Dirty Sanchez Cartel

Time to pick up another EP from my favourite memegrind band. I am of course talking about the Hessian duo that operates under the name Al Goregrind. Rarely does one find a more pun-y band name that is both completely stupid and brilliant at the same time. This time around we're taking a look at their 2013 EP Dirty Sanchez Cartel, which (once again) takes a swing at a popcultural meme about half a decade after it stopped being funny.

The music presented on this 13-minute EP is about as stale and uninspired as the jokes they try to pull off and the samples they used. The band plays a rough mix of slammy brutal death, groovy goregrind and stomping death metal that is too simple and too complex at the same time. They really want to strive on chaos and try to implement some technical guitar work and fast, disorganized drumm(comput)ing which completely destroys any groove the songs might've had. At the same time, the majority of the riffs rely heavily on one-note-y simplicity and taking way to long before switching things up again. The only method the band seems to know to spice things up is over-using samples (e.g. from South Park) which are kicking the already limping song structures into their poplits. On top of that chaotic, frantic nonsense come the vocals, compromised of generic grunts, gurgling and occasional pig squeals that are executed half-competently and are easily the best part of the record. They are brutal, aggressive and yet somewhat groovy, invoking a sadistic, gory mood while also helping to sort the chaotic instrumentation at least a little. Sadly they can't make up for all the other nonsense that is going on and only marginally improve the listening experience. Despite being a very short EP, I was already getting a headache half-way through and didn't really want to finish it.

Overall, Al Goregrind's 6th release is yet again very much a hit-and-miss operation. While they appear to be trying to offer a somewhat varied and interesting blend of brutal death and goregrind, it does fall flat in terms of songwriting, execution and presentation. The sound is shit, the drum computer annoyingly artificial sounding, the shifts within the songs don't really make sense, the drum fury does not fit the guitars' simplicity and the samples rip apart any groove that might've emerged from the music. Dirty Sanchez Cartel once again shows a band that does not quite know what exactly they want to do with their ideas.... unless they simply don't care, you know, for the lulz. Either way, stay away from this.