Gridlink- Longhena(2014)

Gridlink- Longhena

It's always interesting to hear a band when they reach the curtain call.  Longhena is Gridlink's declaration to the world: they are no more, history is devouring them and all they will leave behind is the resonance of their art through the ages.  They frankly don't give a fuck what anyone thinks, because this is it.  One last shot at codifying their identity into sonic form and leaving it for the masses to judge and disseminate among themselves.  Longhena feels very much like an album made for the musicians who created it, and we all get to bask in that freedom of not giving two flying fucks.

You can probably guess what Longhena is all about.  Grindcore, like much of Extreme Metal(yes, it's Metal), is very much a genre of tradition and paradigms.  Longhena has not need for such things, and both are ripped to shreds in melodic, Heavy Metal riffs and longing ambient pieces.  In fact, it's debatable whether Gridlink were even trying to make a Grindcore record here, or rather just some sort of distillation of their musical taste's and influences which includes healthy doses of Traditional Metal, Grindcore, Prog Rock and Ambient, all vigorously whipped together with a futuristic, Japanese cyber punk flavor and Jon Chang's legendary vocals and powerful, poetic prose.

Jon Chang.  If I can fanboy out for a moment, I need to talk about Jon Chang.  Not the man, as I don't personally know him, but Jon Chang the vocalist.  If the end of Gridlink means one sad thing for me, it's the idea that this might be the last we hear of him as one of the defining vocalists of his generation.  Many love his style and many hate his style.  Others find it unimpressive.  But when Chang provides vocals for a project, everyone know it is him: his manic, inhuman shrieks and throaty guttural grunts are simply unmatched within Extreme Metal in general, and when I was grinding out vocals for some shitty Grindcore band that I really loved playing in(even if we were shitty), I tried to channel Chang in every performance.  I tried to channel the wrath, disgust and complete humanity that Chang gave us on The Inalienable Dreamless.  Often, when praising vocalists, especially Extreme Metal vocalists, we praise them for how they seem to have transcended their humanity and transformed in raging beasts, subterranean demons or longing banshees.  But Chang's gift comes from the overwhelming, soul crushing humanity of his vocals.  This is what makes him special, and for me the greatest Extreme Metal vocalist ever.

It helps Longhena that this is the best Chang has sounded since his time with Discordance Axis.  It was hard not to noticed a down tick in intensity with Gridlink's previous releases and with Hayanio Daisuki, though this can be chalked up to the obvious throat damage of Chang's unhinged style surely has brought.  But like the unhinged and off-kilter style of Longhena the album, Chang is clearly pulling out all the stops, throat be damned.

Grindcore be damned as well.  From the opening sparkly and bouncy riff of "Constant Autumn," to the whirring Heavy Metal dual melody attack of "Ketsui" to the somber, dissonant Prog Metal sections of "Island Sun," Longhena declares itself separate from the classification.  "Thirst Watcher" provides a moment of quiet introspection early in the album, as clean guitars twirl and dance with muted electronic sounds and a howling violin, and it certainly stands out as unlike anything you would have expected.  Longhena does have some solid moments of what's mostly Grindcore: "Chalk Maple" is still highly melodic, but feels like a good Tech Grind songs and features some brilliant guest vocals from Paul Pavolich of Assuck fame(man, this album can't be more awesome.)  "Wartime Exception Law 2005" blasts through a mere 29 seconds of techy, lush Grindcore and dissonant, off axis musical twisting, feeling pretty close to something off of Amber Gray or Orphan.  Takafumi Matsubara is a relentless shred master, which he showed with Hayanio Daisuki, but he also shows a brilliant affinity for technical, metallic Grindcore riffs and discordant compositions.   

There is an undeniable current of beauty that flows through Longhena which gives it a feeling that seems so totally alien to Extreme Metal.  Dare I say, Longhena sounds very... happy at times.  Not that is doesn't have it's dark and somber moments("Island Sun"), but there is a very noticeable positive slant to the entire experience.  Gridlink are having a hell of a lot of fun on with this material, and it's impossible not to smile along with them.  It's all helped by a sparking, crystal clear production, but it feels perfectly appropriate considering the energy and positive vibes of the material.  It's one of the most listenable and enjoyable, and highly addicting, releases I've heard, and without question the best Grindlink album.

Longhena is the musical equivalent of a walk off grand-slam; it's rare, it's powerful and it fucking wins the game.  My love for Grindcore and for Discordance Axis always kept me involved in Gridlink, but I'll  be the first to admit I was not a massive fan of the project.  It felt too much like Discordance Axis to me, just more Japanese and clean, and yet it lacked the massive intensity and wrath of hateful conviction.  This makes Longhena also sorrowfully bittersweet, as it appears in their last moment Gridlink had developed a sound which helped them stand apart from the legacy of earlier progeny and walk a new, undiscovered musical path.  Yet Longhena feels largely complete, as though nothing is really missing.  Gridlink are gone, but Longhena remains and will be heard and appreciated for years to come

i.e. this is how you go out with a fucking bang

9/10

Knelt Rote- Trespass(2012)

Knelt Rote- Tresspass

Few albums are as relentlessly, appallingly heavy as Trespass, the third album from Portland, Oregon spine snappers Knelt Rote.  A group I'm not intimately familiar with, Knelt Rote apparently started as a Noisegrind side project for a group of well traveled Oregon musicians before metamorphosing into a new, equally savage and noisy though far less avant-garde beast.  With Incantation worship having been all the rage for many years(though this seems to have begun to die down slightly), Knelt Rote have found a far more creative and chaotic way to emulate them: by mixing in and equal amount of blistering Grindcore into the tremolo-and-Doom formula of the Old New Yorkers.  It's certainly an interesting concept, and one that surprisingly works despite what appears to be an oil-and-water mixture.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of Trespass is that Knelt Rote find a way to, for the most part, organically mix the two disparate styles without having songs fall into that "this part sounds like A band, this part sounds like B band" formula so many bands use.  It's always impressive when an artist can instead create a synthesis, combing the essence of both styles into a single uniform approach, and throughout Trespass we see this unholy matrimony in full effect.  The final track, "Catalepsy," is without question the strongest example of this union and the strongest track on the record, a dissonant and blasting track which mixes unholy Blackened riffs with relentless drumming, driving tempo and disjointed, demonic vocals to create that wondrous swirling effect that Incantation so completely mastered while moving at speeds far more reminiscent of Napalm Death or early Carcass.  "Hunger" has a more Grind focused approach, bringing some Pig Destroyer-esque chaos and mildly technical riffing before transforming into another driving, Blackened nightmare.  I was somewhat surprised by the complexities on display here, and like many of their peers such as Adversarial and Muknal, there is some subdued but tangible technical flourishes throughout Trespass which offer a nice contrast to the musty and murky invocations and sledgehammer blasting.

Just don't expect a ton of variety or a consistent atmosphere with Trespass.  Though certain tracks stand out over others, there isn't a great deal here to differentiate the individual tracks from one another, and at times Trespass develops a droning quality that clashes with the chaotic and static-riddle madness.  It's an album which can work you into a lull of concentration without ever finding a way to hook you back in, yet the loud snare often grinds against the backdrop of the coiling riffs and creates a somewhat disjointed contrast.  And all this relentless brutality can at times eviscerate the strongest elements of the record: the atmosphere.  Incantation did not become one of the greatest Death Metal bands, or one of the most influential, by being the most brutal or relentless band.  They did it by creating an atmosphere which truly evoked a dream-like state of demonic possession, one where bathing in the madness and the nightmares made you feel the music on a different level.  With all of it's fury and fire, Trespass can force you in and out of this trance in a jarring way.

Still, it's hard to find much overwhelming fault with Trespass.  The sheer fact that Knelt Rote have discovered a creative and original way to take use those Incantation elements that doesn't fit into either banal worship or occult naval-gazing is worthy of praise if nothing else.  You simply won't find another album which sounds exactly like Trespass, and it's an album of excessive extremes and suffocating barbarity that will not suffer survivors.  If you take this album head on, be ready to search the dirt for your teeth.

Rating: 8/10

Column of Heaven- Mission From God(2012)

Column of Heaven- Mission From God

Column of Heaven appear to be a new group on the surface, but a closer look reveals the project is really more of a reinvention then a completely new concept.  The band is really a continuation of the now defunct The Endless Blockade, it featuring former members of the project, in both sound and substance.  Both bands play noise-y, dischordant Powerviolence and Grindcore with a healthy dose of Power Electronics and pure vein-popping anger.  Listening to the bands new EP Mission From God certainly evokes the same feelings and intensity that The Endless Blockade did in their hey-day.  That's not a bad thing: The Endless Blockade were one of the best bands in the genre, and their break-up in 2010 was a painful body shot for their fans.  So it's a nice plus that Mission From God also feels like an evolution as much as a continuation: Column of Heaven is a more technical, Grindcore influenced project, something a bit darker and more monolithic then The Endless Blockade were.  This is a new experience worth checking out regardless of the project's history: the music speaks for itself.

Big fans of The Endless Blockade might even be a little turned off by Mission From God at first, considering some key differences between the two projects.  The vocals will be the first to stand out: gone are the more traditional Powerviolence vocals, replaced by a very competent J.R. Hayes impersonator.  This isn't necessarily an improvement, but the vocals mesh well with the Grindcore-focused approach and the labyrinth-dwelling Sludge sections.  The guitar sound is more metallic as well, though it remains crusty and grime covered, and it works with the complex guitar play that crops up across the album.  Column of Heaven will never be mistaken for Discordance Axis, but some of these riffs give off an early Pig Destroyer-vibe; highly dissonant and textured.  All told, it's a more metallic approach to songwriting and texture, but it's more then crusty and angry enough to remain appealing to the Punk crowds.

What hasn't changed from The Endless Blockade is the relentless aggression, hateful speed and mad electronic rampages.  Mission From God is a non-stop barrage of nihilism and disenfranchisement that clocks in at a brisk seventeen minutes.  There is very little fluff or filler, and with most tracks playing into each other, it's a seamless and satisfying album.  "Entheogen": is a cavernous and oppressive torrent of soundwaves, equal parts hypnotic and devastating.  It takes equal parts Man is the Bastard and Godflesh, fabricating a flawless fragment of Industrial Powerviolence, constructed with animosity and malice.  "Pharmakos" jumps between good ol' Violence and dissonant, atmospheric sections that are as intensely creepy as they are strangely beautiful.  It's a track of stark contrasts, a trademark of The Endless Blockade, and in this regard Column of Heaven is a worthy successor.

Mission From God is fantastic.  It's not a masterpiece, nor do I think it stands on the same level as Primitive overall.  It is, however, an album with no faults: everything works and sounds the way it should, being both instantly familiar yet fresh and dynamic.  I've said this before, but it works for Mission From God as well; this is what happens when a group of talented and smart musicians get together and make something meaningful and solid.  The foundations of this album are tempered and strong, allowing for organic experimentation and good old skull-fucking alike.  I have a sneaking suspicion that some old school fans of The Endless Blockade might not like what they hear on Mission From God, but for just about anyone else, this album is essential listening.

Rating: 8.5/10

As if this album were not awesome enough, Mission From God is also available for "pay-what-you-want" download on the labels Bandcamp page.  Stream it there, and throw a few bucks the bands way for the download.  The album will also be out on vinyl soon, so be on the look-out.  I'll put the link below.

Download Mission From God Here

Male Misandria- E.DIN(2011)

Male Misandria- E.DIN

Italy's Male Misandria play a style of Blackened Grindcore that isn't too far from Anaal Nathrakh's noisy, screaming nightmares, with the same tortured vocals and tendency to explore the abnormal. But I can easily say I vastly prefer the more stripped down, Punk infused edge that Male Misandria bring; with influences of Powerviolence and Crust Punk, E.DIN is a focused, strange and skin-peeling Blackened Grindcore that brims with filthy anger.

I don't want to play up the Anaal Nathrakh comparison too much: there are similarities, but not overwhelmingly so: Male Misandria are more firmly rooted to the ground and wield a Punk-infused edge. It's all very fast and loud, which means everything is working as it should be.  Tracks are short and noisey, yet often include sudden bits of atmospheric, grim introspection: "Homo Homini Homo" starts off with some mid-paced, frost bitten guitar work that screams Emperor, complete with a smattering of operatic vocals, before mutating into a static drenched, dripping syringe of blasting Grindcore/Powerviolence that enters the blood-stream like burning fire.  "Somni Spectus" features one of the sexiest, filthiest riffs on the album, the opening roar of the guitars complimented with excellent use of samples to create a sickening, blackened atmosphere without ever losing it's aggressive, crusty edge.  E.DIN also features some rather odd song titles, including such classics as "I'm So Cook" and "Vomitsoapbubbles..."  Male Misandria are clearly not all that interested in sticking too closely to genre conventions, which in many ways is a strength all it's own.

E.DIN may be an acquired taste for many no matter what: vocalist S.P. has a voice which will grate on your average Metal fan, while the bands blackened, space-y aspects will likely turn off the Punk kids from getting all the way behind the bands sledge-hammer moments.  And in general, E.DIN is the kind of spastic, genre-bending strangeness that purists in general just despise.  But then again, who cares what purists think.  E.DIN is as rock solid, brutal and manic as one could ask from a  whacked out Italian Black-Grind band.

Rating: 8/10

The Curse Quarterly Report

So March is coming to an end, and it's time for a quarterly report of the best albums of 2012 so far. This list will only include Extreme Music releases, and I will be adding a nifty little 8tracks playlist at the end, so if you haven't actually listened to any of the albums I reviewed, you can sample for yourself.

Best Performing(first to last in descending order)

Charon- Sulfur Seraph(The Archon Principle)

Vattnet Viskar- Vattnet Viskar

Plague Widow- Plague Widow

Lord Mantis- Pervertor

Muknal- Muknal

Witch In Her Tomb- Witch In Her Tomb

Axis of Light- By the Hands of Consuming Fire

Spawn of Possession- Incurso

Locrian & Mamiffer- Bless Them That Curse You

Desecravity- Implicit Obedience



8Tracks Playlist

Revenge- Scum.Collapse.Eradication(2012)

Revenge- Scum.Collapse.Eradication

Revenge do not fuck around.

There are a countless number of truly brutal, truly unhinged bands out there, but few can match the napalm-and-vomit that this Canadian duo spew from every orifice. It's all this band know how to do: belch out disgusting abominations that stink of death. Scum.Collapse.Eradication is no different in this regard from any previous Revenge album... in any way.

I know, I know. Revenge are "trve" and "real." Shit like musical progression and exploration are for "posers" and the "untrve." And in many ways that's fine. Some bands find a sound, and stick with it. They make music they want to make for fans who don't want them to change. It's a perfectly harmonious atrocity that never comes off the rails or slows down. Devastation by the numbers; comforting genocide... dependable hatred for humanity. All of this I can understand and even appreciate.

That doesn't mean I can get all the way behind it. Scum.Collapse.Eradication is the definition of competent, and at times elevates itself above it's station. "Parasite Gallows(In Line)" is a crusty slice of Carcass-inspired Deathgrind, with completely unhinged guitar solos to boot, that mixes in a heavy dose of Archgoat-style mid paced riffing that does not fail to crush spines. "Filth Solution(Intolerance)" makes maximum use of the pitch-shifted gutturals(lifted right from Reek of Putrefaction) to create a swampy mess of distorted Grindcore riffs and Blasphemy-infused hatred. All the stuff you expect from Revenge is here. Which is nice...

But it begs the question, a question I have been finding myself asking a lot lately. Do all bands lend themselves to multiple releases? How many Nile albums do you have to buy before you've gotten enough of the same... exact... sound. Or Amon Amarth? Or Hate Eternal? For most people, including myself, the answer is one(except for Amon Amarth... closer to zero). Revenge are in the same boat. Fact is, if you own any of the previous Revenge albums, then you have already listened to Scum.Collapse.Eradicate. You already have experienced this punishing whirlwind of savagery and blast beats. Which is not to say the album is worthless, and I find this album has my favorite production of all the Revenge albums. It's fun and aggressive and heavy. It's a whole lot of things, most of them good.

But all of them have been done before. So yes, Revenge do not fuck around. Scum.Collapse. Eradicate is deadly serious in every way. It's all about the murder, the mayhem and the hatred... and nothing else.

Rating: 6.5/10

Male Misandria / Malveillance - Split(2012)

Male Misandria / Malveillance - Split

Though Suffering Jesus Productions has,sadly, recently closed its doors, one of its final acts was to getout this split between Italy's oddly named Male Misandria andQuébec's Malveillance. While the uninitiated listener might find itodd to see a split between a grindcore band and a black metalproject, the similarities are apparent immediately upon listening.Both Male Misandria and Malveillance provide unrelenting and viciousblasts of musical violence that go for the throat and don't stopuntil they've tasted blood.

Male Misandria start the split off with“Magister Makeup”, an intense track which balances brutality andspeed with skill and good song writing to great effect. It providesan immediate glimpse as to the showing MM make here. The guitar toneis clear and gives every riff a clarity which allows theirmemorability and heaviness to shine. This is a definite plus giventhat the music depends heavily on the guitar; the bass is inaudible,the drumming provides what it needs to but doesn't shine, and thevocals are impassioned but don't step far out of an often seen mix ofhigher screams and lower growls. There are moments when the screamsget particularly high pitched and out of control, and that's when thevocals shine the most; “Marble Marquinia” and “Mothlife” bothprovide great examples. Though the other aspects of the music aren'tparticularly exceptional the riffing is thankfully strong. As said,they are memorable and heavy, switching up enough to keep the songsinteresting and exciting while not changing up so much that the riffsdon't make an impact. Male Misandria are strong song writers ingeneral; “Marble Marquinia” and “Mannerless Maternus Mo” havedramatic openings, “Mothlife” ends with a high speed solo, andthe way a melodic lead threads its way through tremolo picked rhythmguitar in “Male Model Merge” is reminiscent of certain types ofblack metal. The crescendo of Male Misandria's half is “Martyr”,which nears 6 minutes and is the longest track on the split. It's adramatic and complex song that shows off MM's strength as songwriters. It's full of interesting moments: it opens with an“Egyptian” sounding riff (or at least Egyptian in the bounds ofthe West's musical imagination), before shifting into black metalinspired riffs. The song has many moments that nearly hit epicterritory, and it has a very interesting bridge where atmosphericguitars and distant, echoing vocals mix with shifts between blackmetal inspired riffing and thick chords. They wrap things up with aninexplicable dark ambient/industrial track, “Masto B”, whichdoesn't make a ton of sense, but is at least solid for what it is.

Malveillance's side opens with its ownweirdness. “Rien” is an ambient track over which F(Malveillance's one and only member) simply speaks in a way thatbrings to mind a pissed off, slightly drunk man. If I understoodFrench, I might be able to read more meaning in to it, so I'll giveit the benefit of the doubt. Everysong is named after an individual. A web search got me hits on a fewof the names, who appear to be important figures in Québec of someform or another, so it seems safe to say that Malveillance's half ispossibly dedicated to a variety of influential figures in Québec'shistory. As soon as “Rien” finishes, F immediately kicksinto what Malveillance is known for: filthy D-Beat inspired blackmetal with a raw, simplistic and hateful style that is no doubtinfluenced by the work of Norway's Ildjarn. The guitar and bass havea thick and dirty raw production that I find benefit's Malveillance'ssound even more than the production on his previous release,Consentir a L'absurde. Theonly problem with the production is the drums. The cymbals have avery tinny sound; I can't decide if it's a crappy drum machine, or ifthe recording of real drums wasn't done quite right. If you can lookby it, the core of Malveillance's sound is present and as strong asever. The songs shift between one or two black/punk riffs, with athick, low end sound. As is typical of this style, the songs arepresented in some ways as variations of a theme, providing an intenseand holistic listening experience, rather than one dominated byclearly demarcated songs. I think Malveillance is one of the top actsof this style, and any fan of it should find there thirst sated byhis performance here. It's length of only 14½ minutes gives it lessvariation than Consentir a L'absurde,but it more than provides the visceral experience I look for in thiskind of music.

The split ends witha few bonus tracks from each artist. Male Misandria presents a lessrefined version of the grindcore previously. The production is muchrawer, probably because the songs were recorded in 2007. “Spazio”isn't as interesting as the earlier tracks and “Love” is yourtypical under-10-seconds grind track. “Vivere da padroni” and “ViOdio” are more interesting thrashy numbers with some audible bassactually popping up. Some synth weirdness pops up here at times mostprominently in “Vi Odio”, where it shows up in the break down andsticks around for the rest of the track. The synths are prettyawkward, and I'm glad they dropped them. Those last two song are alsoa bit over long. The bonus tracks aren't totally unwelcome, but theyreally bring to light how much MM have evolved as song writers in 4or 5 years.

Malveillance onlyhas two bonus tracks. “Cloportes Soumis” fits in with the styleof the earlier songs, and it seems like it might have fit betterthere. A cover of Crude SS's “Nazi Go Home” follows, and it'sbeen infused with the Malveillance sound so much that it's not reallyidentifiable as anything but. Still, it's a nice track that closesoff the album well.

Overall the splitis an excellent showing by both bands and I highly recommend it tofans of either, to fans of grindcore or extreme punk/black metalmixtures, or in general to anyone who likes extreme music that boilsdown to a musical punch to the face. Though Suffering Jesus' labelside is unfortunately dead, they're distro is still open, and thissplit is more than worth its cost.

8.9/10

-Faulty

Metal Archives (Malveillance) / Myspace (Malveillance) / Metal Archives (Male Misandria) / Myspace (Male Misandria) / Buy (Suffering Jesus Productions)

Plague Widow- Plague Widow(2012)

Plague Widow- Plague Widow

Slathered in suffering and darkness, Plage Widow's self titled debut EP is a powerful conceptual force, because while sounding thoroughly modern and extremely brutal, it is also rich and dense with atmosphere and musical complexity. Spawned from the sunny pits of Sacramento, California(My family is from there, which says something about the cities population...), Plague Widow have given us a small window into the future of Extreme Metal with this brilliant, caustic little noise abortion of an EP, one where the lines between modern brutality and old-school intensity are blurred completely.

Plague Widow is at it's heart a very modern sounding, ultra fast Deathgrind album with a strong Brutal Death Metal influence. From the moment the blistering drums and deep guttural growls of "Womb" kick in, the Circle of Dead Children and Deeds of Flesh influence becomes apparent. But as Plague Widow progresses, we see an attention to detail and atmosphere grow and become more enveloping. These disparate elements begin to twist and contort, forming a vortex of desolation few acts can match. "Void" blisters with elements of Adversarial and Portal, before ending on a breakdown Suffocation wish they could have written, while "Operating the Segmental Apparatus" is mixes in a heavy dose of atmospheric Black Metal between spouts of Deathgrind flame. Smart use of samples and atmospheric noise, like the intro to "Assimilated Subconscious," just adds to the bleak tension and monolithic blackness.

In just over fifteen minutes, Plague Widow delivers more death and Satan than most bands entire discography. One would be hard-pressed to find a more uncompromisingly dark and blasphemous slab of Grindcore and Death Metal than this masterful and dense piece of musical Sadism. Plague Widow have stumbled upon a sound that is as important as it is deadly: one that takes the decayed, evil spirit of the past and infuses it into the powerful, muscular frame of the present. This new creation, this new affront to God and Nature itself, could become unstoppable. For now, this small but bloody atrocity is a more than terrifying harbinger of things to come.

Rating: 9.5/10

Double Review: Noisear- Subvert the Dominate Paradigm and Defeatist- Tyranny of Decay

Noisear- Subvert the Dominate Paradigm

Defeatist- Tyranny of Decay

Over the past few years, Grindcore had been a genre of segments: on one hand, we had the purist Grindcore inspired by it's roots: Rotten Sound, Magrudergrind, Wormrot and others were doing it they way Napalm Death used to do it back in 1989. On the other, we had the progressive elements of the genre, toying with dissonance, technicality and time signatures: Discordance Axis, Pig Destroyer, Fuck The Facts. It has become a shit tossing war of fanboy attrition, as the two sides bicker over where the genre needs to go from here.

That question has been answered with Subvert the Dominate Paradigm and Tyranny of Decay: they will be smashed, molded and melted into one. Both of these albums represent the future of Grindcore, one grounded in the genre's past while at the same time embracing it's future. New Mexico's Noisear and New York's Defeatist have both released incredibly impressive albums, mixing the purist, crusty Grindcore of Rotten Sound with the hyper technical and dissonant guitar work of Discordance Axis to create a new kind of Grindcore. And boy does it fucking rule.

Of the two albums, Subvert the Dominate Paradigm is the stronger record. In fact, Subvert the Dominate Paradigm might be the finest Grindcore album of the last five years. Each of the thirty songs(minus the last song, "Noiseurption," which is mostly Power Electronics) are perfectly crafted pieces of this new kind of Grindcore. The basic riffs, song structure and tempo are classic Grindcore: fast, brutal, crusty and reeking of Punk Rock attitude. But Noisear often break into burst of technical, hyper dissonant riffing that brings to mind Discordance Axis and Fuck the Facts at their most inhuman and enraged, and the band often toy with Jazzy and complex song structure, if only for a few fleeting seconds, before going back to the Grind with a furious vengeance. The vocal attack is also incredible: varied, pissed off an bubbling with pure shit spewing hatred, the alternating high shriek and low guttural growl is as impressive as any you will ever hear. This synthesis of two styles is incredibly fun to listen to, and kept me on my feet for the entire album, wondering what Noisear were going to throw at me next.

Tyranny of Decay does not lack for truly awesome moments. Defeatist are the more traditional of the two bands, and this 12 track LP does feel dirtier and crustier. Defeatist are not quite as technically sound as Noisear, but they heap the rage on by the truckload(and in the end, that might be the most important thing). At times very Doom-y, and occasionally bringing to mind a more primitive Immolation, Tyranny of Decay is a force of sheer destruction. Its technical moments are less pronounced, but when they hit, it often creates a sea of dissonance that would make Ulcerate proud. I also prefer the overall production of Tyranny of Decay: Subvert the Dominate Paradigm has a very even mix and a ridiculously perfect snare sound, but Tyranny of Decay feels nastier and more filthy in an early Rotten Sound kind of way. On the other hand, the fairly mono-tone, screamy vocals of Tyranny of Decay are not the album's strong suite.

If this is the future of Grindcore, then a bright future it shall be. Both of these albums, but particularly Subvert the Dominate Paradigm, represent an aesthetic synthesis that I wish other genres would at least attempt(I am looking at you, Death Metal), and continues to prove that for sheer unbridled creativity, Grindcore is the superior genre to just about any other form of Extreme Music. I love the proclamation of Subvert the Dominate Paradigm's title: Noisear(and Defeatist) have done exactly that: taken the dominate ideas in Grindcore today, undercut them, and then popped a squat and took a shit on them.

Rating: Subvert the Dominate Paradigm: 10/10
Tyranny of Decay: 8.5/10

Fukpig - Belief Is The Death Of Intelligence [2010]

Sharing past and present members with Anaal Nathrakh andMistress, one can predict the level of ferocity to be provided by this, Fukpig’ssophomore album, before going anywhere near the ‘play’ button. Although thedisdain for religion shown first by the album title is getting a little old,the musical ideas, which I assure you are nothing original, are not.

My point here is that although much of this is in a similarvein to guitarist/drummer Mick Kenney’s ‘day job’ Anaal Nathrakh, there residesan altogether crustier, and even a more vicious feeling to this. Blastbeatsgalore permeate the album, and riff-wise, there is a clear crustcore influence,although two of the most recognizable riffs on the album, the opening ones tothe title track and ‘This Is The News?’ respectively are evidently borrowedfrom two of the most famous tracks within extreme metal – Mayhem’s ‘DeMysteriis Dom Sathanas’ and Slayer’s ‘Angel Of Death’.

Not that anyone minds. Even if you’ve worn your LPs of thoseto death, bought a replacement CD and somehow worn that out too, those two fitin so snugly here that it wouldn’t seem at all out of place to someone whoinexplicably had found Fukpig without being aware of those two. Also ‘borrowed’is the Sunlight Studios-esque guitar tone offered – and this sounds right athome too. We’re all aware how heavily the Stockholm bands borrowed from theSwedish hardcore punk scene of the time, and this is a chance to hear theirtone given back to an altogether punkier context.

What I’m not saying, however, is that this album is a rehashof ripoffs. No, there are plenty of original factors – although mathematicsdictates that all three-chord riffs must have been used by now, the bassiertone used here makes them all seem highly original, as they cut through the mixlike a hot knife through butter. Relentless aggression here is done well – the usualtedium factor that starts to kick in after 25 minutes or so is not present hereat all.

Drum-wise, the patterns alternate between blasts and d-beats– this is a grindcore album after all. The production lends the drumming a niceorganic sound, which should please the crusties around to no end. As a point ofcomparison for the drumming in particular, but also for the vast majority ofthe album, imagine a combination of Disfear and Anaal Nathrakh.

One of the main things which makes this album appeal to methan many other black metal/grindcore hybrids is the way in which each individualsong has hooks within it to make it stand out from the rest, despite them allbeing stylistically similar. I’ll point you in the direction of the gang chantswhich start ‘This Is England’ (which are followed by one of the most frenziedvocal performances I’ve ever heard) and to the desolate feeling, borrowedequally from crust punk and black metal, which is particularly apparent in ‘DawnOf The Dumb’.

Altogether, I’d say that although it’s completelyderivative, Belief Is The Death Of Intelligenceis a fantastic album – marginally better than Fukpig’s first effort Spewings From A Selfish Nation, andcertainly way above par within its genre. Although it’s long been sold out,this is an album worth seeking out at most costs. One of the best of last year.

9.5/10