Noisy Neighbor (Texas, USA) Self-titled EP (2018)

 

Covet Thy Neighbor's Noise

    After my divorce my first apartment was a one bedroom on the ground floor. The apartment itself wasn't bad. It was newly renovated and spacious for the price. My first full day there was raddled by a gentleman hammering in the apartment above me. Hammering something. Constantly. This continued most weekdays. On the weekends his wife did what I could only audibly deduce as step aerobics. At 6 AM. Without fail. Every Saturday and Sunday. It wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things, but fuck lady. 

    Now imagine you've recently moved into an affordable duplex and you find that on the other side of a shared wall your neighbors were crack cocaine enthusiasts with a penchant for ruckus. A gaggle of crack heads toiling away in a pit of squalor reside next door to you. Banging, shouting, fighting, the repetitious thumping of loud music. Activities that seem to have no purpose other than to promote an all too particular brand of racket at the most inopportune times of night. The illicit goings-on that are routine right outside your door. That visceral yelling that comes with violent addiction. Horrible, yes. And we haven't even gotten to the dude that shits in the bucket in the basement.

    Birthed from this urban annoyance is one of the best grindcore bands that South Texas has to offer. San Antonio's Noisy Neighbors, formed in early 2018, have quickly made a name for themselves across the Lone Star State. Their self-titled E.P. is pretty much what I'd consider a perfect grindcore record. It's unrelenting and full of blast beats. Officially/unofficially, this is the best release of 2018 and here's why:

    Opening track "Caffeinated Demise" starts the E.P. off with a heads up in the form of a Shao Kahn sound clip that sets the mood perfectly. From start to finish Noisy Neighbors are throwing minute to a minute and half start/stop grind combos. 

    Immediately what grabs my attention is the drumming; both in talent and tone. John Katastrofe (the crack head neighbors were his neighbors) is at the top of his class as far as grindcore drummers. Fast and relentless blasts are overflowing from this EP. What we have here is quintessential modern grind drumming made popular by the likes of Bryan Fajardo and Dave Witte. What really drives John's drumming home is the mix. The drums are at the forefront of the entirety of the EP. They sit just on top of the rest of the music. The snare is bright, the cymbals are crisp, the bell is blazing and it's all right there and nonstop. The drums sound industrial. Not like Ministry/NIN "Industrial" but like factory machinery industrial. Like if somebody taught a WWII 50-Cal machine gun to play Maruta drum covers.

    Shane Elwell carries the rest of the band on this recording, playing both guitar and bass as well as doing a majority of the vocals. If the drums are the bright and shiny of the band, the guitar and deep vocals are the grimey. But in the best way. Elwell brings a nice tidal wave of noise and dirt that John can surf through as the noisy squall bears down on the coast. They both pair well and, in tandem, create a very driving sound. The song writing doesn't vary much (mostly because it doesn't need to) aside from EP closer "Perilous Demise" which is the only song to break the two minute mark and infuse the smallest bit of melody while some how doubling down on the blast beats. 

    Noisy Neighbors was recorded, mixed and mastered at Beer Break Studios and I love the choices made in the mastering of this release. It makes me really interested in future projects engineered by the studio. They obviously understood the sound that was needed here. I was talking to John after a show recently about this very subject. He and the band were very pleased with the sound of the record and the fact that I had such high praise about the drums in specific. Trying to squash any doubts he might have had, I said something to the effect of "If you don't like the way this is mixed, you don't like grindcore." And I'm extremely adamant about that. If you don't like this, you don't like grindcore.

FFO: Insect Warfare, Kill The Client, PLF

Listen and/or buy: https://noisyneighborstx.bandcamp.com

[Originally posted on June, 08 2021, Return to the House of Grindcore]

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