The hard-to-find, out of print full length from 1999 from the Japanese deathcore supergroup Force, released Stateside by Howling Bull. When Howling Bull America started up as a label and a record/toy store at the end of the 90's, they were a godsend to all of us that were jacking into the fertile extreme underground music scene in Japan, licensing some of Japan's fiercest, heaviest bands for release here in the States and turning an entire quadrant of the U.S. metal/hardcore community onto bands like Hellchild and Yellow Machine Gun. Howling Bull sadly closed it's doors after a couple of years, and most of their releases (which had previously only been available as expensive Japanese imports) went out of print and slipped into obscurity. I just found a stash of some of the more crucial releases that I had been looking for, including the 1999 ultra grind materpeice from Force, an all-star outfit that featured members of Japanese death metal legends Multiplex, Sigh, Melt Banana and Hellchild, and boy does this RAGE.

This self-titled album is the only album that Force ever put out, and they disbanded shortly after releasing this, but it remains a crucial slice of freaked out, ultraheavy grindcore with that bizarro edge that all great Japanese grind delivers. If the vocals sound familiar, that's because they're oozing out of the pipes of Tsukasa Harakawa, the legendary demonthroat for Hellchild, and his awesomely slurred, unintelligable chanting fits perfectly with Force's groovy punky grindcrust. Force also adds a large dose of swingin' stoner rock riffage into their hyperblast grind, making this way catchier than yer typical grind outfit, and when the guitarists bust out those sludgy, bluesy riffs while the rhythm section is unleashing total blastbeat destruction, it's some of the most crushing shit ever. Imagine Maryland doomsters Earthride combined with Hellchild's progressive deathcore, Discordance Axis, and Disassociate's pot-fueled grind all fronted by a drunken back-alley shaman and you're kinda close. Crucial !!!! Again, like the Hellchild album we just got in this week, this stuff is hard to find, and we're one of the only stores carrying this essential dose of mutant grindcore. Comes with a huge foldout poster insert.