Spanish Grindcore outfit Ernia are a five piece who are trying to do things their own way instead of sticking to the usual stylings in how to write grindcore, a genre which is pretty much known for being intense, fast and well, intensely fast! With two members of modern death metal heavyweights Wormed in their line up, you know whatever is being thrown your way won’t be pulling its punches or letting you off easy, so let’s crack this one open and see how to deal and fail.

“Farewell, Sputnik” opens things up in a chaotic manner. It’s very reminiscent of grind icons Wormrot’s earlier works but there is also the unhinged maniacal energy of U.K. crust titans Fukpig. Sleazy and filthy guitars, relentless double kick and frantic screaming for just shy of 2 minutes sets the tone for the album and what follows next is for the majority, of a similar style. “Q” opts for the howling feedback and slow drum/vocal intro before it explodes to life with a frantic attack of angular guitars and bone rattling bass. It’s more intense than the previous track, largely in part due to it being more consistent with its pacing, managing to sustain a decent groove throughout the wild and unhinged musical assault. Even as it shifts in tempo or style, the groove spine holds strong which allows for some serious headbanging and easy transitions from faster to pounding with minimal fuss.

“Room full of Paper Cranes” has a seriously heavy drum and bass attack as it descends into a chaotic storm of buzzing guitars which stab away with an angular edge to their delivery. The distorted bass tone really fattens the sound and the frantic vocal howling keeps the chaotic vibe going strong. It should come as no surprise then that “frustration Theory”, the following track seems to pull things back to a more controlled form of musical chaos. A significantly slower paced track with a massive presence, it pounds away before the floodgates finally open round the 1:10 mark, where things go off script and it gets wild again with the flailing angular guitars and buzzing riffs. It’s a good shift and despite things going crazy, the heavy low end remains throughout, keeping the pounding feel.

Subsequent tracks, “The Deer Chaser”, “Helium-3” and “Dharma” keep it going and you’d be forgiven for thinking that 7 tracks in and you know what to expect from the rest of this 13 track album. This sadly isn’t the case as track #8, “New Aesops Fables” ruins whatever momentum and consistency the release had with the chaotic energy it was brimming with. Musically it’s a wall of relentless drums and dissonant guitars, heavy enough on its own, but the vocals and lyrics… yeah… The best way to describe it is just spoken word nonsense which just details the buzz so far and creates a significant drop off point for the album.

“A Mute Florist” seems to haul the momentum out of the gutter with the frantic grind attack once more. Jarring angular guitars and a filthy bass sound shift towards a dramatic pseudo-Black Metal inspired ending with the howling vocals and piercing guitars buzzing away but the energy doesn’t feel the same as earlier in the release. “2-D” is initially a slow and lumbering beast. Thick walls of guitar and bass rattle you as it lurches onwards and eventually it picks up momentum. Frenzied vocals and chaotic drums hammer away as some of the intensity of earlier in the album is rediscovered and the following tracks “This Life Is Rotten History” and “The O’Neill Cylinder” keep this up, pulling the album back from the ditch it unceremoniously dumped itself in.

Closing track “Ikigai” seems to be the second major departure from the predominant style of the album. Slow, hauntingly melodic in its composition and featuring a mix of the harsh vocal screams and clean vocals, it’s a 6 minute long song coated with a despair laden atmosphere and a sense of finality about it, fitting with it being the final track of the record. As it progresses, there is a lull in the track where you expect it to wrap up but this false finish leads to a blistering grind attack for the final two minutes, sandwiching in one last dose of blasts and groove for good measure before this 33 minute storm finally breaks.

In all, Ernia for the most part have a solid release here. It’s fast, intense and pretty in your face like most good grind and crust. Aside from the shitshow track in the middle of the album, it’s pretty good listening and shows good promise, just do yourself a favour and skip ‘New Aesops Fables’ for your own sense of enjoyment.

(7/10 Fraggle)

https://www.facebook.com/ErniaTheBand

https://ernia.bandcamp.com/album/how-to-deal-with-life-and-fail-grindcore