Back in the 1980s, Austria was a country that, despite a small scene, more or less didn’t exist on the map of Metal. I did some brainstorming, but there was no Austrian band from the glorious days of the genre that came to mind. Instead, our neighbours down south were known for bad music, mainly sung in their typical dialect, or strange bands with strange humour. So it was quite spectacular for us in Northern Germany when we first heard of some Grindcore bands from Austria like DISASTROUS MURMUR, DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA or PUNGENT STENCH who appeared about 1989. These three bands released their first 7″es that year, the latter two also released a joint effort with a split album. The following years saw the three trailblazers taking different paths. DISASTROUS MURMUR never really left the underground, DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA turned into an Avantgarde Metal band after their first album and PUNGENT STENCH became a sick and experimental Death Grind band. The direction that the latter took was first recognizable on their second album “Been Caught Buttering”. The predecessor “For God Your Soul… For Me Your Flesh” a year earlier was already more based in Death Metal, but that said album was pretty unique when it was released in 1991. The Death Grind was slowed down and spiced with some unexpected breaks and little experiments like funky bass lines (‘Sick Bizarre Defaced Creation’) or acoustic guitars (‘Games Of Humiliation’). Thus PUNGENT STENCH stood out even in times when Death Metal was still evolving, fresh and not as uniform as it became in later years. Another point of the changed approach of the band were the sick humour they added to their lyrics that found its expression in song names like ‘Happy Re-birthday’, ‘Brainpan Blues’ or ‘Splatterday Night Fever’. Looking back at the development of PUNGENT STENCH, “Been Caught Buttering” was in my humble opinion the highlight of the history of the band as the album contrasted with the often deadly seriousness of the genre and was not as crazed as their later output that often were too experimental or sick, musically. With “Been Caught Buttering” turning 35 this year, Hammerheart Records treated the album to a fine re-release. Asides from the vinyl and tape edition that featured only the original album with its nine songs, there is a double CD version that features some extras as well. The album itself was expanded with two extra songs that exclusively appeared on compilation albums around the time the album was released. Both, ‘The Ballad Of Mangled Homeboys’ and ‘Daddy Cruel’, fit the style of “Been Caught Buttering” without being highlights of the album. The second extra is a whole extra disc that features the recording of a full show PUNGENT STENCH played prior to the release of “Been Caught Buttering” at the Rockhaus in their home town Vienna on May 18, 1991. Thus this disc features only songs from “For God Your Soul… For Me Your Flesh” and the releases before that album, from ‘Extreme Deformity’ to ‘Pungent Stench’ and as an encore a not really great version of the GUNS ‘N’ ROSES classic ‘Paradise City’ with Death Metal vocals. The quality of this recording is pretty decent, aside from some occasional feedback, so there might be some people out there who enjoy this live CD. In case you like some old school Death Grind and don’t know the original recordings, you’re better off getting the respective records as they were re-released several times either. For more information visit www.facebook.com/pungentstench.official, www.facebook.com/rectorstench or www.facebook.com/hammerheartrecords

April is going to be a damn good month for me and it is all thanks to Dissonance Productions. The UK label has decided to reissue PUNGENT STENCH’s back catalog as well as an unreleased album and threw in some added bonus material as well. I thought with all the turmoil happening in the PUNGENT STENCH camp between the members in the last few years that we would never see their early albums to be released. Luckily I was wrong and am beyond ecstatic to get my hands on the vinyl and CD reissues as this band is on my top 10 list of favorites… the only thing missing is a DVD edition of “Video La Muerte”. Today’s review will focus on my favorite PUNGENT STENCH album “Been Caught Buttering”. The CD versions of these reissues will be in digipak format and "Been Caught Buttering" includes several live tracks from a show in Salzburg, Austria in May 1991. To me this album really showcased the band finding their sound and having fun. Porno Goregrind with a hint of dark humor is the best way to describe this album with thunderous drums, catchy guitar riffs and interesting guitar solos. From the start you get the homicidal anthem of ‘Shrunken & Mummified Bitch’ that lets you know what you are in for on the album and if you get a chance check out the video for this song on Youtube. Choice cuts on this album aside from the aforementioned ‘Shrunken & Mummified Bitch’ are: ‘Games Of Humiliation’, ‘Smash’, ‘Brainpan Blues’ and ‘Splatterday Night Fever’. Next up are the live tracks that are provided as bonus material. Live songs are a hit or miss type of situation. Depending on the sound guy and how the soundboard captured the music it can either be a nice addition or an abysmal failure and on this outing we lucked out as the music sounds very good. You can clearly hear the instruments, vocals and the crowd noise is not overshadowing the music. About half the material is off of their split with DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and the other half is material from their debut album “For God Your Soul… For Me Your Flesh”. In summary these long awaited reissues are welcomed as most of the early material of the band is hard to find and very pricey. The live tracks were a very nice touch and worth checking out. You can’t go wrong with any of the band’s material from their start up until 1994 (their reunion material is good but clearly not the apex of the band). For more info: www.facebook.com/pungentstench.official, www.dissonanceproductions.co.uk