Squash Bowels - Grindcoholism (2013) [Gorgatz]

Squash Bowels - Grindcoholism (2013) [Gorgatz]



INFO:

A band for all you Grindcore-aholics out there – Polish SQUASH BOWELS’s latest release is bound to peak your interest. With 14 tracks and a whole lot of heavy, the three-piece show off their aggressiveness and bowel-squashing fetish with “Grindcoholism”. The group has been going since 1994, so it’s no surprise that these veterans must be Grindcoholics by now.

The drums are heavy, the guitar’s distorted and the vocals won’t take no for an answer. Take all that and add it to the track names being all in capitals, and you definitely feel an indignant vibe when you give this a listen. Artur “Paluch” Grassmann deserves a special mention; it’s not easy playing highly technical bass and growling, let alone doing them at the same time. And doing it well, too. Would be very keen to see him do it live. Kudos to Andrzej “Andy” Pakos and Mariusz “Melon” Miernik, too, who both clearly have supreme talent in the Metal department. Despite the band’s skill, I found this album rather hard to get into. I head-banged a bit and tapped my feet, but didn’t feel inclined to listen to it over and over. Maybe I’m more of a social user of Grindcore, and not so much an addict.

Grindcoholics worldwide will enjoy this new one from Polish grinders Squash Bowels, long residing in the second tier of grind, demonstrating on their sixth full-length that they have what it takes to rise up, with enough variety, technical precision and pure aggression to keep everyone pleased. Opener "Tastelessness" shreds like something off of Grindcrusher, the dive-bombing, near-death metal vibe giving it a fun, early-'90s Brit grind/death feel, while "The Second" conjures first album Carcass gore-grind and the title track offers up a simplistic crust riff. Elsewhere, there's death metal riffing, slower moments of heaviness and tons of pure, straight grind. At 31 minutes, there's sufficient meat to chew on, with enough different sounds to keep things interesting, but still enough of a blinders-on focus to keep it grindcore.

The long-standing Polish band is known for their relentless, disgusting grindcore violence, and they have an impressive back catalog that might take you some time to get through if you’re starting from square one. There are like 75,000 releases in their arsenal, so yeah. But that gigantic resume aside, we haven’t heard from the band since 2009′s “Grindvirus,” released by our friends over at Willowtip, so it was a huge sigh of bastardized relief when their sixth record “Grindcoholism” landed in the Meat Mead Metal inbox, complete with 14 cuts and 32 minutes of total madness.

Squash Bowels now call Selfmadegod Records their home, which makes sense both musically and geographically, as the label also is based in Poland, and this killing machine that started nearly two decades ago shows no signs of aging, slowing down, mellowing out, or anything that could make their grind-frenzied audience nervous. These songs are what you expect from the band, and the fellows who make it all happen–bassist/vocalist Artur “Paluch” Grassmann, guitarist Andrzej “Andy” Pakos, and drummer Mariusz “Melon” Miernik–are nothing short of generous when it comes to creating insanity that will make you want to throw lamps around your house and vomit all over the floors from the stench all at the same time. I know. That’s pretty disgusting.

The gore and muck that make people salivate over bands such as early Carcass, Rotten Sound, label mates Antigama, and Pig Destroyer are going to salivate once the opening strains of “Tastelessness” kick into gear, with gurgly growling, punishing grindcore, and even a little shadowy doom slipping in for good measure. “Trap” also has a doomy feel and punchy, cool riffs that should shake you right into “The Theater,” a thrashy good song that hits a killer groove and has death-inspired vocals. “Surrender” has its fair share of crunch and violence, but then it turns on a dime and accelerates the speed and anxiety. “The Second…” has deep growls and lets a complete demolition erupt, paving the way for “Inclinations to…” that has grisly, menacing vocals that turn into shrieks of fury. The title cut—and what a fabulous title it is—lets mud and muck spread all over the place while the sounds of alcohol-filled glasses clink together in the background. The song is a total demon.

“Steering” has some nasty blast beats and mean vocals that are joined by charred guitars to get their message across. “Naked Positive Act” lets the groove back into the picture as it grinds and abuses your senses, leaving you no room to recover before “La Mienta” strikes. That song is thrashy and meaty, with the vocals nearing pig squeal territory but not quite jumping into that pen. It’s one of the burliest cuts on the entire record. “Compassions” chugs along at a rumbling pace with the guitars simmering, and soloing poking at classic heavy metal. “Litany of Hungry” is a really weird one at first, but then doom drops and metallic soloing rips a hole in the wall. “Foreign Will” is gloriously pissy and short, while closer “Stigmatizing” gives one last gasp of groove, grind, and monstrous vocals that stab an exclamation point at the end of the record.

Squash Bowels remain ugly, seamy, and furious, and it’s not likely they’re going to smooth out their sound any time soon to end up on a Mayhem tour or any of that garbage. Their stuff plays best in a small room in front of people brutalizing one another, as their music is the perfect soundtrack for that style of healthy aggression release. “Grindcoholism” is strong and heavy enough that, if grind is your game, you might find yourself properly addicted.

TRACKLIST:

1. Tastelessness
2. Trap
3. The Theater
4. Surrender
5. The Second…
6. Inclinations to…
7. Grindcoholism
8. Steering
9. Naked Positive Act
10. La Mienta
11. Compassions
12. Litany Of Hungry
13. Foreign Will
14. Stigmatizing

Bitrate: 320 k
Genre: Grindcore
Subgenre: Grindcore
Size: 75.25 MB

Credit Goes To Klieveage Of Rockbox