Also out with a recent 7-inch are Atlanta outfits Balkans and Trial By Fire, splitting sides on a wax chip from Die Indy. The former's two songs occupy side one – "C++" is a frantic instrumental battalion that ventures into surf-prog-metal territory, which would be doubly impressive had Fiend Without a Face not already carved out that niche locally. "f3" (are they being cryptic with the titles or what?) is sludgy torture with a singer who sounds like he ate some bad clams. Speaking of torture, after a boring instrumental kicks off their side of the single, TBF lights into a horror-house bump 'n' grind scream-fest titled "Winter Lust" that sounds as though bloodletting of some sort must've infiltrated the recording session. There's also a backwards-masked coda if you want to hear a secret demonic message....... Jeff Clark S&S

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