Metal Thrashing Mad – The Obscene Machine vs. Dagoba vs. Tommy Fiammenghi Band

Metal Thrashing Mad – The Obscene Machine vs. Dagoba vs. Tommy Fiammenghi Band
THE OBSCENE MACHINE
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Grindscene

Aiiiieeee!! Belfast grindcore! It’s something that seems to be rather popular over on the Emerald Isle, something that could explain why my illiterate Great-Grandfather picked up his cobblers tools and headed for Scotchland. He’d be shaking his head if he’d realised that some way down the line, the fruit of the fruit of the fruit of his loins would be grunting and shoogling along to the debut release from Belfast boys, The Obscene Machine.

It’s what you would want and expect from a grindcore album. Short, sharp shocks to the system as they blast their way through some musical mayhem with a few nods to the death metal greats of yore. In particular, I reckon they’ve got a few, early, Cannibal Corpse records stashed away where their Mums can’t find them. However, numbers like ‘Descent’, ‘Napalm Orchid’ and the charmingly titled ‘Fuck You’ show that they’ve got enough moves of their own to make a name for themselves.

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DAGOBA
Post Mortem Nihil Est
earMusic

Meanwhile, over in French Franceland, Dagoba have getting their metal on for quite some time now. Basically, they’re an industrial metal band who graft on some Down type groove riffs to their tuneage, and then hope for the best. And it’s all rather enjoyable.

It’s their first album since founder member and guitarist Izakar left, but you’d never know. That may be because someone has thrown enough money their way for them to head off to Los Angeles to have it produced by former Machine Head guitarist Logan Mader. It’s not a cheery album, as you may have gathered from the title, but it certainly ramps up the metal on epicus metallicus numbers like ‘Kiss Me Kraken’ and ‘The Great Wonder’. The whole thing is powered along by some immense rhythm work, especially from drummer Franky Constanza, a man who could easily be snapped up by a bigger band if they’re not careful.

A fantastic release, and one that metal fans should bite their own hands of for.

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TOMMY FIAMMENGHI BAND
Into The Storm
TFB

Finally, we head off to Italy for some classic rock. As you may have gathered from the name, Tommy Fiammenghi is an Italian singer and guitarist who put together his own band back in 2005 and this, “Into The Storm” is their second LP.

And it’s pretty good. It’s that classic, seventies blues based rock with some nice Hammond organ touches, and some excellent solos from Signor Fiammenghi. However, he’s a better guitarist than he is a singer, and too many of the songs fail to lift off for this to be an essential purchase. Which may be why the instrumental numbers clicked for me. But don’t think it’s not worth a listen, because when the songwriting matches the performances as it does on ‘I Can’t Believe It’s True’ and ‘White Snow’, then you can hear the potential in the grooves.

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Dagoba video