Five years ago, Mr City, former basement venue in Fulton Market, I swear there was mold down there. Some guy on stage was grinding a contact mic'd pipe while another trudged through the audience growling, dragging broken cymbals chained to his ankle. And Sword Heaven hadn't even started yet. Wait till the drummer plugs in the contact mic that's duct taped around his neck and starts pummeling you into submission so pipe dude can scream and beat hanging sheet metal into your skull. I spent a good ten minutes in front of this scene until deciding to sit on a table near the PA having it shake and shiver my entire spinal cord.
Columbus duo Sword Heaven spent the last decade performing some of the harshest, grinding noise imaginable and releasing it on Load, Not Not Fun, Apop, Fuck It Tapes, and more. This is a self-released cdr I purchased from aforementioned show. The appropriately titled "Beatings" features three tracks of bludgening drums, electronic squelches, and heavy distortion all near the ten minute mark. The first two songs were later rereleased in better quality on a six band triple LP titled "Pisspounder". I haven't hear about them for a while and until the writing of this post, didn't even know they came out with a new LP last august. And apparently the drummer moved to India.
