Záškuby chaosu

I started writing this review a while ago, and with their third LP around the corner, I figured I might as well finish it.

Three years after their debut full-length, Gride came back with a release that's even more ambitious on all fronts. The album cover ended up being a psychotic horror collage by the artist Petr Mareček this time around, and the logo is graffiti-like (including an extra one in the booklet). The CD also features a bunch of bonus tracks, which I will not cover.

As I said already, this record is more ambitious than the last one, which is evident from the length alone – the same amount of tracks but around 30% more runtime. Sure, some of it is samples, but the point still stands. The production, which was fine on the last record, got even better, particularly Čert hits even harder from behind his drum kit, while the frenetic guitars and bass shred through every second. Nothing is buried in the mix, no instrument overpowers the rest and all members have their fair share of moments where they get to shine. Gride are easily at their most cohesive and synchronized on this record.

Musically, Záškuby chaosu is a successor to Horizont událostí. Grind with a solid slab of hardcore underneath, as well as thought-out noise parts and samples. The thrashy riffs are an easy highlight, but I have several favourite moments from each band member on this album; if I had to pick just one song, it would be Dlouhé dny v nejistotě. Iny's vocals across Gride's discography follow a tendency to get more intelligible over time, while still maintaining their impact and charisma. Lyrics were yet another aspect I praised on Horizont událostí, and have been rock solid since the very early days of Gride. Each track takes a jab at a certain aspect of society, whether it's greed, vanity, consumerism, bureaucracy, overly conformist beliefs, etc. These topics are presented with a high degree of artistic merit, and are more or less hidden in between the lines, requiring some thought to truly understand.

My only gripe with this release are the last two tracks. Simply put, Nahota, ochablost, disfunkce just overstays its welcome. Gride can do a solid song of around two and a half minutes, whether it includes a sample or not, and many of them are my absolute favourites (Dlouhé dny v nejistotě, Někdo tu byl, Ňesem si v sobě smrt, to name a few), but four minutes get too repetitive. The last song is a Filthy Christians cover, from their solid yet definitely not legendary release titled Mean. You can definitely hear that English is not Iny's first language, and it's just a bit weak (I know the original wasn't made by a native speaker either, but still).

Lastly I want to say that this album rewards repeated listens. I don't recall how many spins it took me to truly discover and appreciate every nuance, but I sure enjoyed every minute of it.