CEPHALOCHROMOSCOPE

Extreme Decay (Indonesia) - Downfall Of A God Complex (2022)

Rotten to the Core For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to find a dead body. A human corpse left out to the elements—taut, tanned and broken over the jagged caliche. A half buried human face with the dirt compacted in the nostrils, mouth agape and pouring with stinking earth, limbs floating around in a conspicuous shallow grave. The classic alabaster heap of the impossibly surreal mannequin lying in direct contrast to everything you could ever comprehend. The skeletal remains of an obscured burnt offering in decaying ill-fitt…

Horornisdiphonevalle (Japan)/SlothPhantomMoth (Sweden) - Split CD (2021)

Throughout the process of typing up this review, my girlfriend often lies beside me, perpetually cold and curled up under our ironical yet cozy Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe fleece couch blanket while binging through season after season of the 2007 hit sitcom, The Big Bang Theory as part of her current nightly ritual. Her latest observation seems to be that I exhibit several similar qualities to the character of Sheldon Cooper — a stubborn, socially inept, obsessive-compulsive, chronically phobic, intellectual who finds security in routi…

Triac (USA) - Pure Joy - Numb Grief-stricken Animals (2022)

No two bands hit their peak at the same time. Some bands release a perfect album early in their career, chasing that high for the rest of their output. Others take several releases to truly hit their stride, crystalizing into their best form after years. Baltimore, Maryland's Triac is an extreme example of the latter, releasing what is easily its finest material 19 years into its existence. Since 2005's Dead House Dreaming , the band's sound has blended elements of sludge metal and noise rock with grindcore in ways that have varie…

Mortify (Japan) - Buzzsaw Sickness EP (2022)

Single-mindedness can be a virtue. In art, variety and creativity is often praised above all else. But there is also value to be found in iteration. Some creators excel by finding a few component parts they favor and exploring their every possible permutation. Japanese grindcore band Mortify is the fruit borne from such single-minded iteration. Self-described as "Swedish HM-2 buzzsaw grindcore," the band melds the iconic tone of the Boss HM-2 guitar pedal (known for its use in 90s Swedish death metal) with vocals that alternate be…

Days of Desolation (Belgium) - Circles (2022)

Since grindcore's early days as a genre in the 1980s, there's been a surprising amount of stylistic variation afforded by its simple component parts. Seminal albums like World Downfall , Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid , From Enslavement to Obliteration and Reek of Putrefaction sound vastly different despite being released within the same 2 year span. In the decades since, the genre has mutated continuously, adding and discarding elements with each new group, scene and sub-sub-genre. Multiple distinct offshoots can even be seen among…