G&P Review: Sayyadina

Sayyadina
Mourning the Unknown [Reissue]
Nerve Altar
We shouldn’t even be having this conversation. You know that, right? You’re smart people, so you already know Sayyadina hold the post-Nasum Swedecore crown for second album Mourning the Unknown. It’s an album you already know and love, so my work here should be done.
But on the off chance some of you are not among the converted yet [*side eye*], the nice people at Nerve Altar have pressed Mourning the Unknown on a lovely slab o’wax – with three bonus tracks.
While Nerve Altar tells me it hasn’t been remastered, some quirk of the vinyl format seems to have given Mourning the Unknown an extra pop, especially the drums that just explode off the wax. Also, the 12-inch format really highlights the album’s evocative artwork.
But likely the hook here will be the bonus tracks.
The most rounded of the trio is “Like Rhinos,” a whip snapped rip that turns poaching endangered species into a metaphor for human suffering. Unlike the other two bonus tracks, it’s easy to imagine “Like Rhinos” having been included on Mourning the Unknown originally. The remaining two songs, while decent enough, don’t stack up against a modern grind classic. “Come Visit Sometime” rides a loping riff up and down the stairs that could pass on a Victims album with no comment. “Just Like a God” is just a straight up ripper.
It’s been three years since Sayyadina gifted us with Mourning the Unknown and its status as a modern classic is being cemented every day. But if Sayyadina intend to stay at the top of the heap, they may need to hit the studio soon. Afgrund and The Arson Project are nipping at their heels.

[Full disclosure: Nerve Altar sent me a review copy.]

Ever Increasing Circles

I have a limited musical vocabulary. So much for all those piano lessons when I was 10, mom. But Mourning the Unknown features one the best of what I call “circular” riffs during the swirling maelstrom that is “I Dare.” It’s a vaguely black metal-ish round of tail-biting that circles like a shark-toothed Ouroboros before closing in for the kill. Like piercing, ringing guitar tones, it’s one of those songwriting tricks for which I’m absolutely a sucker. Like the aforementioned Sayyadina, Luddite Clone also uncork a circuitous ripper on “Oratory of the Jigsaw” while Swedish Discordance Axis disciples Asterisk* fast forward their way through the same slight of hand. Even Napalm Death and ASRA, neither exactly known for their commitment to flowery songwriting, have been known to toss out chunkier versions of the same trick.
Here’s a few of my favorites. Enjoy.

Asterisk* – “Dromology”
Cyness – “Lonely Planet”
ASRA – “Payload”
Napalm Death – “Next on the List”
Wojczech – “Superparadigma”
Rotten Sound – “Blind”
Sayyadina – “I Dare”
Luddite Clone – “Oratory of the Jigsaw”
Who’s My Saviour – “You March”

G&P Review: D.E.R.

D.E.R.
Quando A Esperanca Desaba
Nerve Altar
If grindcore ever codified its equivalent of lofi black metal, Brazil’s D.E.R. would be running with wolves, standing backlit in foggy forests and generally trying to pretend the last 20 years of musical evolution just didn’t happen. Quando A Esperanca Desaba (roughly, When Hope Collapses) sounds like it was vomited forth from the bowels of Venom’s rehearsal space in Mantis’ mom’s basement somewhere back in 1977. Instead it’s being reissued on vinyl from 2008.
And for all I can tell D.E.R. (not to be confused with the derp) slapped the same song on this LP 16 times in a row, and I couldn’t give a shit if they did. D.E.R. are not a band overly concerned with niceties like dynamics, slow parts, vocals that are intelligibly human or making songs sound unique. They’re too busy grinding the shit outta your lower intestine to care. Every song starts in medias res and doesn’t end so much as just stop. A deep breath and it’s on to the next neck-cracker. The guitars are gristly knots of overdriven unintelligibility, the vocals indecipherable and the drums pound away, fighting not to be swept away by the noise.
Described like that, Quando A Esperanca Desaba sounds like a discordant mess (and to a certain extent it is), but there’s a spontaneity and intensity at work that shoves the music higher than it has any right to go. There are plenty of established grind bands that lack half the urgency these Brazilians are packing. Though it’s far from original or even acquainted with conventional definitions of well produced, D.E.R., in the immortal words of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, have guts, and sometimes that’s enough.
[Full disclosure: Nerve Altar sent me a review copy.]

G&P Review: Wake

Wake
Surrounded by Human Filth
Hearing Aids
Canadian crushers Wake have staked out a comfortable niche in between Phobia and ASRA on five song EP Surrounded by Human Filth. Between the eerie spoken word-sampled, instrumental opener and the obligatory five minute slow motion kiss off, the band fillets grindcore with ragged edges of droning dirges. But when they do go for grind gold, Wake hit it and quit it with a fervid intensity. “Virulent” is an on-the-verge-of-intelligibility hardcore rager so vicious you can almost see the finger pointing through your headphones while Cavity would be more than happy to five finger the droning bridge of “Cannibal Design” as it winds its way up to a mid-BPM power drill drive. The best balance of the band’s alternating extremities would be the cymbal-clutching blaster “Defiler,” which shows off Wake’s aggression to scintillating perfection.

Wake – “Defiler”

Grindcore, death metal and power violence get all gruff and growly in Wake’s hands. They keep things short and sharp and don’t wear out their welcome. Just a quality beating.
[Full disclosure: the band sent me a download.]

G&P Review: M.E.H.

M.E.H.
Song Titles Are for Assholes
Self Released
Listening to two man South Carolinian band M.E.H.’s single song EP Song Titles Are for Assholes is like five minutes of flipping channels through a videodrome programmed by a young, sadistic Agoraphobic Nosebleed. The drum machine driving lashings flicker by in barely recognizable saccadic bursts that never stick around long enough to cohere. It’s all barely intelligible lyrical nihilism thrashed with a choice selection of cinematic samples.
As an actual song, it tends to lag. Riffs never quite seem to climb above the sea of static and the vocals don’t offer much in the way of purchase either. The samples are impeccably chosen and placed, but they’re also the most memorable aspect. Since Agoraphobic Nosebleed seem to have permanently abandoned the sound they pioneered for something more song-oriented, I’ve been waiting for someone else to come fill the gap. M.E.H. certainly aspire to it, but for now they’re just meh (you know I couldn’t resist that).
But don’t take my word for it. It’s free for a download here.

[Full disclosure: the band sent me a download.]

Blast(beat) from the Past: Bolesno Grinje

Bolesno Grinje
Od Nesvijesti Do Grinda
Cryptas/Endless Brutality of Men
2003
Translation is never an exact science. For instance, Metal Archives tells me this Croatian band’s name roughly translates to “Sick Mites” in English. After several years of intensive study and consultation with the foremost experts in the field, I’ve determined a more accurate translation would “Scrotum Snapping Terrorizer-core of the Highest Order.” Or something to that effect.
If they bring a mite (ha!) more hardcore to the proceedings than the Terrorized ones, that just adds piquancy and shields Bolesno Grinje from the charge of being clones. The Max Cavalera roaring also separates the Croatians form the grinding hordes as well.
Though the blasts may not be as fast as some of their European contemporaries, but Bolesno Grinje can rock it with the lightning strike guitars of “Proljev,” the counter-clockwise pit-winder of “Uvijek Ista Prica” or the rasping metal-file-on-bone bass tone of the gruesome “Error.” For those who like a little booty shakin’ with the blastin’, there’s the grind’n’roll shuffle of the wolf-howled “Jebenise.” Front and center to it all, though, is the trepanning with a d-beat drill bit “Jedan Dan.”

Bolesno Grinje – “Jedan Dan”

I may not have a damn clue what Bolesno Grinje are talking about, but their music speaks my language. Grindcore: the Esperanto of the metal world.

The Silence is Deafening

I generally loathe mp3s, but I hadn’t realized the queasy accommodation I had made with them until my laptop met an unfortunate fate involving a leaking water bottle and my work bag.
That’s right. I did it again.
Both my laptop and my mp3 player took a bath and it didn’t end well. I guess it's time to start another sticker collection.
While I was smart enough to back up my blog files this time, I hadn’t really bothered with all the music since I still prefer CDs. However, I forgot about all the cool downloads people had been sending me (luckily I never delete an email so I should be able to painstakingly recover all that again).
More importantly, I’d never realized that every time I opened my laptop I’d fire up the media player. Every time I rode the train to work, I had my mp3 player blocking out the inane tourist conversations. Now, I actually have to block out time specifically to listen to music when before it had become my constant background soundtrack. It's been a very disconcerting transition.
While it won't impact my posting, I had been getting ready to review the new mp3-only albums from Gigantic Brain and (yes, by popular demand) Cellgraft, both of which are fanfuckingtastic. (See what the always excellent Zmaj, Orthodoxyn and Deathgrind Freak had to say in my absence.) Those will have to be postponed for a bit because for some reason my wife doesn’t seem thrilled at the idea of grindcore rubbing elbows with Etta James and Bjork on her laptop. I think she’s secretly scared of that much awesome infecting her computer. That and she thinks I’m a total jinx now.
Also, two posts with cat pictures in a row! The internet, it’s made of cats.