CEPHALOCHROMOSCOPE

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…

Suffering Mind (Poland) - Lifeless (2022)

Poland's Suffering Mind have been active since 2007, and have made their name playing ferocious, unpretentious sledgehammer grindcore with an explicitly anti-fascist political bent. They've released music across an array of physical media formats, and frequently release splits and compilations with years between full-length albums. This release is their first full-length since 2014's Waste Farm , and that distinction understandably comes with some expectations. The moment the album's intro dialog sample ends and the band blas…

Twin Tombs (USA) - 4:23 7" (2022)

Minneapolis' Twin Tombs play a fast, vicious, feedback-drenched brand of grinding powerviolence. Barely a moment is wasted on this EP's brief runtime. 9 tracks are crammed into less than 5 minutes, and by virtue of the breakneck pace the band manages to cover a lot of ground. The vocals span a number of styles, including a midrange bark, traditional powerviolence shout-screaming, death growls and the occasional high screams. The guitars have a trebly punk tone, and the drums are snappy and reserved when they're not outright blast…

Vile Species (Greece) - Demo (2022)

Untitled Straight outta the cradle of Western civilization, Athens' Vile Species have recently been creating a catalog of crusty, old school grind with an output of five releases in just the past two years. Most notably with Sacramento's Human Obliteration whose 2020 LP, Definition of Insanity , had a somewhat conspicuous release. As a band, Vile Species have been cultivating a sound that combines the unembellished riffing of crust punk with the heavy blasting and keened edge of Scandinavian grindcore. The band can shift …

Backslider (USA) - Psychic Rot (2022)

The color films of Italian horror pioneer Mario Bava are vivid to the point of unreality. A rainbow of lighting gels coming from unnatural locations, bright red dressmaker's mannequins and brighter blood, fog-drenched soundstage forests and cobweb-laden crypts. Psychic Rot , the latest from Philadelphia's Backslider, is the Mario Bava movie of powerviolence albums. Unnerving, psychedelic, filled with detail and shot through with sudden violence. A range of styles comprise the sound here. Tracks like "Corpseflower" and first …