MASSGRAV - Split album with Blood I Bleed - REVIEWS Do I dare even assume you have never heard of the next band? Listening to Massgrav is like finding a handful of early 80s 5" punk singles - but unknowingly playing them at 45 RPM. They are not simply tuned like a punk band, they sound like the fastest punk band you have ever heard. They are also accomplished musicians who grind and thrash with the best of them. Conceivably you could call them powerviolence. But that's taking the easy way out. My advice is to press play and go along for the ride. Massgrav is perfect for anyone who likes the grind side of punk.
Courtesy of a slightly more animated production job, Massgrav actually come off a touch more desperate and frenzied than even Blood I Bleed, raving like the Tasmanian Devil on a weeklong crack bender. Haha... Här jävlar snackar vi bränn från start till slut. 23 låtar på dryga 20 minuter. 11 med Holländska Blood I Bleed (hette tidigare My Minds Mine) och 12 med dom svenska manglandets okrönta kungar i Massgrav. Och jag måste säga att i sammanhanget så faller sig Blood I Bleed tämligen ointressanta här. För mycket metall i deras grind enligt min smak, mer fokuserat på fart än sväng. Så mina favoritlåtar med dom är dom låtarna där dom dragit ner på tempot som i "Slowmotion apocalypse" och "Clone devotion". Jag ledsnar ganska fort på deras bisvärmsgrind och hade gärna sett flera låtar som dom nyss nämnda. Å andra sidan så är det ingen enkel uppgift att göra sig hörd på en splitskiva med Massgrav, Diskonto undantaget. Över då till ett av mina absoluta favoritband alla kategorier, Massgrav. Ända sedan "Napalm öfver Stureplan" har dom varit ett frekvent spelat band här hemma, och varje skiva välkomnats med öppna armar från mig. Och precis som vanligt så slår Massgrav stenhårt åt alla håll utan några fingrar emellan och deras 3 ackords punkdängor i vansinnestempo går inte att värja sig emot. Det är skönt med band som Massgrav, för man vet vad man får varje gång. Och även denna gången har en supersvängig D-takts dänga smugit sig in. Texterna, som jag tidigare skrev, spottar och slår åt precis alla jävla håll som går, både mot punkscenen och allsköns "höjdare". 2 covers är också med, en Hasse å Tage och en av Just D. Finns inga argument till att inte skaffa denna, men 12 stycken att göra det. Kanske årets platta redan är släppt? The Swedish Massgrav (not to be mistaken with the Canadian Massgrave) take up the duties for the second half of the split CD and spits out twelve Swedish sung anarchist-socio-crust grind and hardcore songs n the veins of older gods like Antisect or Asocial. Clumsier, not tight at all but very charming and brutal as fuck. Just listen to ‘Fuck The Eighties’, which is a classic in my house already. I definitely will hunt down more of these guys! Now we're talking. We're still knee-deep in grindcore territory, but here's a release that actually deserves a little praise. It's a split album between Blood I Bleed, hailing from The Netherlands, and Massgrav, a Swedish grindcore unit. The story doesn't tell how these two bands met or why they decided to write a split album together, so don't ask me about that. What I can tell you, however, is that these are two very different bands playing grindcore each in their own way. Blood I Bleed gets 11 shots to convince the listener that their version of grindcore is better, Massgrav has been given space for 12 tracks to show their worth. I wouldn't have thought of teaming up Blood I Bleed and Massgrav for a split, but thinking about it I'd have to say the combination makes sense. Both acts lets loose nothing but frantic high speed madness, but from different sides of the hardcore matter. And first off we have the Dutchies with 11 tracks of full-on stampede of thrashy blasting. Short outbursts of energy, frustration and anger put into music. The high-strung screams and high-speed drumming forces the adrenaline to ooze from the tunes. The material might not be as varied as their Gods out of monsters album from last year, but it's just as frenzied. Riff-wise it leans heavily on the thrashy crossover side, and in comparison with said album the production lets the riffs take up more space this time around, and I think I sense a little bit more melody as well. Imagine a mix of Hellnation, Y, Magrudergrind and Yacøpsæ in a whirlwind of adrenaline and energy. It's over before you know it and it'll have you begging for more. Oh, Massgrav. I have only two records by them, the split 5″ with Yacopsae and the split 7″ with Widespread Bloodshed (with the infamous “Pick Your Queen” cover art, featuring 80′s icons Samantha Fox and Sabrina Salerno) and DAMN, they’re fun as hell. This is their last recording with their former drummer Indy, who will be later replaced due to a serious problem with his arms. Sad but true. Anyway, Massgrav on this record are, as always, super fun and intense, with their punk injected grinding fastcore. They just seem a strange hybrid between Yacopsae and some Swedish garage punk rock band. As always their lyrics are all in Swedish, so I can’t understand what they’re talking about, but hell, they’re so funny and headbanging-friendly I don’t have to bother too much about that. Thei guitar work si amazing, with a lot of catchy synchopated riffs, held together by a fast and intense drumming. Vocals are all in screaming, with a lot of “singalong” (if I can use this term…) parts mixed with killer moshing blasts (like in Samlaren). In some songs, like Vagen Till Helvetet, they remind me a lot middle 90′s HC oriented Cripple Bastards. Take Hadjo from Patareni, let him jam some of his old tunes with Yacopsae and make them drink enough booze to let ‘em start talk in Swedish and here you are : Massgrav. Damn, you gotta love this band. And, by the way, the artwork of this split CD is simply AWESOME. |
