) and My Minds Mine. And these Means of Control (FB page) are no exceptions to this trend because they exist since 1992 but, for some ways or another, "Cena zbawiena" is only their second full-lenght album to date.

We're talking about a 13-track album that present a classic combination between crust punk and grindcore sung mostly in Polish and featuring sometimes interesting ideas like dissonant riffs or threatening arpeggios in slow tempos. The songs are usually longer than the usual for a grindcore album, and the tracklist ranges from 20-second raging explosions like "Ratuj" to more structured numbers as "Co z tego", that alternates continuously slow parts with (ultra)-fast ones. "Cena zbawiena" isn't a masterpiece but, anyway, it's a good slaughter for the fans of Napalm Death and Doom!

MENTOR - "CULTS, CRYPTS AND CORPSES"

Do you remember that a certain Haldor Grunberg mixed and mastered the Eternal Rot's debut album (and did the same thing for "Chaozium" by Formis)? Well, that man plays the bass under the name of Gusion's Drone in a band known as Mentor (FB page), not to be confused with other homonymous bands from Poland. Anyway, they released via Pagan Records their second album titled, in according to their tradition, in a blasphemous trinitarian way: "Cults, Crypts and Corpses".

They dub their music as "Black Thrash Rock'n'Roll" and, FUCK!, it's true! But to say the truth and nothing but the truth, this album is something more. In fact, the sound is basically a raw black/thrash metal with many Venom and Hellhammer/Celtic Frost vibes but, little by little, you can hear various influences coming from hardcore punk (also vocally speaking), speedy rock'n'roll, death metal, doom metal...and even stoner, which is present in the last song "Gather by the Grave", where Mentor lose completely their minds by seeming a sort of possessed version of Kyuss! Are you a bit confused? Mmh, maybe some songs are too distant to the usual style of the band and, in addition, the last three numbers have unfortunately no fast parts. But fuck these considerations 'cause you must listen to "Cults, Crypts and Corpses", so you can draw your own conclusions!