Absvrdist - Illusory

Upon first look, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about Absvrdist. But once you notice that Lyle Cooper, the legendary drummer for technical death band The Faceless is the drummer for Absvrdist, it completely changes the story. A problem that a lot of people have with grindcore in general is monotony, often times appearing in the drums. Either that or a complete lack of skill in one or more of the musicians. Whether this is just a simple side-project or the next big grindcore act in the making remains unknown due to minimal publicity and the rigorous tour schedule The Faceless has endured since the band released their newest album, Autotheism. Regardless, Absvrdist have given us a unique and creative grindcore treat titled Illusory, which is something that can be deceptive or misleading (therefore causing “illusion”).

Absvrdist seems to be very keen on calling themselves “blackened grindcore.” Being the black metal enthusiast that I am, that seems like a pretty interesting concept considering that, as far as I’m aware of, it’s never been done before (no, Anaal Nathrakh doesn’t count). Because the duet has been so outspoken about this “blackened grindcore” thing, it’s mentioned in almost every review that has been written on the album. Here’s the issue that people are having: yeah, the album is great, but what was that about “blackened” you said? Because I can’t hear any signs of black metal on this album! Ok, maybe that was an exaggeration, but you get the picture. There are obvious efforts at fusing black metal and grindcore during the album. For example, the track Amongst Humans has an atmospheric guitar lead that sounds like something from a black metal album along with low-key black metal-ish blast beat drumming. The guitar line strongly reminds me of Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Wolves in the Throne Room, which is probably (I’ll never know for sure) the song that inspired that particular intro. Besides that, the number of black metal-inspired moments is low.

So, because Absvrdist most likely over exaggerated the true amount of black metal influence this album has, I’m going to treat this just like any other grindcore record. The two members of Absvrdist have played together before in a Texas-based progressive death band called Erzebet, releasing a 5-track EP in 2005. The member responsible for the lead vocals on Illusory is unclear, as are a lot of things about this band. But whoever does the lead vocals (consisting of growls and nasty screams) is good. The screams sound similar to several thrash black bands I’ve heard, sort of having a thrashy sound to them. Many people find these types of screams much more pleasant to listen to, as opposed to the really obnoxious (but often times appropriate) high-pitched shrieks you hear in bands like Wormrot, Gridlink, and the earlier Pig Destroyer albums. The growls aren’t anything SUPER unique, but they fit in well with the surrounding chaos the music creates.

Along with that, there are occasional inhaled grows and very strained yells that, although unattractive, fit in well with the music in the same way the growls do. A good song that demonstrates the contrast between all of the different vocal styles used would be the first track, Repulsive. But the vocals aren’t where all the action is at.

The drums are where 60% of the interesting shit is. Of course, knowing the drummer and his skills as well as I do, I’m not surprised. But the question gets brought up, why grindcore? It’s not anything new that Lyle can play fast, as demonstrated on Planetary Duality and Autotheism. It makes sense that since he’s the type of guy that likes brutal music, he probably needed an escape from all of the progressive and much slower stuff The Faceless has done on Autotheism. So yeah, he probably had a lot of energy for playing fast and chaotic that needed to be released, so him and his friend from Erzebet. But honestly, there’s no telling as to why this grindcore project just popped up out of nowhere. But the whole black metal/grindcore thing makes sense because besides The Faceless, Lyle has been in both a black metal band AND Erzebet, which plays an interesting combination of grindcore, black metal, and death metal.

The drumming sounds like the drumming from The Faceless. This is good because it’s more than just constant blast beats! As much as I love blast beats, they can get old and boring VERY quickly. The drumming is filled with color, creativity, chaos, and experimentation. If it weren’t for the excessive use of the cymbals, it would be difficult to tell that the drums belonged to a grindcore record. Because the drums are interesting by themselves, everything else acts as icing on the cake. Now we move on to member number two, who is responsible for vocals, guitars, and bass.

The bass tends to hang out in the lower end the whole time. There isn’t a whole lot of action going on with the higher strings and playing chords. This seems to be a fairly common thing in grindcore because the guitars tend to be high-pitched (for some reason) and it helps bring out the low-end if the bassist generally plays only lower notes. The bass has a tiny bit of distortion to give it a gritty sound that can be heard on its own in the ninth track, Delusion. The guitars have a fuzzy distortion that blends in perfectly with the sound of the cymbals. There isn’t exactly anything about the guitars (or bass) that I would consider to be special or unique except for one thing. The instruments on Illusory couldn’t be any tighter. The unfortunate thing about grindcore is that, in most cases, one or more of the musicians repeatedly falls out of tempo or screws up in some way. In Absvrdist, it’s the exact opposite; these two guys are true musicians that know what the fuck they’re doing. Obviously, Lyle’s drumming is on-the-spot 100% of the time, and Marlon has proved himself to be a great guitarist and bassist that has both skill and creativity.

Absvrdist is one of the best grindcore bands I’ve heard in months. In fact, one of the best grindcore bands I’ve EVER heard. Although I feel that their “blackened grindcore” description is an overstatement, there are a couple of black metal-inspired sections on the record. Illusory has everything a grindcore enthusiast could ask for: blast beats, obnoxious yells, ridiculous tempos, and less than half of the songs lasting more than two minutes (several tracks being less than 30 seconds). Illusory also has things in store for the people who AREN’T too big on grindcore, including tight musicianship, instrumental skills, influences from other bands and genres, much more than constant blast beats, and a shitload of creativity and experimentation. Illusory gets my score of 14/20. 

Pig Destroyer - Book Burner

Pig Destroyer’s legendary Phantom Limb was the album that introduced me to grindcore. Why did I pick that album as my first impression over any other grindcore record? Simply because it was the first one that became accessible to me. I had looked these guys up on Spirit of Metal prior to getting this $5 CD, so I already knew that they were one of the leading bands in the genre. The reason why I haven’t (and probably will never) write a review on Phantom Limb is because I’ll get so sucked into telling you about my personal experiences when listening to it when I should be focusing more on the album itself and its pros and cons. Like every other grindcore fan out there, I grew annoyed with the wait for a new album from these extremely unique and (surprisingly) creative swine grinders. Of course, since I’m not WAY into grindcore like some of you are, this is literally the most hype I’ve ever seen preceding a grindcore album’s release. Well, duh, it’s fucking Pig Destroyer! That alone explains why, but now the metalhead community truly knows why the people that got advanced promo copies of this album were so damn excited.

This is not an instance where I’m going to compare Book Burner with its predecessor, Phantom Limb (although I’m probably going to end up doing that anyway, but I’ll try not to). What we know as generic grindcore has been getting less and less common over the years. Several grindcore behemoths like Fuck the Facts, Cephalic Carnage, Napalm Death, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed have been taking on more groundbreaking directions. These directions that are being taken are either directions that absolutely NO ONE has ever gone before or directions that have been minimally explored. Pig Destroyer’s sound has always been strongly influenced by Brutal Truth, which makes sense because the evidence of breakdown-like sections became present in Terrifyer. In Book Burner, Pig Destroyer take on a COMPLETELY different direction of their own, which only sets them apart even more than they already were from the majority of grindcore.

What is grindcore known for? Those drawn-out sections consisting of fast blast beat drumming and tremolo picked guitars. Ever since Terrifyer, Pig Destroyer has had less of that in every album. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that they’re implementing death metal into their music, but there are definitely some new elements present in Book Burner. One thing that I would actually consider to be a new element is the fact that they have a different drummer in this album. Seriously, a new drummer? I’ve said time and time again how mind-blowing the drumming on Phantom Limb is, and that I can’t wait to hear the drumming on the new Pig Destroyer record, and now they have a different drummer? Because this band has always lacked a bass player, the drums and guitars have a much higher role as the driving force in the band in order to make up for it. Here’s how I feel that they pulled it off in Phantom Limb: the guitar distortion was just right so that it had plenty of loud crunch, but still had an intense lower-end, and the drums…well…the drums. The blast beats on Phantom Limb are undeniably brutal. They’re tight, they’re loud, the kick drums pound you into the dirt, and the drummer’s efficient method of playing all made it so that there wasn’t even a NEED for a fucking bassist!

Now we have a drummer that has a whole different way of doing things. After looking up this guy’s musical background, I have a much better understanding about where he’s coming from and why he does the things that he does on Book Burner. Along with being the drummer for one of the biggest death grind bands ever, Misery Index, this guy has also been in various death metal and death grind bands, and a stoner metal band that released an EP in 2009. So obviously, since this guy doesn’t have as much of a pure grindcore background as Pig Destroyer’s previous drummer. But to be honest, I love the drumming on Misery Index’s records, so this can’t be THAT bad, right? Well, to some people, it is, and although I wouldn’t say that myself, I will admit that this guy’s style just doesn’t fit Pig Destroyer’s music as much. The extremely fortunate thing is that it all works out in the end; the new drummer’s more creative and death metal-based style has laid out fresh grounds for the rest of the band to build on top of and to evolve their sound. I just miss those extremely chaotic blast beats from Terrifyer and Phantom Limb.

Because the drumming has taken on a new direction, the rest of the band has done a fantastic job at evolving their sound along with it to make everything match up. Since the amount of blasting in the drums have gone down, the amount of open-chorded shredding in the guitars has taken a decrease as well. Woe and behold, the two vocalists from Agoraphobic Nosebleed are back as guest vocalists! Remember those tracks from Terrifyer that practically gave Agoraphobic Nosebleed their big break? Well it looks like they’re back for more, with Katherine Katz being featured on Eve and The Bug, and Richard Johnson appearing on The Underground Man. Along with that, the new drummer bridged a gap between Pig Destroyer and Misery Index, therefore bringing Misery Index vocalist Jason Netherton to do guest vocals on The Diplomat. I’m not a big fan of the two vocalists from Agoraphobic Nosebleed (especially Katherine), but they do give Pig Destroyer’s sound an interesting twist that I wouldn’t want to have left out.

The sound production of the album is much cleaner and more refined than any of their previous releases. Of course, this was because of Pig Destroyer’s highly-acclaimed status that followed the release of Phantom Limb. But even with this more refined sound, Pig Destroyer defy the odds and STILL manage to create a chaotic and atmospheric wall of sound that leaps out of your stereo and rips your face apart. The answer to the big question is no, Book Burner (in my opinion) is not as good as Phantom Limb, but it is in NO way an album worth turning down. This is one of the most enjoyable grindcore records I’ve ever heard and it should be present in every metalhead’s collection. I would give Book Burner a score of 15/20 (which is one of the highest scores I’ve ever given a grindcore record). 

Gridlink - Orphan

If there’s one metal genre that I’m the pickiest with, it’s grindcore (including all of its subgenres like pornogrind and goregrind). In fact, there are only a handful of grindcore bands that I actually truly like (there are other bands that have only released one descent album) which are Fuck the Facts (my favorite), Wormrot, Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death, AxCx, and most recently, Gridlink. When listening to grindcore (which the exception of Fuck the Facts), it’s pretty damn hard to imagine there being ANY kind of creativity or skill involved in the music writing process. And to be honest, most of the time…there isn’t! I have a couple of friends that LOVE pornogrind and goregrind stuff, and they all tell me that the reason that they love it is because they love the sound of literal utter chaos. They respect the people that are willing to record these extremely chaotic noisy records and professionally release them under a record label. Although I’ve come to (at least mostly) understand the genre and even appreciate some of its artists, grindcore is still a whole different planet for me. But this review is on one of my personal favorites from the genre, Gridlink’s 2011 release, Orphan.

The sound that Gridlink plays is a really atmospheric chaos. The chaos part is obviously because of the intense blast beat drumming and the near-constant abuse of the cymbals. But here’s the thing about the drummer: HE’S GOOD! There’s a lot of grindcore that has some atrocious drumming. When you listen to the really good grindcore drummers in bands like Pig Destroyer and Wormrot, what they do is a little less chaotic and more focused on a bombarding blast beat and staying tight with the bass. Gridlink’s drummer is horse of a completely different color. If you want chaos, Gridlink gives you chaos. I never thought it to be possible to play the drums with this much chaos and craziness and still manage to keep things tight! The reason why I haven’t even mentioned tempo is because…well…there is no tempo! That’s grindcore! But it’s very possible to have a bad drummer that slows down from loss of energy, therefore causing the music to sound sloppy and confusing.

I have no idea how the fuck the two guitarists and the bassist manage to keep up with the drummer, but they do! The bassist doesn’t play an extremely technical part on this album, he basically just plays a gradual melodic bass line really fast with three fingers (kind of like tremolo picking, but without a pick). The level of intensity that the guitarists play is nearly indescribable. But then again, every member (at least) seems to be tight and on-track with the rest of the band! I don’t know how that’s possible, but Gridlink does it.

The vocalist does those really loud, high-pitched shrieks that are really hard to do well. I’ve heard a lot of different vocal styles in grindcore, but this style seems to be the most popular. The next most common grindcore vocal style is the really nasty yell done by Napalm Death, Pig Destroyer, and Inhumate. But the highest screams go to Gridlink. That’s another thing that makes their music sound like an uncontrolled chaos, the screams! But more so than that, I think that the vocals make an even bigger contribution to the noise factor, which is one of the things that Gridlink is known best for.

Most of what I’ve been describing to you can apply to just about any other better-than-average grindcore band out there. So with all of that, what’s so fucking special about Gridlink? Well, although there are other grind bands that do this, Gridlink is the only band out there to combine the sounds of uncontrolled chaos with ambience and atmospheric melodies. The guitarists don’t have their guitars tuned way down like you would expect. In fact, they’re guitars are tuned to a more “standard” tuning, which gives them the ability to play really ambient and melodic chords at a higher range. Some of the melodic lines are just melodies with no specific roots, but there are some that I can hear, like in the second and fourth tracks, that remind me of really old black metal. So with the possibility of having black metal-influenced melodies and having more than just pure grinding brutality, Gridlink is looking to be more than just another grindcore band.

With the really strange, but ambient chords that the guitarists play and the more melodic parts played by the bassist, ambience doesn’t seem to be an accidental element in Gridlink’s music. Being one of the best grindcore records that I’ve ever heard, Orphan gets my score of 15/20. Grind fans should check this one out. 

Wormrot - Dirge

I completely understand how hard it is to truly appreciate grindcore. Heck, when I heard my first grindcore album which was Phantom Limb by Pig Destroyer, I didn’t know what the hell to think! After about a week I decided that I hated it; but for some reason I kept that album on my computer. I actually still listened to the first track every once in a while, but I still couldn’t stand listening to the whole thing. But I gradually started to understand grindcore more and more as time went on, and even now I’m still a little iffy about the genre. The band that really turned me on to grindcore was the Canadian band Fuck the Facts, whom I saw in concert and ended up pressing my lips against the vocalist’s. But we’re not here to talk about kissing Mel Mongeon, I’m here to tell you about a grindcore band that has been through a lot of shit and is from a place that you wouldn’t expect to find a metal band, and that is Wormrot from Singapore.

The majority of people would listen to Wormrot and say that this is your average traditional grindcore band. The majority of full-length grindcore albums out there have no less than 11 songs, this album has 25. And someone might look at the less-than-two-minute song lengths and just assume that it’s just random noise (later to be mocked by Wormrot’s 2011 Noise EP). But if you sit down and listen to the album straight through a couple of times, you will find that there are actually several different kinds of songs. I would recommend that you listen to the songs in order (rather than on shuffle like I do most of the time) because a lot of songs blend into the next one therefore enhancing the Wormrot listening experience.

 Their vocalist expresses the ability to make several different sounds come out of his mouth. You will hear the Lee Dorian-style yell, the Seth Putnam-style scream, exhaled growls, inhaled growls, and even the traditional grindcore pigsqueal. Like most grindcore lyrics, there isn’t a specific theme or topic that is generally followed within the album; the lyrics just seem like a bunch of random shit that the vocalist wrote down in his notebook while high on some unknown substance.

A lot of people would listen to this album and say that there is no music in this, it’s just freaking noise. I tend to agree with that actually, but then again, what is music? Some say that music has to have notes and a steady beat, some say that real music doesn’t have any auto-tuned vocals, some say that good music died when Britney Spears released her first single, the list goes ON AND ON! Here’s the reason why I love music so much: There are no limits, if you take ANY sound, there are at least three people in this world that would call that sound music. A lot of people call the sound of raindrops hitting the leaves on the ground music, some people consider the chirping sound that birds make music, some people consider grindcore to be music. I believe that there’s no true definition of what “true” music is, it’s all just opinion! And although I rarely consider a grindcore band to be musical in any form, I would be one of the first people to buy a ticket to see Wormrot when (or even if) they come to Seattle.

The story behind this album is not an enjoyable one. And it might be especially hard for those of you hardcore Earache Records fans. It’s pretty surprising that none of the other reviews of this album on Spirit of Metal mention this. This album was released in March of this year, in a world where the music industry is just barely skidding along, especially that of the extreme metal industry, where bands made little money even before illegal downloads were available on the internet. I don’t know when the first illegal internet music downloads happened (please tell me if you know) but it’s taken over the global music industry. Although the biggest and most used file storage/sharing website for pirating music and movies, Limewire, was shut down in 2010, the music industry is still suffering; and yes, even the rap and pop artists are having less of an income.

I’ll never forgive Earache Records for doing this because this is the most retarded thing a record label has ever done. Wormrot released Dirge while they were on tour. Their tour bus for some reason got impounded in the middle of the tour, so the only thing that could give them the money to pay the impound to get their bus back was the sales of their second full-length album. But without them knowing, Earache wasn’t being careful with the album and it leaked all over the internet. When Earache saw that this was happening, the amount of downloads that had already been done was so large that the label decided “what’s the point of selling the damn album?” and they started giving the record out for free on their website! Although Earache records started charging money for the album about a month or so after they started giving out for free, Wormrot was still stuck with all of their equipment locked inside their impounded van.

This is an amazing grindcore record that can’t get any purer than this. This album is enough to make a grindcore fan happy. Although they don’t have that big of a fan base, the critics (myself included) love them! This deserves 16/20. 

Napalm Death-Scum

Napalm Death has had a huge affect on my musical life. Not only did they make me truly appreciate other crust punk bands, they also have had an influence in my songwriting. I am someone that strongly believes in the crust punk genre (I just call it crust). For those of you that don't know what crust is, it's basically hardcore punk mixed with a metal genre. Some crust bands are Napalm Death (punk mixed with brutal death and grindcore), Hatebreed (punk mixed with thrash metal), Darkthrone's newer material (punk mixed with thrash metal and black metal), Black Flag (punk mixed with thrash metal), and Extreme Noise Terror (punk mixed with death metal). Black Flag was really the first band to start the crust trend. Obviously they got their influences from Venom and Slayer, who formed right before Scum was released. I personally have been growing up listening to Napalm Death due to my older sister playing it in her car and at her house a lot. Out of all of the works of art that Napalm Death has produced, Scum still stands out to me as being a huge landmark in music and a masterpiece.

Scum has a quality that for some reason I love, which is the low quality recording quality. I have this weakness for music that has been recorded with a very raw sound, and very little editing. It shows basically that the band doesn't need any editing to make the recordings better (and also that the band/record label didn't have the equipment or money to edit them). Scum also covers a huge variety of genres, such as hardcore punk, crust, grindcore, brutal death, thrash death, death metal, drone, and speed metal. And to just about every album, there are downsides. The biggest ones are that Lee's vocal style is something that has to take some getting used to, and the drummer uses way too much symbols in some songs. Otherwise, the creativity is outstanding, and the musicianship is very enjoyable. The really fuzzy distortion that the bassist uses sounds really interesting when he plays alone, but it really adds a different kind of distortion to the band's music that sounds outstanding. I would recommend looking at the lyrics for this album, because most of them really give a realistic and accurate view of the mainstream style of living from the perspective of a metalhead that is far away from everything mainstream.

This isn't an album that was meant to be partially listened to. To get the best enjoyment from this album, listen to it when you know you won't get interrupted or have to skip songs. Otherwise, you won't feel truly satisfied. The song that stands out to me the most is the title song. It's obviously the song that they worked on and practiced the most. Divine Death and Parasites are really influential songs that really play around with the elements of thrash metal and grindcore. I noticed that this album possesses the shortest song in existence. You Suffer is about .4 seconds long! That's less than half a second! This album would impress mostly people who are diehard fans of brutal music. This would also be a good album to show people who are still new to the elements of brutal metal. Since first listening to them when I was 12, I have seen them perform twice; both of those times being an amazingly brutal experience, this gets 18/20.