Abuse

It gives me great statsifaction to be the first person at metal-archives.com to present curious grind freaks with a review of this extremely difficult to obtain full length album from the now defunct New Orleans band: Mule Skinner.

Abuse is the final release from Mule skinner and their only full length album, however, it is a fine representation of a talented grind band with enormous potential, whose career came to a sudden end. This album was released nearly a decade ago on Sludge records, but has never seen wide distribution and as time goes on it is becoming increasingly difficult to find. I was lucky enough to snare a copy when Ben Falgoust (Soilent Green/Goatwhore) released 75 brand spanking new copies on www.crashandburncartel.com ( check site for availability), and I was blessed with a copy of this solid, criminally underrated release, that would be a great purchase for extreme metal collectors and hardened grind fiends.

In true grindcore tradition, Mule Skinner rip and tear their way through 23 intense tracks in about 35 odd minutes. Each track is a crushing, tornado of punk infused crusty grind with loads of blast beats, crushing breakdowns, odd riffs, grunted vocals and raw power. Mule Skinner are unmistakenly a grindcore band but unlike any other that you have heard. The vocals are nothing spectacular, just solid grunts with some occasional deeper growls and higher pitched stuff, it all fits the music well though and the occasional variations keep the vocals from being stale and monotonous.

The skinbashing honours are handled by Todd Capiton, known for his work with fellow New Orlean's grinders, Flesh Parade. Capiton's powerhouse performance adds lots of energy to the album, as he delivers a varied and pummelling performance.

The production may turn off certain grind fans used to the more polished modern grind stuff ( e.g. Nasum, Leng Tch'e etc...) but it really doesn't take anything away from the album. If anything the raw production reminds me of earlier Pig Destroyer releases, by the fact that the recording sounds kind of "cheap", adding a real "garage grind" vibe but still offering plenty of clarity. The mix is nice and even, though the vocals are sometimes buried a little too deep in the mix. The bass drums sound surprisingly good, with a thick, full sound and nicley placed in the mix.

Abuse may not be the finest example of grind but it is a more then worthwhile purchase outshining many grind bands from today and the mid 90's era where this album was spawned. The lack of availability of this release is even more motivation for you grind freaks to track this fucker down and become one of only a select amount of people lucky enough to own this killer, underappreciated grindcore gem. No direspect to the guys in flesh Parade but this album is a superior release to anything Flesh Parade has come out with thus far in their career.