Terrorizer #86
Review by Ian Glasper

The subtitle says it all: ‘17 tracks of blistering unsigned rock and metal’... although ‘blistering’ might be pushing it a little too far for the trades description people! Actually, there are some great bands on here, but some real crap too, either too gothic or indie rock for me, but hey! Whilst I think that the album itself is flawed, the concept behind it is flawless. If there’s no scene for your band, go out there and find like-minded individuals and damn well create one for yourselves! This deserves your support, and it’s only £3.50 ppd.

Abaxis #9
Review by Freya Harrison

New Stoke-based rock/metal label Psychophonic Records has just released a new compilation entitled Kill Your Management. The CD features 17 tracks from 15 killer underground rock / metal bands. Besides two tracks from the fabulous metallers Razorwire, there's heavy, grungey black metal from Dying Day, Epitaph and Evoke, nu-metal from Matter and softer rock from Kane and Easterpeople, before Projekt bring an 80s industrial feel to the CD. Continuing the 80s theme is 9XDead's soft, melodic, goth S&M ballad Lucy while Cicada bring us more traditional metal with crushing guitars, lots of energy and definite potential. Support the underground and buy a copy today.

Loud Planet.co.uk
Review by Alan

This is a compilation of 15 unsigned hard rock and metal bands spanning 17 tracks, and it does a good job of touching upon just about every corner of the genre. Considering these tracks are all self financed recordings, the quality isn't bad either, there's a couple of ropey recordings, but hey, you don't have to be able to hear the guitarists bracelet jangling on his wrist for the track to be a valid one!

There are some real gems hidden away on this compilation that are definitely deserving of record company attention, these include: the CD opener 'Liar' by Razorwire, sounding not-unlike Megadeth at times; Dying Day contribute the guttural vocal-lined 'The Conqueror'; and Cicada's nu-metal stylings on the track 'Blunt' sounds impressive.

Deeper into the CD you will find the 'Cradle of Filth' sound-a-likes All Life Ends; Matter are reminiscent of Stuck Mojo; Kane are a straight-forward rock band; and Easterpeople, who contribute two tracks, add their blend of indie-rock.

From here we enter demo territory, but this doesn't detract from the quality of the songs; from the gothic and chilling Projekt; the dark eroticness of 9xDead; through to Epitaph's thrash-metal 'Sanguine Ballad To A Rotting Angel', with the opening riff sounding similar to that of Alice Cooper's 'I'm Eighteen'!

Outcast deliver an interesting mix of moods; Desolate combine punk and metal on 'Chaos Season' and sound occasionally like Suicidal Tendencies; more black metal is provided by, Evoke, Cruel Humanity and Karab, the latter is possibly the rawest sound achieved on a demo recording ever!

The CD closes in style with another track by Razorwire, with the Megadeth connection again undeniably apparent in the sound.

This CD showcases how strong and diverse the British unsigned metal scene really is, and at £3.50 inc. postage and packing (UK only I presume?) you can't go wrong. Check-out the Psychophonic Records website and grab a copy before these bands become huge and charge you the same price for each track! 4/5

Attitude #23
Review by Kevin Burgess

This is a compilation of demo tracks from Psychophonic Records, featuring primarily (all?) UK bands. As you would probably expect, the quality on the 17 tracks varies significantly, from the dull sounds and poor production of Karab, to the more complete sounds of Razorwire, All Life Ends, and Kane, which takes a more rock approach than the rest of the CD.

Karab's Anger Within really is pitiful, and I'm surprised it made it onto the CD. It's awful droning doom/death and has no merits at all. It sounds like it's recorded through a wee shitty 20 watt Peavy combo overdriven to the max - and believe me, I know how bad that sounds!!. Thankfully some of the tracks are actually rather good, such as Cicada's Blunt, Matter's Underground, All Life Ends' Forgotten, Razorwire's Liar, and Kane's Unspoken which is probably the best track on the CD. Even the cheesy Cruel Humanity with Dragon-mist is kind of interesting with its (over)use of flanged vocals and keyboards to fill out the sound.

In general it's actually a very good sampling of the UK underground, with very few really poor tracks and quite a few shining lights.

Verdict: If you like to discover new bands, you could do a lot worse.