Six Brew Bantha - "S/T" Album Review

It's a beautiful thing when you hear a band really come into there own and break out from demo quality, low-fi, basement recordings and produce a record that stands heads ands shoulders above everything they've done prior. Not that there's anything wrong with having your music sound like it was recorded in someones smelly, dirty hole of a living space, but in Six Brew Bantha's case this new album absolutely facefucks everything they've done prior.
In the past, SBB always came off to me as more of a grimy mincecore band. Again, due to the recording quality and their rather silly band name (lets be real here). Their split with Archagathus from last year did display impressive grind chops though, and left me impressed, but not blown away. This new album however, truly shows what SBB are capable, which is more advanced than anything Agathocles, Archagathus or LT. Dan have/could produce, and shows that this Canadian trio can grind with the best of them. The album starts off very unassuming though, with some studio trickery used to make the recording sound very flat and, well, shitty. But after some fucking around, the band and production explodes into pure awesomeness, and it's all good from then on. The production on this album is just stellar. It's perfect, absolutely wonderful. The guitars are just beefy, especially when the palm muted riffs come into play. I honestly thought this band had a bass player until just a few days ago. The drummer too, holy fuck, this guy can blast. And that snare drum, hot damn. More grind bands need to learn to appreciate a poppy, clangy snare drum. The songs on here all seem well thought out and crafted too, and display a lot of fastcore traits like stop/start riffs and constant tempo changes (which is an easy way to my heart). Occasional grooves pop up, which is always welcome, but for the most part it's just straight blasting and unrelenting brutality. Overall, SBB really have created a great grind album, one of the best I've heard all year. Do yourself a favor and listen/buy this album ASAP. And big up's to everyone that donated to the band after their van crash.

Rating: Strong 8.5/10

~VII