Sayyadina The Great Northern Revisited
Relapse
I revisited the Great Northern, myself, recently with a marathon reviewing of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and I can vouchsafe Sayyadina’s odds and sods compilation for Relapse sounds like it came howling out the Black Lodge with murderous lunatic Bob.
Not nearly as fluid as their later work, Sayyadina on The Great Northern Revisited is a more spastic, gangly and all around punk version of the Swedish grind stalwarts. Actually, I was rather startled at how much Sayyadina sounds like Afgrund, particularly on some of the later tracks collected here.
Though not as refined as I would come to expect from them, Sayyadina were flashing all of the hallmarks of master songsmiths fairly early on. “The Awakening” nimbly catapults from punk into drone before caroming into a grindcore spring in a flash forward 74 seconds.
Sayyadina – “The Awakening”
“Nar Jag Faller” is all assault rifle spray and shattered gristle while “All This Fear” is a convulsive purgative exorcising anxiety with an explosive rage.
But all of that is to be expected. What was most intriguing – and most apropos given the David Lynch allusion – was the unexpected jazz excursions of “Retaliation” and “Outrage” which could have not only soundtracked the Lynch film of your choice but key scenes from Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic heist films as well.
At this point Sayyadina is fairly firmly established in the cannon of Swedish grindcore, and that’s what makes The Great Northern Revisited so intriguing and successful. Even bands that stomp the terra with Godzilla sized sneakers started out with baby steps.
