The members of this band have been involved with Avulsion, Parade of the Lifeless, Red Eyed Stare, and many others, and the sounds on this lengthy five-track EP of noisy grindcore don't fall too far from the tree when it comes to the work of their other bands. They definitely pull this material off despite a lot of chaotic arrangements and abrasive compositional tactics. It sounds like there's some sort of weird digital filter on the vocals - they don't sound computerized, but there's some sort of weird twinge to the sheer screaming madness. But a very tight performance with tons of speed and excellent percussion blended with aptly technical playing and experimentation works in their favor. They even offer some additional dynamics through some jazz influences and nice atmospheric breaks as well (which is where their use of the sampler/keyboards comes in). One standout is "Your God is an Angry Drunk": A calm instrumental that mixes in a lot of synth tones and samples with acoustic guitars and tribal percussion - repetitive but very nice. "Grace" runs more than nine minutes of completely frantic material, complete with some crazy dark ambient breaks with indecipherable manipulated vocals and choral church vocals in the background, a bizarre passage of rocked out lead guitars mixed very quietly amidst distorted bass and more tribal drumming, some quick melody, a lot of scraping noise... it's just madness. In the recording department the drums sound fine to me (albeit too rigid on the kicks) and highlight the stellar performance, the guitars are abrasive but not too messy, the vocals are completely unrelenting and rest right in with the music, etc. My only minor gripe is that there's not enough low-end, which in some ways works for them, but I find myself thirsting for more bass. The layout is pretty simple, using just a onecard insert to provide some information on the band, and then there's a distorted band photo under the CD tray and some interesting artwork (an illustration of roaches) on the front cover. That's pretty much all there is to it. This is definitely an interesting release. I've been a fan of many of the members' past efforts and this certainly doesn't disappoint. It's rare for a band to be able to powerfully harness such a disharmonic and noisy approach, but these guys have the technical ability and the know-how to take care of business, so give this one a shot.
[Impatience or Indifference]
Running time - 27:16, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Great Faith, Great Doubt, Great Effort, Your God is an Angry Drunk, Grace]
Thegalvinwilhelmmillerquartet - http://www.grindscore.com/thequartet/
