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Review Summary: An isolation ward that serves only to expose our own severely impaired capacity to feel. Discordance Axis was a grind/grindcore band from New Jersey, who played grindcore at its very grind. Originally playing a straightforward brand of grindcore, the band continuously evolved into something more, something bigger. Robert Marton used to (and still does) play highly technical, dissonant riffs that, coupled with the eccentric vocal style of Jon Chang created grind of the new millenium, harsh yet swelling with emotion...
…where there was nature and earth, life and water, I saw a desert landscape that was unending, resembling some sort of crater, so devoid of reason and light and spirit that the mind could not grasp it on any sort of conscious level and if you came close the mind would reel backward, unable to take it in. It was a vision so clear and real and vital to me that in its purity it was almost abstract. This was what I could understand, this was how I lived my life, what I constructed my movement around, how I dealt with the tangible. This was the geography around which my reality revolved: it did not occur to me, ever, that people were good or that a man was capable of change or that the world could be a better place through one's taking pleasure in a feeling or a look or a gesture, of receiving another person's love or kindness. Nothing was affirmative, the term "generosity of spirit" applied to nothing, was a cliché, was some kind of bad joke. Sex is mathematics. Individuality no longer an issue. What does intelligence signify? Define reason. Desire – meaningless. Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead. Fear, recrimination, innocence, sympathy, guilt, waste, failure, grief, were things, emotions, that no one really felt anymore. Reflection is useless, the world is senseless. Evil is its only permanence. God is not alive. Love cannot be trusted. Surface, surface, surface was all that anyone found meaning in… this was civilization as I saw it, colossal and jagged…
… the songs themselves are, on the surface, a typical grind affair, with their lenghts rarely breaching the one minute mark. Yet the in the microspace of these songs, something beautiful takes place on each listen, something that prevents the album from becoming a run-of-the-mill grindfest that pummels you to the ground. It IS still harsh, abrasive and chaotic, yet the trademark neck-breaking speed is here and there (particulary towards the album's finish) intertwined with a sudden influx of melodic, downtempo riffs and even entire sections, bringing a surprising variety to the table…
…and in the southern deserts of Sudan the heat rises in airless waves, thousands upon thousands of men, women, children, roam throughout the vast bushland, desperately seeking food. Ravaged and starving, leaving a trail of dead, emaciated bodies, they eat weeds and leaves and… lily pads, stumbling from village to village, dying slowly, inexorably; a gray morning in the miserable desert, grit flies through the sir, a child with a face like a black moon lies in the sand, scratching at his throat, cones of dust rising, flying across land like whirling tops, no one can see the sun, the child is covered with sand, almost dead, eyes unblinking, grateful (stop and imagine for an instant a world where someone is grateful for something) none of the haggard pay attention as they file by, dazed and in pain (nothere is one who pays attention, who notices the boy's agony and smiles, as if holding a secret), the boy opens and closes his cracked, chapped mouth soundlessly, there is a school bus in the distance somewhere and somewhere else, above that, in space, a spirit rises, a door opens, it asks "Why?" – a home for the dead, an infinity, it hangs in a void, time limps by, love and sadness rush through the boy...
... the variety in the vocal department contributes to the instant memorability of The Inalienable Dreamless. Switching between rather standard low growls and high, almost inhuman shrieks, Jon Chang explores the capacities of human intelligence that seem to limit the capabilities to expand upon any possible creative aptitudes, and he does so with a vivid style, talent and creativity. It is not so much a vocal performace as it is a storm of unsung art, reaching through barriers to touch all sorts of people in countless ways. Drummer Dave Witte is not lagging behind either as he provides an excellent backbone to the music with a plethora of creative fills and the traditional blast beating madness.
There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it, I have now surpassed. I still, though, hold on to one single bleak truth: no one is safe, nothing is redeemed. Yet I am blameless. Each model of human behavior must be assumed to have some validity. Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do? My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape. But even after admitting this – and I have, countless times, in just about every act I've committed – and coming face to face with these truths, there is no catharsis. I gain no deeper knowledge about myself, no new understanding can be extracted from my telling. There has been no reason for me to tell you any of this.
Albums like these are few and far between, evidenced by the fact that DA was unable to replicate the sheer grandieur of The Inalienable Dreamless. Gridlink, a side project of several DA members, is a great piece of grind in its own right, but it is missing the unique personality and emotional saturation that only Discordance Axis seem to have been able to produce. If you ever wondered how a grind album would sound like if you pushed the genre to its limits, Discordance Axis offer you a well made way to find out.
| other reviews of this album |
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Album Rating: 4.5
album has been constantly on my playlist for years now
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
lol
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
i see that you're an avid reader of my reviews KILL, i can only hope that you bothered to check out some of the lesser known ones :]
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
rad review
album slays like crazy
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
[Idk how to indent]Discordance Axis was a grind/grindcore band from New Jersey, who played grindcore
at its very grind.[/Idk how to indent]
Wait, what? Great review though, pos'd
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
false grind
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jouhou is better
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"rad review"
obviously went over your head
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yay another IAD review that dedicates a paragraph to the album art, cuz im sure 'Attis' and everyone else on sputnik actually owns a physical copy of this.
also,
"…and in the southern deserts of Sudan the heat rises in airless waves, thousands upon thousands of men, women, children, roam throughout the vast bushland, desperately seeking food. Ravaged and starving, leaving a trail of dead, emaciated bodies, they eat weeds and leaves and… lily pads, stumbling from village to village, dying slowly, inexorably; a gray morning in the miserable desert, grit flies through the sir, a child with a face like a black moon lies in the sand, scratching at his throat, cones of dust rising, flying across land like whirling tops, no one can see the sun, the child is covered with sand, almost dead, eyes unblinking, grateful (stop and imagine for an instant a world where someone is grateful for something) none of the haggard pay attention as they file by, dazed and in pain (nothere is one who pays attention, who notices the boy's agony and smiles, as if holding a secret), the boy opens and closes his cracked, chapped mouth soundlessly, there is a school bus in the distance somewhere and somewhere else, above that, in space, a spirit rises, a door opens, it asks "Why?" – a home for the dead, an infinity, it hangs in a void, time limps by, love and sadness rush through the boy...".....
THIS IS FUCKING STUPID
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wait are these reviews serious i assumed this was just a laudably unconventional troll
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cover art, simple but cool...
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
lol
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i like the sky and clouds, its ver nice
have you ever just sat down and looked up?
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i thought the review was bad.
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well that's not nice
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i'm just being honest. i thought every other paragraph was entirely unnecessary and i didn't find that the imagery in those sections added any wanted complexity to the writing.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
...ellipsis
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"i'm just being honest. i thought every other paragraph was entirely unnecessary and i didn't find that the imagery in those sections added any wanted complexity to the writing. "
yeah but what if Attis commits suicide over it would you feel bad
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Whenever I look at the blue sky above my head I think of this album.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
^ I think of Dismemberment Plan's Change.
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