Music Review: Expurgo – Burial Ground (2010)

By DEVDUTT NAWALKAR

Fucking South America huh? Pumping out the most inhuman in all that is extreme metal since..whenever? Expurgo are a recent discovery for me, but their strain of Terrorizer-style grindcore tickles all my sweet spots and leaves me gasping for more…breath. This is immaculately played and produced grind with the occasional solo strewn here and there, but by and large, this thing will take some names. This is what Darker Days Ahead should have been instead of the half slice of mouldy, stagnant pizza that it turned out to be, but I digress.

Expurgo are from Brazil so token ferocity is a given. Their zombie-themed art is a nice departure from the general aesthetic one would expect from their sort of grind; this is distinctly Euro-flavored with nods to more recent works of luminaries like Dead Infection, Squash Bowels, and Regurgitate. No gore, all punk, crust and grind. They also infuse a healthy dose of hardcore-style breakdowns but as is the basic tenet that all *good* bands understand –  a breakdown never outstays its welcome by half.

The drumming is busy, busy, busy! The blasts on this thing have to be heard to believed; trust me, they don’t happen all the time because the general theme is a steady beat, but when they do come on, they lapse into a blur that can only be likened to a hummingbird in action. Not that I would know what a hummingbird’s wings would sound like flapping, but I like to think they’d sound like Expurgo blasting. Expurgobird!

All in all, this is a grind fan’s bread and butter with caviar on the side. At their fastest, few bands can rival these guys, but Expurgo know how to chuck in some wicked grooves and breathers. The vocals stay on the lower side of the fine line segregating snarls and growls and often venture into outright death grunts. That’s rare of itself for this type of grind where vitriol finds release in shrieks and screams. Great band.

MORE ALBUM REVIEWS BY DEVDUTT:

Absorbed In The Nethervoid | Farseeing The Paranormal Abysm | Fourth Reich | Profonatitas de Domonatia | Southern Storm

 

 

Music Review: Brutal Truth – End Time (2011)

Grindcore stalwarts Brutal Truth return with a noisy album that doesn’t offer much to pick from unless you’ve been expecting basic grind. End Time has 23 tracks – songs, if you want to call them that – and amidst the scarce but welcome guitar squeals and shouted-out hoarseness – are pleasant song titles like Celebratory Gunfire and Fuck Cancer. Clanging away almost throughout, Brutal Truth offers respite by way of Warm Embrace Of Poverty, making you wish there was more of controlled harshness on End Time. The production drowns out the interesting riffing, bringing the drums and shouts upfront. Brutal Truth can be interesting only when they structure their songs or go all-out like they do on Control Room.

Music Review: Misled By Certainty

Listening to Cephalic Carnage’s latest feels like being slapped in the face a few times. Misled By Certainty is not all grind, and is for most part technical death metal done extremely well. Musically brilliant throughout, Cephalic Carnage go into several directions on whenever they feel like without loosening their iron grip on your attention while your mind is molested into agreeing with them, even when your unbelieving ears hear a saxophone. The singer does so many variations that the vocals never sound boring or tired at any point, and as for the bassist, guitarists and drummer, well… they’re all fucking insane. Misled By Certainty is very unpredictable and highly enjoyable.

RATING: 4/5