The Age of Dumb

Sometimes you'll find a grind band that has kick ass lyrics but the music isn't all that, and sometimes you'll find a band with music that kicks ass but the lyrics are just stupid as shit. Afgrund have the pleasure of being the best of both worlds. Music with a message and a purpose isn't always better than bullshit but this is definitely not the case here. Listening to this album makes you think and despise common man in a way that only a grindcore band can really do.

Lyrical themes delve into brainwashing, politics, religion, greed and corruption. Nothing really out of the ordinary for their style but the way the lyrics are written stick out to me as particularly well constructed and poetic. Anti-anti-intellectualist grindcore can sometimes seem cheesy but I don't think that's the case here.

Furious and frantic vocals are the main focal point for me personally. This shit is mostly fast paced and high volume though it does delve into some slower parts here and there. Drums are really everything you would expect from a top notch grind band and I couldn't ask for anything more than what is offered. The guitars are creative though they are mostly in the same hyper tempo the whole time. This doesn't hold any limitations for them though as the songs all sound varied enough. In hindsight it might be hard to pick one track out from the lineup but as listening there's enough to set them all apart.

One of the best things about The Age of Dumb is its duration. You can listen to the whole thing without feeling like it's eating up all of your time. 18 tracks with only one of them clocking in over 2 minutes, the tracks are bite-sized but pack so much of a punch they'll break your teeth.

The most stand out track for me is Le Grand Illusion for its excerpts that serve the motif of the song perfectly.

Where I find this album just slightly lacking or imperfect is mostly just that the tempo is nearly always in the same range and it makes it kind of hard to point to any single part, and instead focus remains on the whole package. Nevertheless I am a nutjob for speedy and vicious music so I'm not too heart trodden about it. With just a little more variation I could easily give this a mid ninety score. Every way you look at it, I don't think you can go wrong setting out 30 minutes to give this full album a listen.

It's kudos from me.