Never-Ending Holocaust

Looking at the cover for this album, I immediately though: "Yup. Anarchist crust, without a doubt." Turned out this packed an even bigger wallop to the head, because this album strikes out with all the subtlety of cutting grandma's birthday cake with a chainsaw.

Far from being your run-of-the-mill crust album, this still carries with it the necessary influences from bands such as Excrement of War, Disrupt and old Extreme Noise Terror, even if they are somewhat in the background. This influence is primarily felt in the dual vocal attack, alternating a hoarse bark with a guttural roar. Centre stage here is firmly taken by a savage dose of death metal spattered grindcore, mostly reminding me of what Rotten Sound has done these last 15 or so years. The sound is dominated by the gritty chainsaw guitars, bearing with them a hint of that classic Boss HM-2 sound that put Sweden firmly on the map some 30+ years ago. Underpinned by a drum machine that sounds utterly amazing (if I didn't know better, I'd have sworn it was a real person handling percussion), and is programmed to the nines, seamlessly delivering blast beat insanity and thrash-bashing rage throughout, and this until the final cut "Industrialized Murder" comes along. Here the band loosens the accelerator completely, delivering a heavy scorcher of a slow burner to lead the listener out of this devastating cinder block of an album. The bulk of this record rages forth at a pace that switches between fast and faster, oozing frenetic energy everywhere, coupled with high doses of manic aggression, only seldom leaving room for some stomping midtempo to sneak in. Granted, it has that effect of sounding like one long song, but the conviction with how it's all presented (read: forced into your ears) makes that a point worth neglecting. At least for me, that is.

This album is a veritable bomb blast when it comes to the music, and I love it all the more for it, but it also has a bunch of that thing that I grow tired of very easily, and that are spoken samples. In the hands of Mass Extinction, these snippets serve as tools to get their message across, and I definitely respect them for it, but as with almost every other act that uses this trick, I'm not that crazy about 'em. Good thing the music is of such a magnitude that I'm more than willing to put aside my aversion for this, and just go with the insane flow that this album spews forth. It's just that good.

This is one that I would totally recommend to all into powerful grindcore with crust and death metal edges to it. It's absolutely massive in sound, while delivering high standards of execution throughout. It's a release that should be able to interest those into stuff like Nasum, Wormrot, Gadget and the aforementioned Rotten Sound, but those into the heavier crust acts like Nuclear Death Terror or Mass Genocide Terror should be able to get on board with it as well.