Close But No Cigar Part 4: Gridlink - Orphan

This is probably the hardest cut to my Top 40 Albums of 2011 list I've had to make thus far. The latest brainchild of masterminds Jon Chang and Takafumi Matsubara is 12 minutes of furious and savage ear-fuckery. Orphan (Hydra Head) is one of those albums you just have to put on when you are seething angry. Let the viciousness of it all flow through you as you attempt to "sing" along. I promise you will feel better afterwards. I took an anger management course once. One exercise we had to do was to bring in a song that characterized "who you are". I brought in a Gridlink song. You should have seen the looks on their faces! The look of incredulity on most of their faces was priceless. More than worth the time I wasted in the class. One guy said to me, "That's not music. There are two types of music. Country and Western." You can see what I was dealing with here. I digress. The counselor asked me why I felt that song embodied me. I told her that was what it was like in my head. (Hence anger management class) Furious. Mile-a-minute. Suffocating. Disjointed. Edge of collapse. Nothing nice to say, or at least, no nice what to say it. Full-on attack mode. Harmony? FUCK.THAT. I'm much better now, but I still very much enjoy the blitzing craziness Gridlink offers up on Orphan. I'm serious. If you are feeling stressed, throw this on, rage the fuck out for 12 minutes, and it'll be good times to follow.  If you are wondering why the album didn't make my Top 40 after such a ringing endorsement, it's basically a technicality. It's too short. I want MORE! It doesn't even get me all the way home from work. It helps me stay awake after a night shift. Those last 3-4 minutes when it's over are such a bummer. A longer album would vault it way up the list.

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GRIIIIIIIIIND!!!!!

I'm feeling sort of uninspired as far as writing goes. But it's not that I haven't been listening to anything inspiring. Maybe it's more of a writer's block thing. And also, it may be that I've been listeing to a LOT of grind/grindcore lately and I don't really know how to write about grind.

So basically I'm gonna make this post a little "What's turnin' my crank lately"

Maruta - Forward Into Regression: Love the title. Need to see a lyric sheet. Loaded with loads of fucking sick riffs.

Despise You/Agoraphobic Nosebleed - And On And On: Slap me fuckin' silly with awesome. My first experience with Despise You is a good one.

Noisear - Subvert the Dominant Paradigm: The first 29 tracks are absolutely killer but I've yet to develop the patience for the ~30 min of noise that is the final track.

Gridlink - Orphan: All bow at the altar of Jon Chang.

Magrudergrind - Crusher EP: This is far too short. It's a big tease!!

Rotten Sound - Cursed: I love that tone! Finland doesn't just have good goaltenders. And they're Veggies too!

Trap Them - Darker Handcraft:I have to stop listening to this in the car. I can't sit still! I'm gonna kill someone!

Need to hear the new Phobia. Somebody hook me up!

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Grey Daturas, Gridlink, and Hackneyed

Grey Daturas - Return to Disruption: Showed promise at first with some good drumming but then it deteriorates into noise. Just noise. It isn't so much an album as it is a collection of noise with some songs thrown in. I can just imagine if they tried to throw vocals in there! Horns down.

Gridlink - Amber Grey: Fuck yeah! I do believe all or most of this band is also in Hayaino Daisuki, who fucking rule! This is my kind of grind. Relentless, vicious and with screaming-like-your-life-depends-on-it vocals. I can't understand a single word but who cares!!
Horns UP!!!!!!

Hackneyed - Death Prevails: I read somewhere where someone said that Hackneyed's name suited them because they are hacks. Not true. Sure, there is room for improvement but they are pretty damn good for teenagers. Pretty good regardless of age. Straight up death metal here folks. A couple of track seem kind of lost but I will cut them slack. Germany has done well with these lads! Horns up!