Depression/Mesrine "Die Toten Tage Kommen... Sooner Than Later" CD
[2+2=5]
Another international split from 2+2=5, this time with 12 tracks per band. First up is Depression (Germany), and after an intro track of ambient sounds and distant growling/screaming they plow into some brutal gore grind with guttural vocals and fairly moderate paces with lots of chunky distortion and simple drum patterns. It's somewhat uneventful and all sounds similar, with few songs really jumping out at me, but they do have a solid recording for this style. The vocals aren't too dominant, the guitars are nice and thick and drive the tracks, the drums sound fine, and I'm sure there's some bass thickening things up in there, though you can barely make out much of it. I'm fine with the production, though. They do a few cover songs too, including Turbonegro's "Hate the Kids" and "Behram" by Mesrine. The lyrics are basically dealing with typical violence and junk like that, nothing worth mentioning really. I don't know, I find them to be a pretty boring band. I've heard worse, but nothing they do really grabs me and their occasional use of shrieking high vocals annoys me. "Dare the Pain" is a faster and more energetic track, and by far the strongest as a result. Mesrine (Canada) follows, and aside from the obligatory cover of Depression's "The Mangler", they stick to their own material, which is ridiculously raw grindcore with the usual mix of low growls and high screams. It might be half decent, but the recording is fuckin' crap, so I can barely deal with listening to it. There are definitely some killer breaks, so it's a shame everything is so damn muddy. You can get an idea of what's going on, but it definitely sounds really annoying. I imagine they recorded it pretty crudely, and this would totally fly for a demo or maybe a quick split 7" if the songs were really good, but at the same time, I think the material would come off stronger if the sound was clearer. Vocals and drums definitely lead the charge here, with the guitars kind of collapsing under the muddiness at times. And bass? I don't hear it. Not in tangible notes anyway! Just lots of dirty low-end tones! The layout's alright. Inconsistent, but alright. I like the color scheme and textures on the outer packaging, but the booklet is a little sloppy, especially for Mesrine's half, so that's not really grabbing me at all. I don't know, the odds stack up against this one a little bit. Mesrine's half of the layout blows, but their songs are better, and Depression is just boring. A better band paired with Mesrine could've squeezed by with a 6/10 for this one, but... I guess I'm not enough of a diehard underground dude to really get down with this kind of stuff, eh? (5/10)
Running time - 44:39, Tracks: 24
[Notable tracks: Dare the Pain, Jack, Charles Bishop]
2+2=5 Records - http://www.2plus2equal5.com

This review has been displayed 1847 times.