1.raging late Black Flag worship from Virulence, the band that would become Fu Manchu

2. In 1993, the fledgling death metal genre was introduced to jazz with the releases of Pestilence, Atheist, and Cynic. Of course, these bands, along with Exit-13 to name another jazz-grind hybrid, never made it past their introductory offerings of avant-garde jazz metal as the majority of the closeminded metal scene scorned and shunned these bands completely as devoid of brutality, too complex, and too weird. At that time death metal was in its middle stages, and growing slowly in terms of experimination and acceptance of expanding the then fixed death metal boundaries.

By 1998, and up to the present day 2001, with the overtly technical death metal acts Gorguts, Monstrosity, and Cryptopsy fusing with technical jazz hardcore such as Dillinger Escape Plan, genres were finally coming more together, with many elements so intertwined within differing styles, that experimentation became a survival necessity in order for a band to expand their boundaries and escape mundane genericy. This thinking has thankfully permeated to almost all branches of underground, extreme music in the recent years as select bands on all fronts are now blending genres, and expanding their horizons and future outlooks in terms of change and well-rounded growth.

Enter Boston's Virulence, a band that takes elements of hardcore, grind, and free jazz to the next level of experimental death metal. They could be seen as a meshing of the best elements of Dillinger Escape Plan, Atheist, and Cephalic Carnage, but those references are not altogether accurate, nor entirely warranted. They are their own unique band, with many influences and styles, yet nothing to accurately pigeonhole them. They gained some recognition within the underground through their own self-financed debut ep, but A Conflict Scenario, on Germany's Morbid Records, should be considered their first proper full-length debut. It's undenyingly original and pushes the envelope of death/grind to a higher level of non-conformity. While the hardcore barking and shouting vocal style is dominating, some death metal growling appears at times to give the vocals balance. The eight songs are all relatively short, completely focused, and full of complexity. Rapid time changes, jazz strummings, and abstract velocity breaking solos are all unique characteristics of this release. Devoid of a crystal clear agenda, I believe the lyrics are as abstract as the music backing them, but without a lyric sheet I am not completely sure of the topics covered here.

Virulence have completed one of the most overtly jazz death/hardcore albums in recent years. It is clearly an inspiring moment when a largely unknown band, out of nowhere, puts out such a stunning and originally compelling and unpredictable an album as A Conflict Scenario.




2. Writing and soon to be recording a new EP featuring the track from their 2009 demo and a re recording of their 2008 demo "ppp!"
a new hardcore metal band from london.
www.myspace.com/virulenceuk


3. A HARDCORE PUNK BAND FROM MODESTO, CA.
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