Published on May 9, 2001
Telling someone these days that you listen to grindcore metal is
almost like admitting you enjoy French-kissing light sockets. (No,
Doctor, I
don’t do that anymore; I’m married.) The look you get from
some of the people you tell this to is kind of like the look your
dog gives you when you feed it peanut butter. How could anyone like
music which sounds like the soundtrack for the slaughter of a goat,
they may wonder.
Well, truth be told, I can’t explain why I like grindcore. I
mean, it’s easier to decipher a financial briefing from Alan
Greenspan after he’s had a dozen banana daiquiris than trying to
make sense of the grunts, bellows and screams. But I can’t help
myself; I
like grindcore. I like the energy that’s poured into the
songs and the raw electricity of the instruments.
Take the group Failed Humanity, for instance. Unlike many of
their fellow bands, this quintet isn’t afraid to take a song and
stretch it into the five or six-minute ranges – something once
unheard of for this style of music. Their debut effort
The Sound Of Razors Through Flesh shows a group who are
still learning all the quirks of each individual in the band, but
have what it takes to be a major player in a very specialized field
of music.
The group – vocalist Adam Catchpole, guitarists Matt Hoban and
Dan Beadle, bassist Al Todd and drummer Zac O’Neil – often lay down
tempos that would give a metronome a heart attack. Deciphering
Catchpole? Maybe in another lifetime. Trying to keep up with the
dual guitar attack? You first, buddy. Yet, despite the complexities
of the band, they are able to create music which is surprisingly
approachable, and easy to get sucked into on just the first
listen.
Tracks like “Unleashed Defiance,” “To Die A Thousand Times” and
the title track all demonstrate the brute force this group has
musically, while showing that they can indeed write a song that is
recognizable through the feedback, screaming and cymbal crashings.
For the fans who have followed this genre for some time, Failed
Humanity might just be like a cold bottle of water thrown into the
middle of a mosh pit.
Granted,
The Sound Of Razors Through Flesh isn’t the kind of album
for everyone – but, then again, you probably wouldn’t grab this as
an impulse buy while walking through Best Buy. The true devotee of
grindcore will enjoy smashing their heads into the wall to this
one, while the uneducated simply watch and wonder just what is
going on. Ah, well… to each their own.