These Canadian algebraic grinders have an immense discography of 60 plus releases covering splits, full lengths, EP, demos and have been carving a name for themselves over the last decade and half with some of the most ambitious and terrorizing grind you’ll ever hear. Couple to that the band also likes to wipe the slate clean and offer a different take on their song writing and this ninth full length does just that. Having caught the band live about two years ago I can attest to their utter devastation and all round unbelievable musicianship that held me in awe whilst everyone else was battering the shit out of each other.
“Desire Will Rot” is an album of two halves where the first eight tunes have enough venom and ferocity to send most grind acts scurrying for refuge but also three songs at the end that offer a far more experimental side to the band and listens like Jekyll & Hyde where Hyde arrives first only to be calmed by Jekyll on the latter more experimental tunes. Opening with “Everywhere Yet Nowhere” the song has an obliterating bass line before an incendiary blast detonates into the tune. The vocals are equivalent to using napalm mouthwash as the bands mathematic attitude to riffing is at university level but not without a sense of cohesion to bring it all into one seamless sonic assault.
The power violence mayhem continues with “Shadows Collide” where that bass underpins a scathing vocal dual and insane blasting that is punctuated by riff breaks and those all important teething cracking cymbal smashes. There are some very subtle leads deployed in all aspects of this release and it is this attention to detail that makes Fuck The Facts so damn brilliant. The two part tune of “La Mort” begins with drum fills and an ominous guitar hook that is foreboding and eerie as the song builds calmly with a palpable atmosphere before the second part erupts like a volcanic emission with a molten avalanche of riffs and leads. As this tune fades “Prey” arrives like a bomb and demonstrates that the band can dabble in death metal as well due to the sweeping double kick that is utilised, but this is grind as even the slower section harnesses a manifestly grim side when the sludge style starts but returns quickly to the sonic lunacy.
“Solitude” is berserk and frenzied and ends what I consider is the first part of this release allowing the experimental side on “False Hope” to rear its head. The drum fade in and riff style reminds me of Napalm Death’s melodic period with “Diatribes”, longer in duration a veritable feast of guitar work adorns the song but maintains a grind attitude due to the blasting drums. The riff break is death metal, thunderously heavy and steeped in melody the vocals battles of bellows and banshee shrieks work superbly. At almost eight minutes “Circle” is extremely hushed with vocals delivered like a distant echo as a post rock feel is evident before distorting guitar work creates a nightmarish aura that is embellished with various sound effects. As the tune develops it delves into infra sonic sludge that is accentuated by percussive highlights leaving “Nothing Changes” to finish this breathtaking and outright adventurous release with more ingenuity. The tune languishes in post metal inventiveness preferring to beat the listener with layers of manifest horror due to the dense riffing and dread like ethos it creates.
Fuck The Facts are the pinnacle of grinding destruction and few extreme acts let alone the grind scene can ever come close to the sheer power and inexorable savagery they have recorded on “Desire Will Rot”.
(9/10 Martin Harris)
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