Rad Jackson

Think the original Hemdale material is hard to come by as well as pricey? You’re right. FEAR NOT! Relapse understands the dilemma of the diehard Hemdale fan, and Rad Jackson is their way of giving the fans the closest thing to that which they desire. The desired being every limited and original demo and split to be adorned with the Hemdale logo, and Rad Jackson being a compilation of almost every bit of Hemdale material ever released. So while you spend years seeking out those precious Hemdale nuggets, in the meantime there’s no reason to go without hearing it anyways.

Onto the music. Influenced by old-school grindcore and built up with a death metal edge, Hemdale are the gods of goregrind, this is fact. Me and Steven Hawking were talking once, and he was like “Black holes swallow shit, and oh yeah Hemdale are the gods of goregrind,” what more proof do you want. The most distinguished aspect of Hemdale is that the songwriting is diverse and impressive, more developed than most grind (music founded on the need for speed for extremity’s sake). The riffs are meaty and enjoyable when you crave some substance along with grindcore enthusiasm (yes I’m hungry right now). Sometimes the music’s even slow, SLOW, and still grinds like a motherfucker. Almost as much as a fatherfucker!!

The drumming’s also impressive, not just in upholding speed but with variety to match the riffs. The vocals? Matt Rositano is the sickest, most twisted vocalist to suffer from obsessive compulsive psychotic serial-killing sprees, and suffer is without a doubt the best way to describe what he sounds like. The gutturals are deep and excellent, but the high-pitched shrieking? Simply the most amazingly pained vocals you’ll ever hear. Listen to the screams and “help me’s” in “Overflow” and tell me you hear anything less than absolutely psychotic desperation. And the bass? Just as hearty as the riffs. Plug in your headphones and be prepared to have your brain rumble with heaviness heavier than heavy. Of course, gore and innards are the topic of interest, as well as the occasional homage to zombie shit and mental patient love juices. No further elaboration is necessary.

So that’s Hemdale, and Rad Jackson is the gruesome compilation featuring plenty of it. Up first is the material from the split with Exhumed, then the Exit-13 split, then the Disgust split, and finally the self-titled demo (HEMDALE, stupid). All the split material being only the Hemdale sides of course, and featuring three covers (Napalm Death, Destruction, and Grave) plus an Anal Cunt parody almost as terrible as Anal Cunt themselves. The recording quality on Disgust material is a little raw and the demo material sounds.. well like a demo.. but the obvious disparities in sound quality aren’t a problem, just noticeable. Other than that, there’s not much left to say except there’s an hour of music, and unlike those “best of” or “random versions of songs you already know” compilations, this is one that features stuff you probably haven’t heard before and no doubt was made with the fans in mind.

Oh.. if you’re going to be disappointed that the ever-elusive lyrics aren’t printed HERE at long last, I learned somewhere that Hemdale doesn’t actually have lyrics.. so quit your whining and enjoy the goregrind madness.

So here is the famous compilitation by Hemdale, the underground Goregrind legends. I've been looking for their previous material, however this is all I could find.

Despite being labelled as Death/Grind, Hemdale are definitely Goregrind. They sound very much like Carcass during their "Reek Of Putrefaction" era.

The music here is good, nothing overly special. The guitar work is good, ranging from headbanging riffs all the way to spastic blastbeat riffs. There are some solos added here and there, which is a nice thing to see in a Gore band. The drumming is your typical Grindcore drumming, lots of blasting, however some Thrash and D-Beat drumming is added. There is nearly no bass to be heard in the mix, because of the recording and production of the record, so expect a full on dirty, shitty lo-fi Grind assault.

All in all, if you're looking for some Old-School Goregrind, then pick this up. You won't be disappointed. However, just don't expect anything digital. This is all purely organic.