Breakbeat Grindcore? Sounds like a subgenre that would have got Earache chomping at the bit in the early noughties when they were getting excited over Gabber and everything electronic.
Bloodbox was born out of NZ Death Metallers Vext in 1999 when CyZERNOBrG and Megalith X moved to Ireland via London. They embraced electronics and mixed jungle, drum n bass with heavy guitars to create a new subgenre. Four years later they headed back to NZ performing a few times before disappearing in 2013 to resurface last year with a new vocalist Sacrist D’Aeth of NZ Black Metallers Skuldom adding harsh screams. The trio took to the studio and recorded this 17minute blast of fucked up noise – Post Human Disorder.
The grind parts are furious and brutal and D’Aeth’s vocals bring a demonic Black Metal iciness to the madness whilst CyZERNOBrG has more of a Crust punk/ Phil Vane style intensity.
There is a real mix of styles throughout this short album. The highlight for me is, bizarrely, a cover. Discharge’s “The Nightmare Continues” which see’s Bloodbox pay homage to the D-Beat legends mixing a straight up furious cover with some breakbeats and gabber sections to great effect losing none of the original’s filth and fury.
Filth is the best descriptor for this album. Every track sounds disgustingly vile and dripping with bile snot and detritus. The use of electronics remains organic as if the sequencers and machines used are covered in oozing boils and pustules rather than USB ports and male/female inputs.
Each track is so short – few go over 90 seconds- that just as my battered brain begins to get into the groove that Bloodbox are furrowing the next track has begun and I am grasping to find the next texture. The soft sci-fi synthwave section in “One With Dirt” hits really hard due to the contrast it creates. It is like getting a shot of strawberry blancmange in a Naga Chilli. It then makes the old school gabber breaks of “Tooth for Tooth” even harsher- proper gurning hardcore for 90’s Dutch folk.
Talking of Hardcore – “Turn The Tide” seems to mix Hardcore of the punk flavour with big beat Hardcore techno and those vile Black Metal rasps. Ha this is fun!
If you are going to mix up Death Metal, Grindcore, Breakbeat , Techno and Black Metal you gotta do it in short sharp spiky slabs. Long enough to allow all the parts to seep through but not too long to allow complacency. This is a flurry of punches from a ripped and lean Bloodbox(er) looking to land blows and devastate.
It does it pretty well.
(7/10 Matt Mason)
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