This seems like somewhat of an odd pairing to me, what with the churningly frantic and dissonant metalcore of Premonitions of War up against Benumb's ripping contemporary grindcore fury, but a little variety never hurt anyone, did it? Sadly, Premonitions of War just hasn't been clicking with me over the years. The first time I encountered them I thought they possessed a great deal of raging potential, but I was somewhat indifferent about their last full-length, and I'm not particularly into these four tracks at all. The first (and most significant) problem to arise is that the recording is pretty terrible, so like their last record the recording's the killing blow here. The bass gets lost behind an obnoxiously muddy wall of guitars and vocals, and the drums walk an odd line of flimsy muddiness as well, so the entire mix is too sludgy and clouded up to do much damage. The songs aren't that hot either, though. Offered are two originals and two covers, with "Written In" opening with some decent grinding blasts and a few quick shifts, but the burly vocal growls are sort of overpowering, and a lot of the energy gets lost big time in the recording. Then, "A Useless Language" is built around churning midpaced alternate picking with similar problems at the hands of the sound quality. Nothing too exciting, though both tracks are perfectly concise at less than two minutes apiece. Faring worse are the covers: "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain, and Cream's "Born Under a Bad Sign", both of which are played fairly true to form, just made heavier and sludgier. The vocals ain't doin' it for me in these cuts, however, sort of taking a burly, gruff, forced "singing" approach that kind of makes the songs sound like ineffective jokes - though I don't think that was the intention. To my dismay Benumb fares little better from a recording standpoint, as the drums are distant, the bass impossible to make out, the guitars muddy, and the vocals left off to the side to fend for themselves in slightly clearer territory. The mix also lets some of the falters in the drumming become overly apparent since the guitars are so muddy that half of the riffs are a total jumble, so... it's quite an unfortunate scene all around with this one. Ironically Benumb's famously short tracks take up the larger chunk of this split, opting for a number of longer songs like "Ageless Pain" and "0% Down Enslavement For Life" - the former highlighting their sludgier side while the latter is surprisingly crammed with blistering speeds and vocal patterns so fast the lyrics can't keep up! "Internalized Subjected Opposition" and "Pay Now Suffer Later" are a little more forceful than most of the other tracks as far as taking a no bullshit approach that keeps the speed memorable and the writing focused, and "Manufacturing Opportunity to Prolong the Abusive Cycle" is pretty classic grind with more insanely fast and messy vocal arrangements, but... the parts can't save the whole. The layout looks decent and consistent, with lyrics and credits for each band (granted Benumb only includes the lyrics for one song). Premonitions of War takes the abstract and open road ("This is not poetry blending together every word you thought meant so much..."), while Benumb's sole inclusion is of the socio-political realm in the dissonant and noisy textures and spoken vocals of "Free Trade Abolishment". In the end, I regret to say that this split is a massive letdown. I'm a huge Benumb fan, so I was actually really looking forward to this one, but I don't care for any of Premonitions of War's contributions, and even Benumb fails to deliver at the level of intensity I've grown to expect from the band. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.a
[Thorp]
Running time - 27:08, Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Internalized Subjected Opposition, Pay Now Suffer Later, Manufacturing Opportunity to Prolong the Abusive Cycle]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com
