It’s a cold, grim and rainy day. What I need to perk things right up is some Swedish Grindcore with a dirty dose of death metal added.  Lurching into life in 2017 this is the third release and second full length effort from the Gothenburg trio following on from “The Fear Takes Hold” from 2020.

The accompanying PR blurb suggest these chaps for fans of Rotten Sound and Bathtub Shitter and whilst I can see the similarities – especially with the former the best comparison for me is with Grind royalty Brutal Truth.  This album is full and meaty – 11 tracks which are allowed to grow and flourish beyond and frenetic blur. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of blastbeats and tumultuous down picked riffs to keep the most chaos seeking miscreant happy. The opener “Dreamflesh Navigator” rips through my speakers like a straight razor through a tendon.  Frederik Rojas is kept busy providing both the guitars and bass and he chops like a mad butcher whilst Magnus Dahlin pummels the fuck out of the skins to keep up. Vocalist Henrik Blomkvist flits between high pitched barks and Kevin Sharp style gruffness to great effect giving a great dual dimension to the songs. “Born In Hell” is angular and unhinged mixing discordant riffs with some big ballsy hardcore style riffs and a simply delicious China cymbal ting. I get some old Medulla Nocte vibes offa this one.

The title track starts with a scream/squeal then appears to career off the track like a fairground ride gone wrong – it is reckless in all the best ways, walking a fine line where it teeters on chaos but reins itself in to keep the soul of the track intact and still with a groove.

It is with “The Wheel” that the big Lilker style grooves come out – a riff so chunky it would be thrown out of a lift for weight limit violations. A proper gnarly knuckle dragging mosh track which flips into mathematic grindcore mania at regular intervals followed by old skool skate thrash lead breaks. Glorious madness.  Time for some hefty DeathGrind next with “Brainworm” – get some latter day Napalm Death vibes plus a slab of molten Blowtorch Slaughter from gorgeous George’s lot whilst “Falling Through a World of Wounds” mixes in some industrial sounds for a very gritty urban effect – this feels like a Brutalist building dropping on your ears.

The pulverization of ears and psyche shows no sign of abating with “Malediction” which flys past like a barbed-wire covered drone through a nudist beach before giving way to the blistering fast “The Last Laugh” which jerks and spins like an octopus with one tentacle in a plug socket.  Proper old skool grind baby!

A discordant riff and off beat drum roll starts off “Nothing Grows Here” and that is how this baby goes – angular, mathy jazzy grooves abound. The freeform stylings are accessible enough and glued to razor sharp riffs so I am drawn to it rather than repelled. Damn tractor beam rockers!

No need for sci-fi technology with “Forever Sleep” just 69 seconds of chunky brutality. Ooof!  The crushing doomy yet distorted riff that kicks off closer “Eye of An Angry God” feels like sludge at first but then burrows bursts into crazed thrashy death mania with the punky bark of early Sepultura and Entombed fed on a drip of ephedrine.  Sections of frantic horn like guitar riffs give this track a Jazz like quality with a section spiralling off into carnival like madness- listen to get my drift.

Walking Corpse have produced a fucked up anarchic album filled to the brim with pulsating St Vitus dance inducing ditties. Well worth a listen  – it won’t help you put the Xmas Decs up but will help you throat punch carol singers (not really – no carol singers were harmed in this review)

( 8.5 /10 Matt Mason)  

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https://walkingcorpse.bandcamp.com/album/our-hands-your-throat