No Cillit Bang is gonna purify this utter filth!
Meditations of Filth is the debut album by Stockholm Death Grinders CHILD. I am slightly worried by the PR blurb which purports these 17 tracks as the Black album of Grindcore. Hmmm – what is that all about?
Well I suppose if the intent is to show the accessibility that CHILD offers to those that may be wary of dipping their clean lower pinkies in Grinds murky waters I kinda get it …kinda.
What these Swedes offer is blistering paced punky, grindy, Death n Roll. The production is awful. So awful it has to be deliberate, the riffs assault the ears like chunky soup spewed from an angry street punk’s gullet. Only the drums survive with some clarity. But oooooooooooh it hits the spot.
The band alternate between longer, groovier tracks filled with big chunky death metal riffs (2 mins), to mid length furious Grind tracks that get the heart and limbs pumping (1 min 30 s mark) to sub 60 sec blasts and eerie interludes. It’s a wonderfully constructed album.
The modern Napalm Death sounding “The God Furnace” is thunderous rushing from the traps like a thoroughbred before getting trapped in some sticky prehistoric tar pit of dirty sludge riffing. To label this album grindcore is unfair pigeonholing for these ears. “Meditations in Filth” has the qualities to transcend subgenres and reach out to penetrate and pollute the lugholes of punks, hardcore folk, DM diehards and Grinders alike. I had to take a moment there as “Abattoir of Minds” just burst forth and swung me round by the nipples. It’s like Carcass and Entombed having a rancid pyjama party with Rotten Sound and Doom.
Talking of CHILDS countrymen “Sweating Gold” has a delicious Entombed coating on it with added blasts. A truly tasty snack.
As “She Came from the Marsh” starts the surf sounding guitar into makes me think I am about to be assaulted by someone dressed in a bowling shirt playing Deadbolt and Cramps covers. Oh no. This is a down and dirty bayou romp through a Scandinavian forest where the Western guitar licks get smothered in filthy Black Metal infused putridity .
For a debut CHILD have set out their stall with aplomb. Imagine that stall being next to the shack from Evil Dead with every tainted beverage sold spiked with fermented mushrooms and salted liquorice. Yeah that’s the stuff.
(8.5 /10 Matt Mason)
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