“The definitive ending to the piloted bullet hell grind album series started in 1992…” reads the wonderful on point PR. And if that sparks the synapses of recognition then you may well be bracing yourself for the return of the grind space cowboys.
Indeed. This is two thirds of Discorance Axis. David Chang (vocals, video game designing, figure painting and general sci-fi and anime geek outs) and Rob Marton (bass and that in my opinion, unique guitar approach to grind) joined by ex-Cohol drummer Kyosuke Nakano (Dave Witt is probably still playing in twenty projects simultaneously…and Nakano is just a fantastic drummer anyway regardless). Why so excited Giz? Well for me Discordance Axis were…Ah they were the band that opened the doors of grindcore to me, the ones that made sense of it. They turned noise into perfect haikus; discipline control and intent, saying all they wanted to in a minute and stopping on a pinhead. They had concerns so far away from gore or radical politics. They were the grind cowboys, noise ‘s answer to Cowboy Bebop.
They were sublime.
Normally therefore you would be concerned about any return. Would it tarnish their history? Be a pale shadow? Well strangely I took one look at the band name and artwork and thought….Ok, excited. This looks thought out…Then I heard the teaser track ‘Yorha’, which also opens the album and…
I pieced my shattered skull back together. Piloted bullet grin hell indeed. Roaring, crashing, the riffs piling in over each other and that weird almost groove-ghost haunting the song but at breakneck speed. Just…just everything a Discordance Axis fan needs. In a minute and a half.
The band sound tight as ever Discordance Axis did, the drumming perfectly shoring up the clatter and the vocals out there. Are there differences? Well sure but not huge ones. Nuance I’d say. ‘Dagger Before Me’, and epic at two and a half minutes, showcases more slower paces and the kind of off kilter riff melody that Drowningman at their Rock ‘n’ Roll Killing Machine height produced. But make no mistake this is ten tracks of imperial quality grind. The warp-speed wake on tracks like ‘Stars Hide Your Fires’ and ‘Kaine’ will tear apart the fabric of your being. ‘Cinder’ has a hook with the pull of a gravity well. Closer ‘Dominion’ subdues in under a minute.
Ah, this is just brilliantly shining grind. It shows how much the genre can offer. Certainly the best grind I’ve heard since Terrifyer and probably since The Inalienable Dreamless. Yes. Indeed.
Scintillating talent on display; I cannot overstate how stunning the guitar work and song-writing is on this. Everything just hits every target full on with their plasma guns.
Borderline, maverick, genius; this is life affirming, grin inducing hyper-grind that takes you places no other grind band can or wants to. If this really is the definitive ending then No One Knows What The Dead Think have gone out in a perfect, beautiful firestorm.
Catch you later grind cowboys, catch you later…
(9.5/10 Gizmo)
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