G&P review: Sayyadina

Sayyadina
Mourning the Unknown
Sound Pollution
Grindcore titans Nasum loom large over the landscape, but laboring under that shadow is twice as difficult for fellow Swedes, who will inevitably be compared to their countrymen.
Sayyadina’s second album certainly owes a debt to dynamic songwriting duo Mieszko Talarcyk and Anders Jakobson (bassist Andreas Eriksson secured the low end on Nasum’s final album, Shift).
Eriksson’s confident sawtooth production certainly won’t be dispelling the Nasum comparisons in the near future either. The guitars bite through each song and cymbal hits are sharp and distinct, giving the whole album a real percussive feel.
Despite the obvious similarities, it’s the influence of d-beatniks Victims, Eriksson’s other band, that gives Mourning the Unknown its texture.
The punk and roll of “Hunt Me” and Discharge worship of “Second Best” break up the blast beat cacophony and provides space for the trio’s songwriting talents to breathe. The band even throws in the by now obligatory grind-guys-playing-slow song, “All is Lost,” album closer “Solitary Confinement.”
Buried beneath Eriksson and guitarist Jon Lindqvist’s high/low vocal trade offs are buried some of the most personal grind lyrics since Jon Chang opened up his lonely heart on The Inalienable Dreamless.
Being good Scandinavians, the chilly weather as a metaphor for isolation makes lyrical appearances in about a third of the songs, but they manage to tackle loneliness and depression without getting all heartagram on us.
“The energy that feeds my life is slowly fading away/the never-ending cold is coming, winter’s here to stay.” “The Real” laments.
Hopefully, the trio thaws out soon because Mourning the Unknown should turn a few banging heads.