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…
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 …
Durian (USA) - Scare Tactics (2021)
The Fear-mageddoning Chi·me·ra /kīˈmirÉ™,kəˈmirÉ™/ - (in Greek mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. Du·ri·an /ˈdo͝orÄ“É™n,ˈdo͝orēˌän/ - an oval spiny tropical fruit containing a creamy pulp. Despite its fetid smell, it is highly esteemed for its flavor. It has been described as the most foul-smelling fruit in the world. Its aroma has been compared to raw sewage, rotting flesh and smelly gym socks. Keeping in mind my comments in my previous article about my …
Diploid (Australia) - I AM YOURS. AND I AM HERE AGAIN. (2021)
Degradation and collapse, from the individual level to the societal, pervades the music of Diploid. Active for over 10 years, the band has explored these topics via lyrical themes such as mental health and suicidality, serial murders and mass shootings, genocide, and war. Set as backdrop to these explorations is a hybrid of musical styles incorporating grindcore, hardcore, noise and other extreme music subgenres. Recorded during a 100-day lockdown resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I AM YOURS. AND I AM HERE AGAIN., the band's th…
![Cannibal Ox [USA] - The Cold Vein [2001]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3FeW8NXsiGd02osGjlAMTjjLvgYBgf08NWLU2_0QaxxTE3JS6pKfgf7hHU2NpPb89YPfCvvn1-NwGRET5YnklmUQHUU50fEGpc1rG0gWotm93M16GJlqCZksj2muRdVQTr013kl2RLOpE/w100/cannibal_ox_the_cold_vein_cover.jpg)
