CEPHALOCHROMOSCOPE

Negative Bias (USA) - Negative Bias LP (2022)

Good thrashcore has an infectious, propulsive energy. The style sits astride grindcore and powerviolence, but hooked to a live wire of pure 80s thrash. Grindcore prioritizes speed, and powerviolence distorted bass and moshpit-forming breakdowns, while thrashcore champions a wry, attitude-driven variety of fleet-footed punk. North Carolina's Negative Bias bring thrashcore into the 21st century with an extreme, blastbeat-heavy take on the style that still emphasizes light-hearted fun. Following 2021's Speedcore Summer! EP, this full len…

Barren (Belgium) - I (2022)

I Against I I was never expecting much when starting this blog. I didn't even know enough to know what to expect, honestly. Return to the House of Grindcore is a labor of love that is way more trouble than it's worth. In the despondent words of Norman Bates, "A hobby's supposed to pass the time, not fill it." The blog was intended to fill the void of grindcore review blogs that had cease to be and to review releases in an obnoxiously specific way that only interested me. Hopefully someone would find it useful or, …

Chadhel (Quebec) - Failure//Downfall (2022)

Chadhel's Model You needn't think I'm crazy —plenty of others have worst tastes in music than grindcore. Why don't you laugh at those black metal kids who killed each other over lo-fi fantasy club clout? If I don't like that damned metal, it's my own business; and we're here to discuss grindcore anyhow. Well, if you must hear it, the last I heard from Chadhel was in April of 2021 after the split 10 inch between them and Assiduous Assault. No, I don't know what's become of Assiduous Assault. …

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…