Review Summary: Let’s get at it…
You guys probably already know I don’t
exactly have a good relationship with most modern ‘core’ releases - but that’s not due to a lack of trying. Most of my complaints within the scene stem from a variety of issues; whether it be the blatant trend-hopping, completely stale meets derivative song-writing, castrating production or basic lack of originality (or a rather unfortunate combination of these features). I’ve found very little pleasure to note within the bastardization of a scene built upon two tone vocals, or the seemingly endless reliance on breakdowns that glue the genre’s foundation of screamed verses and angst into a pool of consistently familiar soundscapes.
Maybe I’ve just changed or maybe I’m getting too old for it; but I keep coming back in the hopes that maybe, just maybe I’ll be surprised enough to forget my internal predisposition and let myself have a good time.
That’s basically when our own Dr. Gonzo (you know, the guy who lords over Justin Bieber, Ozzy Osbourne and Bring Me The Horizon reviews alike) threw a weirdly named band and their self-titled EP my way. He mustn't have known what he was doing... given my track record and my vocal complaints of a genre that’s left me constantly disappointed (as far as the genre’s more modern exploits go). Still, I ventured onto the Apple* music library, typed “Groblin and the Ballistics” and with raised eye-brow... ventured into the depths of this little nineteen minute slab of metalcore meets djent, that hammers the listener into a world of clobbering polyrhythms and deathly roar. My internal predisposition to over analyzing the very music that was in front of me took hold. It became less of a matter of “am I enjoying this?” and more of an issue of whether Groblin and the Ballistics started ticking off quality boxes. The result? Definitely mixed, but skewering in the way of small positivity.
Even as “Sweet Dreams” enters the fray, I can’t help but push at the feeling that I’ve heard this opulent heavy riffing and twangy low end before, but it’s the more melodic, less “full-on” sections that steers me in the right direction. Sure, the very foundation to which Groblin and the Ballistics’ EP is core to all manners of metal and death - given that they don’t dance around what they are the EP (and overall song presence) stays rather wholesome. Vocally, “The Ordeal” and “Bigger Picture” are the weakest and less consistent here. Despite the rather impressive range of shrieks and guttural growls it’s the semi-cleans, less-forced harshest tones that mar the momentum created.
Groblin and the Ballistics shows some promise, hampered by the usual tropes of a milked to death genre and less than stellar tone placement.
What plays to Groblin and the Ballistics’ strengths is this EP’s complete brevity. With a less than twenty minute run time, fatigue becomes limited to the flaws mentioned above. The disjointed polyrhythmic riffing that runs during “Hollow Way” (and the following “Seeing Red”) bridges a gap for Converge and Greyhaven, before sitting back to let the vocal hooks do the work. Ultimately, there’s some really decent chops here for a band dipping their proverbial toe into an ocean of already saturated sounds, but this formula needs to find a way to grow before moving Groblin and the Ballistics’ to a format which would possibly run double the length of the EP.
