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Mumakil

Behold the Failure

Written by: AB on 23/07/2009 04:35:11

That's odd. Normally bands with lame names from Lord of the Rings/Tolkien either play black metal or power metal. Mumakil ("Mumakil" is plural for the big ass war elephants (the "oliphant") in LotR, in case you didn't know) here is in an entirely different genre, though, as they play a death influenced slap of vicious grindcore. Managing to go through 27 songs in about 35 minutes, the elephant-boys easily convince us that this is, indeed, grindcore, and that I shouldn't dwell too long on track by track reviewing.

Besides impressing upon us their love of short songs, the hobbit fans waste no time fucking about, but rather explode in one's face with their relentless death metal-tinged grind. To my great joy, the fellowship of the grind here has realized that harsh growls just work so much better in grindcore than the sadly often seen and heard hardcore roars. There are also a few screams scattered about here and there that would make any ringwraith fart with glee, but mostly we are treated to ye goode ol' reliable growl.

Instrument-wise, the bass is as inaudible as Legolas is gay - a 'feature' with much extreme metal that continues to amaze me; we waste such a cool instrument by making it impossible to make out? The drums are suitably chaotic and blasting to impress even the stupidest of orcs (or grind fan, though the difference isn't very big). The riffs are really cool throughout the album, again showing the death metal influence, which is another reason I kinda like this record as it isn't entirely chaotic, but is actually able to create some manageable music.

Of course Mumakil is plagued by some of the usual grindcore 'problems'. They play grindcore; they have to be. I know it's a part of the genre, but stupid anti-everything rooted wordplays such as "I-Bomb" and "Pisskeeper" don't really work that well anymore. Besides, grindcore never really provoked any emotion or created an atmosphere for me, as a lot of other extreme metal can, and Mumakil doesn't change that. However, it has to be said that while they do their thing with all the subtlety of a drunken cave troll and with zero variation, they do a right proper job at it, as long as it is viewed within the confinements of the genre. Lastly, let me just apologize for the blunt, yet stupid Lord of the Rings comments throughout the review; they had it coming.

Download: Doomed, The Order Is Fucked Up
For the fans of: early Brutal Truth at double speed
Listen: Myspace.com

Release date 31.03.2009
Relapse Records