Monday, July 18, 2011

Demo-lition Derby: Gripe

Gripe
The Future Doesn’t Need You
There’s a reason the American Congress takes the summers off. For those who have never experienced a D.C. summer, it’s humid hellbroth of liquefied air and molten pavement that conspires against all forms of mammalian life. The entire city becomes a sodden, festering urban swamp that’s only fit for reptiles and nematodes. So maybe politicians would fit right in after all.
Georgia’s Gripe perfectly encapsulate the reason I loathe this city a good four months out of the year because their sweltering take on grind and power violence on their eight song demo is like watching a thunderstorm build on the horizon on a devastatingly humid summer day. The slow building nature of songs like “Go for the Throat” or “History of Violence” is like praying for the lightning to shear away the oppressive humidity only to cut loose with a barrage of frigid hail. The band has a tinge of ASRA about their protein-rich grind and hints of Benumb in their punked stops and starts.
Taken individually, the songs on The Future Doesn’t Need You massage the grindcore node of your limbic region. However, I wonder how the songs would hold up under full length conditions. While Gripe can fashion a great tune, too many times they fall back on a blast/slow part/blast formulation. It’s a move they’ve mastered, but one trick does not make a magic show.
However, this is a very promising effort but an up and comer. You can check out The Future Doesn’t Need You at their Bandcamp page.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Totally agree with you on this one – it's good, but not great. But I will look out for them in future.

Alex Layzell said...

A commendable start, love the ASRA vibe merged with the snaking feel to it, given theyve been given some Grindcore Karaoke love too, sure many a people have their eyes on them for the future.

kill the peace said...

One of the better powerviolence grind demos I have heard this year in my opinion great balance of chaos and grooves. But would like to hear them do more short fast numbers but hey it is a demo. Keep an eye on this act for sure.

Anonymous said...

I very recently started a powerviolence/ fastcore blog called rid the cancer. expect more soon this is one of the bands I will be adding to my top pv bands to watch out for along with weekend dad, Chest Pain, and Robocop expect updates soon. Thanks to Grind and Punishment for their continued support of grind in all it's ugly punk forms!