So, we’re still locked up. We’re still thinking about learning new hobbies then giving them up after a day. Netflix has run out of original content and is secretly mining Amazon for their shows. But there is still grind. Thank. Fuck. You’d think I’d have hundreds of new suggestions for you with all the free time for listening I’ve found myself with, but – nope. Too lazy. Thankfully I missed a few in March/April and they’ve popped up in here. East Coast mathgrind, blackened hardcore en Francaise, and finally some Finnish thrashing for fans of double denim and pubs that you could smoke in. Butter yourself up, there’s grinding to do.
Lock Up Your Daughters (Records)
From the same crowded scene that’s absolutely bursting with talent like Detach The Islands, Semaphore, and Juan Bond – New York, New York’s Thin appear caught in a blizzard of odd time sigs and weedly-whammy string puzzles. Last month’s dawn LP is a weird, bubbling pitcher of slippery, electrified and razor-backed eels. Dangerous, delicious, and probably shouldn’t be presented to the general public. Fans of The Locust, Daughters, and (a more recent reference for you kids) Fawn Limbs will love all the stuttering, screeching wails of both human voice and guitar hocus-pocus.
Other than a soft ditty and a pointedly brief track that’s just one blast, the bulk of dawn is split between dry, janky guitars that crush and tumble over laser sounds you’d make when playing with other kids plastic ray guns; you weren’t familiar with the make, model, or galaxy where they’d acquired it so you just riffed. No track lasts too long but it still laden with shifting grooves, moves, and encourages the kind of stinky-riff face you might make digging change out of a particularly dirty couch seat. Before The Armed turned into full-blown space-art rockers, their chaotic math metal was intimidating and extremely satisfying for the mathematically inclined. That’s Thin’s responsibility now.
New French Extremity
Like the string of violence-laden 00’s films of their country, France’s Pilori lean heavy into the dark and cold atmosphere of extreme art. There’s not a lot of grind in the debut track from their new record À Nos Morts, and the only blasting comes in one of the track’s more blackened sections, but it’s grim and gruesome in just the right amount. Less Martyrs and more Haute Tension, but without the shit final act reveal. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you just haven’t seen those movies, I guess.
Early signs point to this record sounding absolutely huge – this track aided in particular by a hefty appearance from Dylan Walker (Full of Hell, Sightless Pit). The guitar tone will be familiar to anyone who’s ever looked at a guitar meme, but it’s dense rather than rough in this iteration. The kick drums and floor toms echo like thunderclaps in a few sections that might have taken a few sessions with Cult Leader, but it’s a pleasant similarity rather than a cloying one; the slower bits leaning into doom-y territory. Or as doomy as a dark hardcore band can get without the Primitive Man sirens starting to bellow. Looking forward to this record hitting the same spots for me as This Gift Is A Curse did last year.
Grind That Thrashes, Trashes, and Probably Drops A Lot of Cigarette Ashes
Finland’s brutally poetic grinders Feastem were last seen on a split with blog favourites and Euro neighbours (4381.6 km apart by road, but yeah, neighbours) Teething. Their hundred miles a minute grind was true to their form, but the thrashing Finns are at their best beast in a longer form, I reckon. Graveyard Earth proves that the long wait for a full-length has been worth it. Considering how full tilt 95% of the record is, it manages to do a brass baws job of keeping things fun. Fun, politically aware grindcore that you can cautiously mosh to at home at 4am; while everyone else in the house is still awake. Watching you. Thinking you’re a tit.
By the nature of the band’s speed-metal approach to playing fast riffs over every.single.type.of.blastbeat.ever, I am not sure which tracks I’ve been enjoying more than others, as I’ve been using the record to power up to play the later stages of Doom Eternal on the harder settings. Graveyard Earth has to be exciting for thrash and punk freaks worldwide. It’s the connective tissue between all the fast and nasty music fans, and would definitely be a live show worthy of breaking social distancing rules to push-mosh ’til you drop.