Unholy Grave/Anarchus "The Human Spectacle" CD
[2+2=5]
Longtime Japanese grinders Unholy Grave get it started on this split with 11 tracks of raw grindcore that sound like they were recorded live... and probably were! Everything kind of has that inconsistent and distant sort of ring to it, with no gaps in the mix and a lot of rugged distortion, but the volume is in check and things fill up the space nicely, so it sounds pretty good considering. The vocals are indecipherable as fuck, but everything else sounds significantly better than most of what I'd consider to be "lo-fi". The music is no frills grind with a good mix of tempos more associated with the classic feel of the genre, so it's not all speed all the time, and the midpaced runs are pretty damn powerful. The songs are about a minute or two each, and they blow right through with no fucking around. Tremolo picking, blasting drums, growling and cackled screams, tactful midpaced breaks... it's all here. There are a couple of throwaway tracks that are much noisier, but "Overprotected Law" even has some weird rocked out stuff happening!? And the lyrics are basically about war and terrorism, nothing more. So you get a lot of brief lines attacking each topic, and that's that. Plain and simple. Anarchus (Mexico) follows with 11 of their own grinding tracks, similar, though faster and heavier in style, and with much more acerbic midrange vocals. I don't like their recording, though. The vocals are way too overpowering, and the bass distortion actually peaks out above the guitars, which are too muddy. The drums and vocals sound fine, but the guitars need a little less low-end going on and the mix needs a significant amount of re-working. The vocals are pretty pissed, and I dig that, and I do love the distortion on the bass, but the excessive speeds get old and the sound quality is unbalanced enough to really distract me. Some of the longer and more metallic stuff is kind of fucking cool (check out the killer midpaced rhythms in the instrumental "No Fear to Sin (Part II)"), so maybe they ought to spice up the tempos more often by easing up on the speed like that? (They should, because "The Truth" is longer and darker musically as well, and it kicks ass!) Here the lyrical content is much more involved, though still blunt and dealing with the usual topics of war, oppression, truth vs. lies, and so on. The layout's not bad. The cover's a little bland but the back cover looks good, and I love Unholy Grave's half of the booklet: Complete with awesome handwritten text and classic high contrast black and white graphics. Anarchus' half (a few band photos and plain type), as well as everything else, is honestly far less visually interesting as a result! So Unholy Grave definitely takes it away on this one. This is my first real exposure to Anarchus (more than a passing song or two in the past), and it's probably not the best representation of what they do, but I'm honestly not really interested in their work based on these 11 tracks. The more they mix it up the better they sound, but a lot of that stuff rolls by in a blur. (6/10)
Running time - 31:34, Tracks: 22
[Notable tracks: Terrorist Must Die, Overprotected Law, No Fear to Sin (Part II), The Truth]
2+2=5 Records - http://www.2plus2equal5.com

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