We just received a bunch of CDs from the Canadian gabba/speedcore/grind/electro label D-Trash, including albums from Unitus, Contra,

Schizoid, and two blazing compilation discs, all of which are reviewed elsewhere in this week's update. The one disc that really stands out in

the pile however is an album from 2005 from the Canadian black metal band Dead Of Winter. Dead Of Winter featured a maniacal vocal performance

from Schizoid, hence the connection to D-Trash, but this is pure blackened blast, violent and raw black metal with ultrafast machinegun-like

blastbeats, swarming clouds of guitar buzz, some wonderfully deformed riffing. Throughout the disc, Schizoid's vocals sound like the man is

engaged in an extreme psychotic break which lends an added level of ferociousness to the songs, whipping back and forth between fierce growling

accusations, hysterical fits of screaming, and harsh, throat-ripping howls that sound like they might be enhanced with some electronic effects.

Either that, or Schizoid is channeling some heavy demons. There isn't much on the way of dynamics here, either, with very few detours into

slower parts or anything other than full-on blast; Dead Of Winter was much more preoccupied with unleashing a storm of hyperspeed buzz and

blasting schizophrenic filth that lulled me into a trance, enhanced by passages of grinding industrial drone and wobbly, seemingly out-of-phase

riffs repeated over and over and which remind me a little of Portal, Blut Aus Nord and Leviathan as they rip across their frosty wastes. Fans

of Canadian psycho-blasters Blasphemy will love this, they've got a similiar fucked-up, blownout warp speed assault.