Monday, February 4, 2013

Rotten Sound - "Species At War" Review

Hard to think of better ways to close out the first month of 2013 than a new EP from Finnish lords of the blast, Rotten Sound. A band that you can pretty much be guaranteed will deliver the goods with each new release. This new 6 track EP, entitled "Species At War", is the excellent follow up to their 2011 full length, "Cursed". A record that I am still a huge fan of, and that I feel has gotten pretty under appreciated in their discography. "Species At War" continues the "blast then groove" style of grindcore that RS have perfected over their last few releases, and stands out as one of their least subtle releases since the "Napalm" EP. From the almost crude looking cover art, to the EP's lyrical concept (*hint*, they wrote a bit about war*). Right away, this EP blares out of your speakers with "Cause", an absolutely unrelenting opening track that pounds and bombards like machine gun punches to the face. But I wouldn't call this EP, as a whole, unrelenting. At least in how it impacted me. The songs here are pretty typical for Rotten Sound at this point, and very little (okay, nothing), stands out as anything new or really all that exciting for the band, and there a couple things that keep this EP from being 100% solid. Such as the 2nd track; which is an under one-minute slower jam, which just sounds like the breakdown to a full song, but they just decided to scrap the fast part. It just sounds incomplete, which is one of the few gripes I had with "Cursed"; the slower tracks lacked substance, or any real need to be included. This is a record that seems like it's made to tide people over before something much larger. I'd be very surprised if the band wasn't working on a new full-length right now. But hey, if you've liked anything that this band has done in the last few years, and you want some good, quick grindcore songs, it's hard to go wrong with this.

Rating: 7/10


~VII

2 comments:

  1. It was a bit disappointing for me as well. I know I shouldn't be complaining about this (hell, I love listening to lo-fi powerviolence that is recorded really really raw), but I don't really like the production here. On the first song specially, I can barely hear any riff underneath the blasts. The guitars could be playing anything there and I wouldn't notices, and that sucks, because I'm sure there's a great riff right there. The second song also feels incomplete for me.

    But I really enjoy that I can pop 8 minutes of pure blast when I'm on my way somewhere. It starts raging, continues doing so, and ends by the time you have arrived. I like it despite all I said before.

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  2. Hi. Weird question, do you have this on vinyl? I ask because I pre-ordered it from Relapse on wax but they keep pushing the date back for the vinyl release. I want to hear this one! In any event, you have a great blog here, I've learned about tons of great new bands from here (Cloud Rat!!!!) so keep up the great work! --Steve

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