Betty Swallaux - 'Grinding Betty' (self released) 4.5/5

Just a few short months after hitting the world with a very strong demo release, Llanelli grindcore experimentalists Betty Swallaux are back with their debt album.

If you have managed to track down Betty Swallaux's demo you'll know Gaz Wooloff and his crew have developed an almost unique sound, blending elements of industrial grindcore and extreme metal sensibilities with 'nintendo-core' style electronica, elements of progressive rock and great slices of traditional punk, add in the in your face use of drum machines and loops and the result is a sound that is as near unique as you'll hear anywhere.

This nifty eight tracker kicks off with Fantasy, a nifty little number that starts out sounding like something from a 1990's console game sound track before plunging head long into a wall of glorious Electro Hippies influenced noise. Other high points include Ramstein on acid industrial grind of Deep, the wonderful Give Me Some More, a track that bizarrely wouldn't sound to out of place on an album by the late great Robert Calvert and gloriously brutal Cruel Britannia (in my books the stand out track on the album) with its damning political lyrics and breakneck slam dance frenzy riffing.

There a couple of cover versions on show here as well... the old Divynils standard I Touch My Self is a pretty straight forward rendition in the Betty Swallaux style and makes for an enjoyable listen. Then theres a stripped down and rebuilt version of America (Just Say No), an early single by Bristol band Alien Stash Tin that blows the balls off the original.

Another plus here is the production, Its about as slick as its possible to get with a home recording rig and still maintain Betty Swallaux unique sound and jagged edge attack. Something the guys should be proud of.

Over all Betty Swallaux are one of the most unique, innovative and exciting projects around at the moment and should be bound for international cult status at the very least, and this album will only go to help that process along in fine style.

SUPERB!!!

For fans of... Ramstein, Amebix, 23 Skidoo, Electro Hippies, Elephant 12....

Betty Swallaux - 'Demo 2011' (self released) 4.5/5

Llanelli outfit Betty Swallaux were formed earlier this year and are currently a studio project whilst they are seeking 'the right drummer'. This is their first release and is in effect a collection of various demo recording the band have assembled over the past few months.

Now this one is very interesting indeed. It's not often that I get to hear such a diverse blend of influences and inspirations. There are bits that sound like Venom type primordial death metal, other bits remind me a little of Ramstein style teutonic industrial rage rock. Then there are bits of Sore Throat style grindcore, snifters of RATM style groove metal, touches of Rolo Tomassi style prog-core; even hints of Gay For Johnny Depp style post hardcore... and its all rolled into one overall sound that is the closest to 'unique' I've come across for a long time.

OK the production is a tad rough as is to be expected, but nowhere does that detract from the pure quality of the music on offer. Gaz Wooloffs vocals are remarkable, he manages to sound like Ramsteins Till Lindenmann, Sore Throats Rich Walker and FFAF's Matthew Davies-Kreye all at once, switching styles often bar to bar. The guitars of the aforementioned Mr Wooloff and Peter Smith and the bass of Dai Price are so bleedin' heavy they create their own gravity field. And a special mention must be made about the drums on this demo. Lacking a stickman, the band created them beat by beat, track by track from the bass drum upwards, a long and laborious process, but one that works so well here. The result is something that falls halfway between the warmth of a real drummer and the clinical precision of a drum machine, and sounds perfect for Betty Swallaux's black-groove-industrial-progressive-hard-metal-grindcore stylings.

I really do love this stuff. Tracks like the dark and sinister Change, the industrial groove of Extremist and the progressive grindcore of Give In, just roll out of the speakers like a glorious sonic assassination that can kill from several hundred yards and put a smile on your face while they are doing it. I'm hard pushed here to select a favourate track, it changes with each play, but at the moment it's In My Veins, a cut that starts off all trippy and mellow, then goes all Venomesque blast and bludgeon before ending with a section that sounds like Tangerine Dream goes happy house (I kid you not!!)

This is cutting edge stuff, I've not heard its like before, I doubt if many people have, and I'm sure if the band started to hawk this demo around some of the more left-field and open minded progressive record labels, internet radio stations and magazines, things could start to happen for them. After all this could well be the future of music.

For fan of... Ramstein, Rolo Tomassi, Saints Of Eden, Sore Throat....