Grindonesia

Grindcore is known for being very monotonous and lacking in variation. Abhorsick is an exception, as the 16 minute runtime of this album shows by featuring distinguishable sonorities and never resorting to becoming a wall of noise. The focal point of Grindonesia is the riffs, which I appreciate. While these may not exactly be the most unique or memorable riffs, they are played with an attitude that makes the band more anomalous, and if these riffs were developed into full songs rather than short bursts of energy, this record would be great. However, this is where the album unfortunately falls flat. These songs are just too one-dimensional and aren't varied enough to be memorable or striking. As well as this, the the vocals are annoyingly shrill and the production is way too muddy for the treble-heavy sting that grindcore should be.

When I stated earlier that Abhorsick focuses on the riffs, these riffs suffer from a lack of originality. Although the performances are fine and some of the sections are genuinely catchy, such as Emosi Jiwa, there is a blatant influence from Terrorizer here that the band relies too heavily on. The guitar tone is almost identical to World Downfall, and so is the general riffing style. Therefore, deviation is seldom on this release, which really nullifies the quality and overall predication of this band. The music isn't bad, but it never stands out or ventures from the roots of the genre. As a result, Grindonesia is a fine album, but is too generic and depthless to return to.