Circle Pit of Defeat

  I got to watch Circle of Defeat(hopefully named after that Nasum song) play a show the last night I lived in Lawrence, Kansas right before moving back to OH. The venue was a basement called The Overlook and has all different kinds of bands play all the time. I saw Catheter there and Phobia played an aftershow there. My first interaction with the band was when I noticed the singer Alex had on a new Assuck shirt with the sleeves cut off. I commented how I liked it and he said, "I really like it a lot more now the sleeves are cut off". I fucking appreciated that. Of course there were only like 20 people there and we were all just hanging out downstairs and up on the porch drinking brews and smoking fine grade cannabis. I know this was also the very last time I got to circle pit. Circle of Defeat's set was almost over, they had the energy and I just had to grab Dustin and Sean to run in circles while the band played blasts. It's not often you get to initiate a pit with two close friends before you move twelve hours away, but this had to be done.
 Before moving on to the grind band I wanna say that Meat Mist was an older band I'd never head before that played fucking thrash and ripped it up. Beta Maxx is an 80's style hardcore band made up of ex Weekend Dad members that might have a future ahead of them. And my bros all in Methhorse. I saw them two nights in a row. One night with a bunch of shit bands at the Jackpot and then this night. Steven is a great drummer and  my bro Sean has been playing in doom and d-beat bands since he was 15. Noah is an old school punk active in several KC area bands(check out Sarah Palin's Retarded Baby, you won't regret it) while the singer Dustin is another close friend of mine. This is his first band singing but every show his voice gets stronger and his presence grows. I really hope these guys keep it up and do some sort of split with No Master. Along with Sucked Dry these three bands are the best in the KC/MO area in my opinion.
 Musically these dudes rip out Assuck/Insect Warfare worship grind. Not like Cellgraft however which is why I think they're interesting. Still a three piece but Circle of Defeat have a bass player so that low end is kicked up a notch. This style of hybrid grind worship is full of blast beats and energy, two very old stand by friends I rely on. They utilize fret manipulation like pitch harmonics and other awesome music theory tech stuff I can't even describe as I lack the knowledge. See "Incompetent Fools".
 The CD version of their most recent album "Victims and Vengeance" starts off with a combination sound clip
/song and then rages with a scream and blast beats, hardly letting up over the twelve and a half minute run time. There is some groove to appreciate and a couple slow parts, namely in the last track which has a stupid long run time even though it ends in a sound clip from Burn After Reading. I love the vocals on here. They are usually low with some high variations, not at all akin to Cellgraft. While both bands take the same formula they get out completely different versions of music. The screams here are sort of punky raw(see "Corporate Bullshit")  and I admit all vocal styling is quite death metal. They use rhythms and riffs that come off well thought out and I can see these 3 practice a lot. Maybe that's why each sound clip is perfectly placed to accentuate the grind. Oh and there's fucking pick slides. You never get enough of those.

Blast O Mat approved!

Bonus! Split with Orphans
Fuck the border!

And if you're crazy they have an Insect Warfare cover on their Myspace. But fuck Myspace.