TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION
Chunky, well-produced grindcore is the order of the day. My one complaint (sorry, because this is otherwise so awesome) is that the snare is a little too quiet, especially in the blast sections, but otherwise this is a well made and savage grindcore album. It’s a good runner too, sometimes feeling like its a fairly lengthy affair. I love the deep, throaty vocal approach used here, incredible stuff.
Mumakil are in the Nasum / Rotten Sound camp of grindcore, where records are polished and fully audible, yet the band are still savage as fuck. There’s a creeping melody to the way some of the riffs come across, and the drumming is absolutely insanely fast. The vocals are intense roars of furious intent. Behold The Failure was the first record I heard by the band (after I think discovering them through a split). If you’re not listening on good speakers the production can sound a bit flat / compressed but this is easy to get around.
I got shot! Beverly Kills is more of that wicked early ICP output where the band hadn’t long transitioned from Inner City to Insane Clowns. The production is actually a downgrade from the Carnage album, with Esham as the producer on some tracks, bringing that distorted KKKill The Fetus / Closed Casket vibes. Other than that though, its a great listen with some great tracks. “17 Dead” and “The Stalker” are probably my favourites.
Would you like some extra fuzz with your riffs? Then look no further than Weedeater’s Jason The Dragon, which is so heavy, its actually come full circle and is actually a pleasure to listen to, rather than a disgusting, uncomfortable experience. Let Jason fly you away on a pillow of enormous riffs, drifting off to cosmic lands unknown. Only, when you finally land, you’re outside a dive bar that only serves whiskey. Yeah.
Put crackly old goregrind on crackly old vinyl and you have a combination that is always going to win out, in my opinion. Somehow, with wanton disregard for sound quality (I need to check my goregrind privilege), Dead Infection cram 8 minutes onto their side of the 7″ record. Some of these tracks I’m sure I’ve heard elsewhere, but they are extra grimey and disgusting here. I sometimes forget just how stunningly horrible (in the best way) Dead Infection were in their prime. RIP Cyjan. Blood are Blood. 4/5 minutes or so of classic-era death-tinged grindcore is the order of the day. Bludgeoning, beating, unstoppable force. Honestly, these guys are just so good. A fantastic split, all in all. One of the all-time genre greats.
HM2 worship out the ass! Buzzsaw dark hardcore all up in this motherfucker. There is something artificial and even derivative about this particular guitar sound but you can’t argue with the immediate impact that it has. Trap Them snare this sound in a stranglehold, squeezing out pure savagery and anger. At 25 mins, Seizures… doesn’t overstay its welcome. It gets in, fucks you up, and gets out.
Shpongle’s debut album is a heady trip through pulsing electronic beats and samples. Whilst not as “far out” or as rich in its palette of colours as some of the later Shpongle offerings (this is a band that has really has gone all-out in some cases), there is something of a trippy and mesmerising quality in the more beat-focussed songs. It almost sounds binaural in some places, and with a good set on your head, the answer to the question, Are You Shpongled?, will almost definitely be a yes by the end of this album. If you’ve never heard Shpongle before check out “Divine Moments Of Truth” from this album.
I needed to wash out my brain after listening to some horrendously bad hip hop, so I (rightly it seems) turned to a Danny Brown record that I hadn’t heard yet. Atrocity Exhibit is fantastic, and whilst this record has an entirely different vibe, uknowhatimsaying¿ is just as good, but in different ways. I love how the beats are so abstract and interesting. The delivery from Danny and his guest peers is also, of course, A star. I don’t feel like I’m doing this much justice. If you love hip hop and haven’t heard this, I implore you to check it out.
