Dephosphorus - Night Sky Transform

Without a doubt, grindcore can be a restrictive genre. Any genre could be I guess, but few more than grindcore as its pillars lay in short songs, a hybrid of punk and metal stylings and speed above all else. Some bands have successfully pushed the envelope, yet still retained enough of the zing that allows you to make the jump from Napalm Death to their sound. Examples aren't illusive, nor are they plentiful. Bands like Gridlink, Gride, and thedowngoing are just a few examples of successful innovation in the oft narrow minded world of grindcore. And while those acts are all great, few bands have the ability to become  unrecognizable or rather transcendent of genre;one such act being Greece's Dephosphorus.

Fully cognizant of all the tricks in the book, Dephosphorus need not look to the stars to realize how far ahead in the game they really are. Appetites were whetted with their splits with Wake and Great Falls, but neither can compare to the band's current pinnacle Night Sky Transform.

Foggy, dense, and ponderous, Night Sky Transform finds strength in nearly every facet possible. Songs are well constructed and diverse, from straight grinders like "Cold Omen" to a drawn out dirge like "The Fermi Paradox," Dephosphorus encompass so much in so little. This is the crux of their sound and what makes the album so enjoyable. "Starless" has an infectious groove that has made it my favorite track on the album. Needless to say, like any good album, each track retains a thread, yet reinforces and builds the stitch.

Strained vocals, audible at times, viral at others, compliment the superb guitars well as they highlight the emphasis's and scatter great lyrics like Orthodox incense. Shrouded in references and obscurities, lyrics often hint at grounded issues such as issues of authority or god, but other, more lofty ones such as our place in the Universe and the possibilities of other life and what forces propel us. Thankfully,  the band never comes off pretentious  but rather alluring like a modern Lovecraftian wonder in all things starry and untouchable.

As the album fades, the words "all hail Aurora" are chanted, maybe implying the Roman goddess who brought dawn to the world. Thought of this way, Night Sky Transform plays to change and creation and effectively ushers in one of the most original, powerful and simply awesome sounds in music today.

All hail Dephosphorus.

Rotten Sound-Cursed

It only took me one listen to realize Rotten Sound hadn't made any headway since their disappointing Cycles. Calling it a slide might be a bit too much, rather than a fall like 90's Napalm Death, the band has simply repeated themselves and added only tweaks and bugs to their execution with recent releases. That stomach churning guitar tone that was responsible for clearing whole forests back in 2005 with Exit has been diminished to a digital liquid soup with lack of character. The grime that covered every inch in Exit (including the hostile artwork) has been blunted into a fatter, boring-er sound. The vocals have lost whatever punch they had and are some of the most repetitive and uninteresting around (this would be a title fight between Deafeatist in the land of the inane). Songs lack character and definition, possibly a symptom of using such a muddied guitar tone; but somehow all those Swedes back when made it work.

To make things worse, the band finds time to do their best Entombed imitation with "Choose" and it's immediate successor "Hollow." It's beyond me why this band's wasting time with slow sections because they're the same stock riffage the band has come to use (as well as any generic death metal band) in their trip into mediocrity. The song writing's so boring, if you were to play them "Slave" from Exit they'd view it as some superior entity above themselves.

A name that used to mean something, Rotten Sound's content to repeat themselves as long as you're content to listen.

Let me Count the Ways... A Grindcore Numbers Game

One album is the only full length release from Insect Warfare, arguably one of the best grindcore bands this century whose singer, Rahi, has joined up with Hatred Surge which is back to having Two vocalists, but dropped the male/female combo like stalwarts Despise You and crusties Nausea, meaning there have been Three different singers before their latest split with fellow Austin Four-piece Mammoth Grinder whose only been around for Five years and made a big splash with their second full-length, Extinction of Humanity in 2009, which featured artwork by Joe Petagno, notable for his work with Motorhead, except their Sixth album,

Ironfist which German thrashers Sodom covered the title track on their seminal album Persecution Mania that had a re-released including "Sodomy and Lust" which is covered by Tacheless on their 2009 album Freiheit but originally released on Sodom's 198Seven release Expurse of Sodomy which was the same year Napalm Death's all important Scum came out, who have had Eight guitarists in their 30 year career, only matched by Anthrax who've also had eight members for two positions (vocals and guitars), one of whom, Dan Lilker (credited as a guitarist before anything was recorded) formed grindcore legends Brutal Truth who formed Nine years after Anthrax did and released their second album Ten years before Insect Warfare formed in 2004.

Bam

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