Review Summary: How did I only just hear about this band today?
I'm a man who is well versed in chaotic Grindcore. From the shocking highs of Canada Songs Era Daughters, to the crushing lows of Parasite era See You Next Tuesday, but I must say I wasn't prepared for this. Up until recently I had little faith in Grind as a genre, it simply wasn't progressing anymore, wasn't interesting anymore, and than I found this. I myself am in a Grindcore band, so I'm a little more than your average listener. However I must say it's an acquired taste, so you may not recognize the genius being laid down here if you aren't used to this genre.
I'm going to do this review track by track, and I really don't care if you don't like it. Go ahead and neg it, but I want these guys to come back from their hiatus, and I want the world to know about them, so onward I go.
The first track, Lurker Livin', takes no time getting to the nitty gritty of things. It starts off with a chaotic flurry of high pitched vocals, low gurgles, and pinch harmonics. This track really made me think of Mathcore, the riffs were intense and all over the place. Now usually in this genre, everybody rips somebody else off at some point or another, but this song was completely original and I love it for that. The lyrics are also a plus, they appear to be the last thoughts of somebody who is falling to their death. Gripping stuff. The track ends with a haunting riff and the high vocalist screaming bloody murder.
The next track, Slueslings, immediately starts off sounding more like something you'd get from a Metalcore album, but this quickly changes into the chaotic style of the first track, this one is somewhat slower though, much more deliberate. The lyrics here are more standard Grind fare, well, standard if you aren't talking about a political band. The vocalist shouts 'Now she's in the gutter, sucking dick!' at the top of his lungs, but I can still take it seriously, and even get a chuckle out of it. The vocals in this track aren't as indecipherable as the previous, but it still helped to have the lyric guide with me. There's a nifty little breakdown at the end where the vocalist does a half clean half screamed line, 'I'm not your ***ing savior', and the song changes it's focus to religion before going to some sort of warping effect and heading into the next track.
Das Eskel is a mind*** of a track. I don't even know where to begin. The lyrics make absolutely no sense and seem like they were pulled out of a Progressive rock band. You can tell that the members are angry just by the way they perform their lines. This song also has a very nihilistic feel to it with the slow, menacing riffs and death rattle-esque clean sections.
Landsraad finds out beloved group talking about atoms or something. This track probably has some deep hidden meaning, but I'm too busy grooving to the actual track itself to think about that. Another stunner. Later on the song goes acoustic for a few seconds, and has a scary music box type section, as well as what sounds like synthesizers. I may be wrong on that, since everything is distorted to an extent.
Next up is the title track, and it continues where the last song left off. Weird swirly distorted riffs and that creepy music box sound. It reminds me of some sort of demented carnival or something, and at one point briefly sounds like the Twilight Zone theme. The whole track is like this, and it provides a decent break from the brutality of the rest of the tracks. The track begins to get more and more intense and near the very end a disturbing laughter begins to rise in volume until it just ends, leaving me stunned and feeling somewhat violated.
Dun Dorr comes next, and boy is it a doozy. I don't believe I've ever heard the line 'Limp Dick' in any other song like this, but it's all good. The vocalist really reminds me of the Daughters vocalist on this track, and this one has brutal, dinosaur like gutturals coming from the low vocalist to well compliment the high vocalist. When the breakdown comes in, and the vocalist is whining, good god it's hilarious. Makes me smile every time, even if it's unintentional. Good game, guys.
Then we have How to breed a God, which is an odd little thing, it's not heavy like the other tracks, but instead sounds just like random strumming. Bass is evident here throughout and it's another well needed break after the ***storm of a previous song. Near the end distortion begins fading in. This is the shortest track on the album.
Easy, Charles comes next. This is the song that introduced me to this band, and it's a classic to me. This song follows a more linear structure, but as always, the highs are excellent and the lows are just as good.
Improcalypse comes crashing along and starts off very slow. Snare drums abound. This song is very sludgy, and reminds me of the song 'Dedication to a new era' by See You Next Tuesday. Definitely the slowest on the album.
Appentency starts off in a way that for some reason reminds me of a pop punk song. Idunno, just the way my mind works. Anywho, the song progresses along just like the others, and is probably the lowest point on the album. It's quite generic, but not so much so that it holds back the album to a huge extent.
The Final track, Furukawa, is a very odd track indeed. The lyrics are strange, and here the vocalist reminds me more of the original Arsonists Get All The Girls vocalist. This track takes a more experimental direction, with the vocalist doing some Ju-On like death rattles and some serious distortion.
All in all, this album was amazing, and a well needed breath of fresh air.
5/5
P.S, I suck at reviews.
