Rotten Sound

Napalm EP

Written by: PP on 19/04/2010 21:44:06

Brutal, uncompromising, monstrous. That's the three words I'd use when describing the new Rotten Sound EP "Napalm", released a couple of weeks ago via--who else?--prime metal label Relapse Records. These Finns have been turning heads left and right in the grindcore scene for a decade and a half now, often garnering high praise for their sheer technical ability and take-no-prisoners approach to the genre, drawing many comparisons to the grind masters in Napalm Death over the years. Comparisons, which now have been fully materialized on their new EP titled after the legendary band, which features three original Rotten Sound tracks and three classic Napalm Death covers.

"Mindkill" opens things up with some brutal, high-intensity grindcore not for the faint hearted, and definitely not for non-extreme metal fans. How exactly they are able to pack such a lethal dose of freight-train speed technical grindcore into a chaotic one and a half minutes AND keep their sound so tight is a mystery for me, but any fan of the genre should easily recognize the skill and talent these guys possess. "Dead Remains" feels like an apocalypse currently happening within your brain, and "Brainload"'s hyper-speed double-blast pummelling shakes the very ground you're standing on - even if you're using headphones (not recommended for sanity reasons).

The Napalm Death covers on this record are "The Kill", "Missing Link", and "Suffer The Children". While they are reasonably faithfully executed, a Rotten Sound mark is left on the tracks because they're played even faster than the originals. Everyone knows Napalm Death are ridiculously fast at times, so imagine Rotten Sound pounding through the classics with the mission of making them as efficient as humanly possible, and you have Napalm Death - in lightning speed mode. Anyway, with just three original tracks and three covers lasting through just eleven minutes or so, there's a very real risk of "Napalm" leaving a grindcore fan excited for more, but with not enough on offer. Still, it's a good, albeit brief, showing of power from Finland's best grinders.

7

Download: Mindkill
For the fans of: Napalm Death
Listen: Myspace

Release date 30.03.2010
Relapse

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