Among my favourite pasttimes I would have to say trawling Bandcamp is one of them. Particularly Grind and its various forms. I like the nastiness and the envelope pushing extremity this platform offers. Sure, I find a lot of pure garbage but every now and then I stumble across gems like Foreskin Decapitation and Bouquet (flower themed Grind). It’s a means to get as silly as you like and for me that’s a real winner.
A band who are very much attached to this scene but in the higher echelons would be Phoenix Arizona based Grind trio Fluids. Their debut album Explorative Practices was a tour de force, a sheer voice of disgust for the grumbling underbelly of sickening Goregrind society. Following the massive praise of this came Ignorance Exalted and further to this we are now gifted Not Dark Yet, the bands third full length release. Does it hold up as well as its predecessors?
Genesis Spoiled opens with a pretty unnerving sample about self-harm/ suicide, it’s pretty messed up. The Industrial drums behind aid in the build-up before the track goes all out. It’s a damn long sample but I’ll allow it as some sort of Mortician worship. Then in come those huge, excessively distorted guitars and guttural vocals, this is pure Goregrind mastery, laced with almost Cybergrind qualities. Hope Forgotten keeps this up, I adore the electronic element to Fluids music here, just a fantastic touch that separates them from so many others in the Grind scene. Dignity Swindled then brings in this fantastic groove element that is so perfect, love it.
Getting into the second half there is a real sense of renewal Mercy Gelded has a pretty relaxed opening followed by some pretty meaty Slamming energy, such a great mixture of Extreme Metal styles on this record. Honor Tainted and Trust Bargained act as a padding, short, kind of filler, but none the less full of Cybergrind power. This is of course all ready for the slow arising of Life Spent, hypnotic sampling creates an atmosphere for 80’s Horror infused Goregrind, man this release is the real deal. The album really could have ended there, but no, we get Humanity Reviled an eight minute plus track that really summarises Fluids eclectic sound.
This is basically peak Grind, Not Dark Yet takes all of the elements for the underbelly of the online Grind scene and puts them into a well-rounded album that doesn’t try to be so extreme that it becomes unlistenable or some weird sort of Gorenoise. Basically look at it like this, I’ve got nothing against the masses of filth pumped out by the internet but a lot of it is just barbarity for the sake of it, this is refined. Truly a spectacle and one which should be held in high regard.
(9/10 George Caley)
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