G&P Review: Kratzer/Kvazar

Kratzer/Kvazar
Split
7 Degrees/Blastbeat Mailmurder
There’s a gray-scale anti-rainbow that haunts the periphery of the visible spectrum and Kratzer and Kvazar divide its hues between them on their fog-colored split effort. The effect is like a reverse Wizard of Oz where all of the color and joy are leached out of a broken and disappointing world.
German crusties Kratzer dwell at the center of a bizarre Goode homolosine projection of the punk rock world in which the sneaky melodicism of Scandinavian d-beat somehow abuts raging Japanese hardcore. Kratzer chip their seven crusted cries from the cracking cement of abandoned playgrounds, ruptured highways and crumbling brutalist highrises, choked in the ash of industrial smog and sickened by the pestilential runoff of industrial waste. It’s the gray grime of our own claustrophobic modernity as its plaster veneer chips away, exposing the flimsy foundation beneath. The moody, mercurial “?/!” glooms its way through the broken landscape, the pivot point of Kratzer’s contribution, a murky slow motion encapsulation of their dimmed horizons and pervasive hopelessness.
After Kratzer managed to paint so evocative a portrait using only monochromatic tools, it’s kind of a bummer that Kvazar’s side is also bogged down in gray. Only this time it is the uniform mush of a bowl of oatmeal.  Apparently the band has been lurking in the Greek grind scene since time immemorial and these, their final songs, were trapped in cryostasis until they recruited Dephosphorus’ Panos Agoros to come in add the missing vocals. Unfortunately, the murky, mushy production that squashes everything together doesn’t play to the astro-grinder’s strengths, burying his distinctive yelp behind flat sounding drums and guitars. The endless gray horizons of one anonymous song after another only makes things worse as Kvazar just slog their way along colorlessly. Where Kratzer’s grays are an accurate snapshot of a black and white world, Kvazar’s contribution is a despondent drone through a missed opportunity. After the intriguing opening half, it’s a shame the second side of this promising split doesn’t live up to its amazing gray art.

[Full disclosure: 7 Degrees sent me a review copy.]

G&P Review: Head Cleaner

Head Cleaner
Of Worms and Men
United Guttural
Thanks to the cratering Greek economy, grinders Head Cleaner must have been bedding down in a filthy squat in the years since last offering Resistance, Determination, and the Sheer Will to Overcome. Latest effort Of Worms and Men pretty much reeks of communal bottles of cheap wine and dreadlocked hair. The crust-to-grind ratio on Of Worms and Men plants Head Cleaner pretty squarely in Resistant Culture territory with occasional aspirational flashes of Rotten Sound during their stronger moments.
While the new found punk soul gives Head Cleaner some new found urgency for their didactic breed of agitprop (songs like “It’s Now Safe to Turn Off Your Mind” and “War is a Product of Imperialism”), Of Worms and Men is held back by an over-reliance on repetition and a lack of distinction between one crusty-grindy shoutalong song and the next. Eight of these 14 songs stretch well past the two minute mark and could have stood some pruning. For example, long stretches of second banger “One More Nail in the Coffin of Peace” largely consist of repeating “I have a war inside my head” over and over. The song loses some punch through sheer repetition and that early in an album it becomes worrisome.  The insistence on repetition also mars Head Cleaner’s attempts to step out of their grind box. “Nothing to Worry About” stumbles along on a fractured riff that could have been lifted from cyber-metallers Obliveon’s back catalog but endlessly shouting “no worry” hampers the song’s impact.
I thought Resistance, Determination, and the Sheer Will to Overcome showed promise until the atrocious final song went off the ambient rails and once again some judicious editing could elevate Of Worms and Men from a decent album to something much stronger.

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

G&P Review: Dephosphorus

Dephosphorus
Night Sky Transform
7 Degrees
Night Sky Transform represents that moment when Dephosphorus shrugged off the tyranny of Earth's gravity to slingshot out into the silent, contemplative majesty of the star-dusted cosmos. Having punched roughly through the atmosphere with the astounding Axiom, Dephosphorus now feel free to slow down and behold the wonder that entranced Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Neil Degrasse-Tyson. Night Sky Transform is, overall, a slower, more cryptic effort that patiently unspools its secrets over several listens. While bangers like "Cold Omen" fire up the ion engines to keep that forward momentum, Dephosphorus have truly transcended grindcore's limitations into something singular.
Like Dr. Dave Bowman's evolution into the star child in 2001, the DNA of Dephosphorus' grindcore past can still be sussed out, but it's been exploded and reincarnated into something unique. "Starless" still grinds, but it's just one scintillant star in a varied constellation of musical themes and modes. It's the digressions that define Night Sky Transform. With "The Fermi Paradox," guitarist Thanos Mantas gets his turn to step to the mic and intone the song's stately chorus, which builds upon and improves on "Stargazing and Violence" from the Great Falls split. "Unconscious Excursion" brings in Ryan Lipynsky of Thralldom/Unearthly Trance to meld his crusty black magic to the Greeks' skyclad visions of space and time.  The uncertain "Aurora" ends Night Sky Transform with the tentative anticipation of first interstellar contact with intelligent life on a hesitant note. It's a fraught moment that could have been the equivalent of old flying saucers that ended with The End...? but instead is far more poignant and aware of humanity's cosmic insignificance.
For all of the carefully considered art at on display, Night Sky Transform just didn't immediately grab me by the cortex the way Axiom did (Perpetual Strife disagrees; Perpetual Strife is wrong). The meditative nature means Night Sky Transform needs more time to seep into your pores, taking up one transcendent molecule at a time via musical osmosis. Just because my connection wasn't immediate doesn't mean the journey wasn't worth it.
I once again have to marvel at the astonishing packaging job done by 7 Degrees. The gorgeous gatefold and nice thick vinyl set the perfect mood for Dephosphorus' intergalactic excursions, and investing in the physical product will also net you the obligatory download code and an excellent album art poster to spruce up your mission control center.

[Full disclosure: 7 Degrees sent me a review copy.]

G&P Review: Dephosphorus/Wake

Wake/Dephosphorus
Split
7 Degrees
Wake and Dephosphorus are like grindcore Diet Coke and Mentos on this excellent split, featuring three songs from each. The unexpectedly volcanic pairing pushed the Canadian and Greek bands to excel, friendly competition bringing out the finest in both for the best split you're likely to hear all year.
Dephosphorus' three new songs are less spacey than their Axiom material. Instead, the Greek trio comes with a handful of more concise and single-mindedly aggressive songs. However, "The Cosmologist" retains some of the wormholed, time sliding twistiness of old. If they can marry this newfound intensity to Axiom's ethereal nature, Night Sky Transform will easily be 2012's most unbeatable album.
Panos Agoros' vocals and Thanos Mantas' guitar shred are both outstanding once again, but the biggest quantum leap forward comes from drummer Nikos Megariotis, whose snare work, in particular, is much improved and propels the songs with a newfound urgency. The blasting passages of "The Final Computronium" are things of beauty on par with a grindcore Parthenon. While the drumming on Axiom was competent, this split finds Megariotis driving and defining the songs in ways he never has before.
For their part, Canada's Wake continue their tradition of snapping up great producers. They roped Scott Hull behind the boards for last year's Leeches, but this outing they enlisted the knob twiddling efforts of Colin Marston. For all that star power though, Wake's half of the split sounds squashed and muddy, particularly in comparison to Dephosphorus. But it's far from fatal. While I would have preferred more definition, I can't deny that "Veil of Odin" is probably the finest, most dynamic song they've ever penned. The opening frame lopes forward like a wolfpack catching the scent of a bleeding deer, just a heedless, headlong rush. Sliding toward the end, the song downshifts into a midtempo jam, giving everything space to breathe. The interplay between the pounding toms and churning bass upheaval, garlanded by single guitar note feedback, might be Wake's finest moment.
Like there was ever any doubt, 7 Degrees has paired their two finest artists for a teaser platter, playing them off of each other in a way that shows off both Wake and Dephosphorus' finest attributes and set them up with a package to best show off their quality. These are two great bands that deserve all the accolades they've earned.

[Full disclosure: 7 Degrees sent me a review copy.]

G&P Review: Head Cleaner

Head Cleaner
Resistance, Determination and the Sheer Will to Overcome
Clean Head Productions
What you get out of Resistance, Determination and the Sheer Will to Overcome, Greek death-laden grinders Head Cleaner's third release will largely live or die on how much you enjoy Napalm Death post-Spitfire Records. The quartet, featuring personnel from Homo Iratus and Disembowel, have that same death-crust vibe the English institution have pioneered since they split from Earache. Vocalist Jim "Mitch" Evgenidis has a convincing enough Barney roar that he could probably slide into Napalm Death's lineup unnoticed in a pinch.
From the EP's Soviet-chic fonts and propaganda-style art, Head Cleaner are rousing the same rabble Liberteer is trying to incite to revolutionary fervor against their monied masters. Where Matt Widener enlisted a drum and fife corps to hearken back to America's hardscrabble founding, Head Cleaner hit hard with grind intensity and tactical deployment of pig pen death metal a la Cattle Decapitation on songs like "The Chain," which leans more grind than death. And you know I can't help but smile at a song entitled "Crime and Punishment."
So after six tidy songs of serviceable deathy-grindy-nasty, it was really disappointing to see Head Cleaner go and shit the bed by committing the sin of the final song with the tedious "Departures-Arrivals." At nine minutes, the track is a meandering, pointless stylistic jump. It's a mess of fx-heavy vocals, thudding industrial beats and aimless guitar droning. The endless repetition adds nothing of substance. After the previous buildup, "Departures-Arrivals" forces this revolution to end with a whimper and not with a bang.

[Full disclosure: Head Cleaner sent me a review copy.]

You Grind...But Why?: Dephosphorus

Panos Agoros has been a Greek grind stalwart with one foot in the strictly traditional (Straighthate) and the other stepping out to the cosmos (Dephosphorus), but when you settle down and ask the singer what keeps him grinding, it's like getting a snippet of a personal diary in musical form. Also, turns out the guy has some impeccable taste in music as well.

"I love listening and playing grindcore because this genre is the apotheosis of rhythm, and rhythm is what I like the most in music – more than melody!" Agoros said. "There is also something deeply paroxysmic about it that numbs my senses, deconstructing my perception then putting the pieces back together. I love the way the genre has evolved, matching my evolution as a person and music lover. In the '90s I was listening a lot to Napalm Death and Brutal Truth, then Discordance Axis’ The Inalienable Dreamless came crushing down on me in the early '00s. It was one of these rare highlights as a listener when you discover some new music and feel with certainty that is what you were waiting for but didn’t know it existed! Finally, Discordance Axis’ and Nasum’s mostly screamed vocals fit with my personal taste and made me realize that this kind of vocals is amongst the most expressive and tortured ever to come out of a human throat… As Cornell West once wrote: 'Music at its best...is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us--beyond language--to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence.' "

Blast(beat) from the Past: Nuclear Winter

Nuclear Winter
Abomination Virginborn
Blastbeat Mailmurder
2003
Greek duo Nuclear Winter sound like they’ve been slinking up the same left hand path and chanting the same ultimate incantations that have long driven Entombed and Vader on this 7-inch of old style death murkiness. Another shoot growing off the StraightHate/Dephosphorus family tree, Nuclear Winter paid tribute to the past masters of dismal death over the course of three songs.
Unlike a lot of death metal, which insists on unremitting brutality and technical acumen, Nuclear Winter recognized that atmosphere was often a more important component. The band is perfectly comfortable cranking along at cruising speeds with the top down, enjoying the feel of the wind in their hair. They up the tempo to an organic blastbeat only as an accent rather than the spine of the song. That means they rely on the authentically charnel old school guitar tones to carry the songs. However, there’s a thinness that make the lack of a second guitar or bass palpable. With the added texture additional instrumentation would have provided, these three songs would really crush. But Nuclear Winter make do with what they have available. There are no drum triggers, the blastbeats sound human, the riffs chainsaw, the art is suitably Hellhammered and the guitars are full of those pinched squealy sounds. This is death metal the way I remember it.

[Full disclosure: Blastbeat Mailmurder sent me a review copy.]

Astral Projection: Dephosphorus Play With Greek Fire

The United States’ space shuttle program may have lurched to an ignominious end, but other brave souls still dare to boldly go where no infinitive has been split before, plying the furthest reaches of the cosmos in search of adventure or enlightenment.
Piloting a craft cobbled together from the remains of grindcore, crust punk, black metal and that meditative space bubble thing from Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, Greek grindonauts Dephosphorus are a three man astro(logy/nomy) seminar in a musical form they call astrogrind.
“The astrogrind philosophy doesn’t have necessarily to do with the definition of a new genre since our music style is not something totally new,” guitarist Thanos Mantas said. “There are obviously influences from other bands and genres, the only thing sure being that the aura of our music is the one that somebody would expect from a band with such a concept. Since we have an astral concept, the term ‘astrogrind’ has popped out naturally as a designation, even though it does not determine something self-luminous, born from scratch.”

In Brightest Day

Combing a unique – for grindcore, anyway – fixation on the mystical with the accustomed aggression we all crave from blastbeat purveyors, Dephosphorus served up something unexpected, unheralded and absolutely enjoyable with debut EP Axiom, which has since been pressed on a 12-inch by 7 Degrees Records and made available as a free download by the band. Along with fellow space cadets PSUDOKU, Dephosphorus ensure 2011 will be the year grindcore left many of its terrestrial concerns behind in favor of swirling new vistas and unexplored horizons. It will all get a fuller expression on pending full length Night Sky Transform, which vocalist Panos Agoros promises will be more “aggressive, memorable and intense” than Axiom.
It can be easy to become burnt out and jaded if you’re constantly gorging on all that grindcore has to offer (by that measure I feel like the Sally Struthers of grind some days). After a few too many Nasum clones, getting intergalactic planetary/planetary intergalactic with astrogrind was exactly what I needed this year. Though Thanos and Panos kept things far more traditional with prior outfit StraightHate, Dephosphorus began mining the same science fiction authors that inspired luminaries such as Jon Chang to bolster the more mystical bent of their latest outfit.
“The Dephosphorus concept is allegorical, inspired by cosmology, astrobiology and science fiction authors like Iain M. Banks,” Panos said. “Somewhere in the universe exists an ancient lifeform ‘that is not God,’ Dephosphorus. It scans the universe for other forms of intelligent life, seeks their alliance and assistance in order to pierce the mysteries of the cosmos. When it manifests itself to civilizations like the earthly, it usually gets in contact with a small group (‘those who look to the sky with the right kind of eyes’ – as go the lyrics of the homonymous track from our debut album Night Sky Transform), which provoke radical change often through turmoil and violence.”
While Dephosphorus may be setting their controls for the heart of the sun, some of the mystical inspirations to their music is far more mundane and uniquely Greek.
“The mystical elements possibly originate from my occupation with the local folk music known as ‘rebetiko’ and the melodies which possess me as a lover of traditional Greek music,” Thanos said. “Many times some of the songs have an aura of old. I incorporate those elements inside the grind philosophy or blend them to produce some more psychedelic themes. Whether the audience perceives it or not is not an end in itself. This is simply how Dephosphorus operate.”

In Blackest Night

Dephosphorus will be throwing the doors of their operation open to Thralldom/Unearthly Trance’s Ryan Lipynsky who chipped in on the new song “Unconscious Excursion.” It’s an absolutely inspired pairing because each outfit approaches the same ritualistic experience through opposite means – Dephosphorus through the power of crusty grind and Unearthly Trance through the power of crusty doom. You can see what the common ground might be, right?
“Listening to [Lipynsky’s] music for a very long time, I realized while playing the guitar that subconsciously he helped me perceive things differently,” Thanos said. “You know, it’s like when you play and sometimes your fingers move independently from your will to some positions that somehow feel familiar. That’s more or less how things turned out for ‘Unconscious Excursion.’”
Panos said he met Lipynsky through his work for Metal Hammer, where he chips in the occasional interview. The journalistic pas de deux turned into an email friendship and eventually a full blown musical collaboration as Dephosphorus began penning tunes for Night Sky Transform.
“Shortly before we entered the studio in order to record the album and being through with rehearsals at that moment of time, Thanos wrote this song with Ryan’s playing in mind since he feels connected to him as a guitarist,” Panos said. “The song was recorded as part of our album session and it was practically a jam, since Thanos and Nikos rehearsed it just a couple of times right before tracking it.”
For his part, Lipynsky said he jumped at the chance to work with the Greek up and comers as a nod to the old school tape trading style, he said.
“This is not just something that I would do for every random person that wrote me,” he said. “I knew Panos and crew were of the same mindset because of the years of friendship through mail and email.”
He took the band’s rough track, penned some lyrics and recorded his vocals at his Brooklyn recording studio, adding his own unique spin to Dephosphorus’ signature sound.
“I’ve yet to hear the final mix, but I’d like to think I brought a slightly different color to the Dephosphorus spirit from Greece,” Lipynsky said.
That “different color” sounds as though it may be bleeding through Dephosphorus’ blackened night permanently, shading Night Sky Transform.
“In general there is more space in the themes, the beats are more compact and the vocals are better too,” Thanos said. “But what really makes the difference is that the album has gone deeper into a blackened psychedelia. That’s what’s most interesting, because except the high velocities and frenetic beats there is some intellectualism going on and the tracks unfold when they are meant to. Another factor is that we have worked intensely on the material over a short period of time and that has contributed in making it sound more professional and complete. You’ll realize for yourself when you’ll listen to it!”

Blast(beat) from the Past: Into the Gore

“Finally, there are the idols of the market place.”
This was the easiest of all to imagine: an alabaster idol towering over the swarming crowd in a market place.
“The idols of the market place are the errors which result from the communication and association of men with each other. They are the errors a man commits because it has become customary to use certain phrases and formulas which do violence to reason. For example, ‘Enemy of the people!’ ‘Not one of us!’ ‘Traitor!’ Call a man one of these and everyone will renounce him.”
Shulubin emphasized each of these with exclamations by throwing up first one hand, then the other. Again he looked like a bird with clipped wings making crooked, awkward attempts to fly.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Cancer Ward
1974

Into the Gore
Bureau of Disgust
Blastbeat Mailmurder
2006
I’m sure you’ve all heard the hoary bromide about legislation being a lot like sausage – nobody wants to see either being made. While I have yet to secure my dream job running the stun line at the local slaughterhouse, I have been exposed to the legislative meat grinder at the municipal, county, state and federal levels (occupational hazard). Yeah, you’re probably better off not knowing the full depth of the venality, petty grudges and craven horse trading involved.
While Greek gross-out artists Into the Gore’s monicker and aesthetics may suggest they’re preoccupied with squishy innards, it’s actually sleazy politicians that get teed up for their death-inflected grind lashings on second and final album Bureau of Disgust (the band split up shortly after the album when vocalist/guitarist Michael-Alexander Xidas died in an accident).
Musically congruent with someone like Sweden’s Sewn Shut, Into the Gore is a band that knows how to punctuate a song with little moments that jar you out of complacency: a double kick drum fill, a pick slide scratch or a shifty riff switchup. Opening bid “The Sculptured Disparity” is an excellent howdy do, showcasing Into the Gore’s M.O. and nifty bag of songsmithing tricks. It interweaves grind rashness with death metal physicality. Those death metal flecks may be the secret spice in their sauce that gives them their own verve and flair from a crowded grind field. There’s a double bass drive (think Keitzer) to Into the Gore that gives them a restless propulsion not typical of grind. The call and response quality to the vocal switcheroos gives both the screechy screams and very Vader death rattles their own distinctive quality, deploying them with purpose and precision.
And since we accept music as a physical article is swirling the toilet bowl, I also have to single out the impressive digipack packaging for particular praise. The puking man logo on the cover has been cut out, given the packaging a unique pop and visual depth and intrigue that reminds me (sadly) of what digital musical lacks.
Altogether, Into the Gore were practitioners of a sturdy, admirable death grind grumble with packaging that justifies the purchase.

[Full disclosure: Blastbeat Mailmurder sent me a review copy.]

Blast(beat) from the Past: StraightHate

StraightHate
Indigenous
Blastbeat Mailmurder
2007
Nicking a name from a great song from the last album Sepultura ever recorded before breaking up forever is a great way to weasel your way into my good graces. If one of you so much as whispers the name “Derrick Green” I will gut you and feast on your raw spleen. Go ahead. I dare you.
Anyway.
Prior to their involvement in Greek grindonauts Dephosphorus, vocalist Panos Agoros and guitarist Thanos Mantas were the backbone of the more traditionally grinding StraightHate. (On a somewhat related tangent, Dephosphorus have hooked up with 7 Degrees records [run by Keitzer bassist Simon] for a vinyl pressing of the incredible Axiom EP. Get that shit.)
Indigenous is not nearly as unmoored from terrestrial concerns as Axiom. In fact, its mundane grievances about church and state are certainly familiar (but bonus points for “You’ll Never See Heaven,” which purports to relate a private conversation with “that motherfucker Jesus”), and the music slots comfortably within the mainstream of contemporary Euro-grind with flashes of the Scandi-sound (the thorny prickle of the Nasum-ish “Isolator”) and more continental fare. The screeches border on black metal’s demesne and tag out to guttural grunts.
It’s all very comfortable and very enjoyable, a warm, rough-edged production cradles the songs, but then there’s the nearly 12 minute, half acoustic closer “Which One of Us Dies First.” That’s where things get interesting. Closing an album with the longest, slowest song of the album, typically a half assed attempted at dirgey doom, seems to be an irresistible compulsion for grinders (seriously, what's the deal with that?), but StraightHate’s indulgence hints at the unhinged majesty that would follow four years later. At its heart, yes, it’s another grind band playing a slow song, but “Which One of Us Dies First” smashes together Amebix crust and Neurosis atmosphere in a crust punk super collider before giving with to an acoustic halflife
Indigenous is a cool enough album on its own, but StraightHate is far more interesting for its hints of what was to come with Panos and Thanos’ next endeavor.

[Full disclosure: Panos, who runs Blastbeat Mailmurder, sent me a review copy.]

G&P Review: Dephosphorus

Dephosphorus
Axiom
Self Released

After much ceremony six maidens came in, each carrying a large trumpet that was wound round with a green, fiery, luminous material, like a wreath. The old gentleman took one of them, and after removing some of the lights at the head of the table and uncovering the faces, he set a trumpet in one of the mouths so that the upper and wider part came exactly to the roof-vent. My companions were staring only at the bodies, but I had other thoughts, for as soon as the foliage or wreath around the tube was kindled, I saw the hole above open and a bright stream of fire shoot through the tube and pass into the body. Then the hole was shut again and the trumpet removed, through which trick my companions were deceived into thinking that life had entered the image through the fire of the foliage. As soon as the soul was received, the body opened and closed its eyes, but scarcely moved. Again he placed another tube on its mouth, lit it, and the soul was let down through the tube; and this happened three times each. Then all the lights were extinguished and removed, the velvet tablecloth folded over the bodies, and the double-bed set up and prepared, on which the wrapped bodies were placed. They were taken out of the coverings, lead neatly side by side, and left to sleep a good while with the curtains drawn.

The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz
1616

Greek grindcore alchemists Dephosphorus brew black-glazed grindcore goodness that nicks a recipe from the eyes of newt and toe of frog burbling in Who’s My Saviour’s kettle. Like their mind-melded German compatriots, Dephosphorus will not accept limitations of anything as quaint as genre in their pursuit of something transcendent. But for all of that, there’s an unwavering core of crust and grind that knots it all together even when the band is astral projecting their collective unconscious to the furthest reaches of space and benighted dimensions.
Opener “Collimator” leaves me pondering whether to calculate the trajectory of my future Mars mission or to lurk down in the basement lighting candles and palpating invisible citrus. The song’s guitars glissade from space grind freak out to tolling church bell chiming in a way that’s organic and arresting. The eponymous “Dephosphorus” invokes the hellish piping Lovecraft always said presaged an unpleasant encounter with an Elder God while “Indulge Me in Silence” teases out the blackened Amebix core that lurked in Hellhammer’s shadowed, frosty heart. There are other brilliant little touches, like the way the scything opening of “On the Verge of an Occurrence” pans from left to right, flickering through your brain, that prove this young band is in command of some very advanced, and wonderfully subtle tricks.
I’ve been spinning Axiom on a regular basis for about two months, but the band is already planning their full length follow up, which will also feature a song by Unearthly Trance’s Ryan Lipynsky. I don’t know if ritualistic grindcore is a thing, but it needs to be. In a year that looks to boast a bumper crop of exception grind, this is 2011’s first totally unexpected surprise.

[Full disclosure: the band sent me a review copy.]