Review Summary: Yet another golden example of true grind from the genre's early days
To me, one of the most impressionable aspects of old school grind is the sheer, unrelenting energy of the members that make up groups like Under Siege or Killercrust. Another standout point is the fact that seemingly none of the members have to try to put their recordings together, and that's exactly what all these albums come out to be. Anybody who knows me and my taste in this kind of stuff knows that i'm a sucker for raging, senseless brutality. It's the kind of directionless brutality that these two bands come together and perform to near perfection. Unlike a lot of groups today under the "grindcore" name, these two bands as well as their kin are just retards, flinging their instruments about and just throwing down some humorous tracks for the sole purpose of entertaining its audience.
To break down this e.p. for you, it's a relatively simple diagnosis. Under Siege without a doubt take the cake on this album. If you've ever heard the first track off of "The Peel Sessions" with Unseen Terror, then you've got a general idea on what Under Siege are all about. The wailing english-accent vocals are comical to say the least, and backed by that signature raw musicianship? Absolute classic...
Killercrust on the other hand do shine on this split, but in different places. The vocalist needs some work honestly, as his vocal work is a little too raspy and too close up in your face to be really appreciated like the low-lying vocalists from groups like Xysma, or General Surgery. However, i'd say that this can easily be overlooked when you get a small dosage of the group's guitar work. To put it simply, these riffs absolutely shred the foundation. I honestly couldn't tell the first couple of times whether the guitarist was masterfully putting together these chaotic riffs, or if he was just sweeping his fingers up and down the fretboard for every intro to the tracks that are featured here; nevertheless, in combination with audible and skillful basslines, and the time-honored blast beats, i'd say these two bands go hand-in-hand with eachother to produce one of the most criminally forgotten grind demos of all time.
Seriously, is it just me or is this really THAT difficult to find?
