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VARIOUS ARTISTS  Virus Has Been Spread  CD   (D-Trash)   12.98
Virus Has Been Spread IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

The newest release from the long running Canadian label D-Trash is a tribute compilation to Atari Teenage Riot, and there's probably no other label better suited to curate a collection of artists ready to pay homage to the masters of digital hardcore than D-Trash. They've basically been a North American arm of the DHR label since the label came into being in the late '90's, and D-Trash artists like Schizoid and Unitas have been featured on DHR compilations and released through the DHR imprint. So here we are, seven years after Atari Teenage Riot ceased operations, and D-Trash takes stock of the current state of hardcore techno/gabber/speed metal techno with this 16-track compilation that features Schizoid, Rabbit Junk, Howard Roark, Zymotic, Unitus, CTRLER, NOCORE, The Secret Life Of Teenage Girls, Phallus Uber Alles, Hercklekot, Cyanotic and The Phoeron each doing a version of a classic ATR track. Most of the renditions here stick pretty close to the originals, just ratcheting up the noise and speed levels when they can, and some of this shit is the fastest speed metal/techno I've ever heard. Some of the standouts: Howard Roark's version of "No Remorse (I Wanna Die)", which was a collaboration between ATR and Slayer that appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Spawn; his version is appropriately shredding, complete with maniacal Araya style yelling blasting through a distorted megaphone; Schizoid, who we can always rely on for sheer blasting blackened breakbeat mayhem, drops a scorching buzzsaw cover of "The Future Of War". And Unitus slows "Death Star" down into a crushing dirge that sounds like a breakbeat-heavy Godflesh being sucked into a black hole. And this compilation also works well as a introduction to the speed-metal infested digital hardcore underground, as most of these tracks rip mightily, fusing fierce distorted breakbeat action to speed/thrash metal guitars and gobs of vicious electronic noise.