Review Summary: There are creatures, and they're out to get me. That's what I'm afraid of these days.
Allow me a second to explain the nature of The Sawtooth Grin. A hideous love child from every aspect of hardcore music. The band is technical, with crazy punk sensibilities, an unpredictably of mathcore, and the drive and anger of grind. Season to taste with some tradional jazz. Your dish is served. The Sawtooth Grin!
Previously,the band released a 3-track EP in
Pervavor. It was an impressive, fun blend of grindcore and technical death metal. Next up, is
Cuddlemonster, a brilliant bite of a band expressing a newfound discovery of ideas to blend into an even more obscene genre of music. Even with these songs, Sawtooth's entire discography was in the span of 21 minutes. Dropping a single EP and full-length record probably worked great for their indie music cred, but it sucked for fans who wanted more than a tiny slice of the jazztechdeathgrindcore pie.
In 2010 hints of work and collaboration spread for the band though! Even more impressive was the band recruiting the incredibly talented drummer, Jon Karel, from the recently disbanded The Number Twelve Looks Like You. There's only 3 finished tracks and 4 vocal-less demos, but what is here is pretty amazing. The band turns it up to 11 and excell past everything they did on the previous
Cuddlemonster. The production is a lot stronger and powerful, amplifying the shrill cries of the singer. The guitar tones stand out as powerful and punchy. The Latin tinged drumming of Jon is as good always. The demos also impress with an evil sounding tinge to their sound creating something sinister sounding not far from black metal.
Unfortunately, The Sawtooth Grin has been decommissioned as of late 2012. The band mates have all moved on to other music or entirely different ventures altogether. Jon Karel was interviewed at his new bar in an article from 2013. If a bit of a bittersweet note, the Jabberwocky Demo's are still a terrific source of great music.
