I could say i have a sort of love/hate relationship with grindcore, mostly because when its well made, it’s completely and utterly awesome, but most of the times its just an amalgam of noise and not in the good sense, also i could say i have the same feeling with electronic music in general, so when Aaron Specter’s Drumcorps pulls this “Grist” saying it’s a mixing of grindcore and breakcore… i tend to take it with a grain of salt.

It all starts up with “Botch Up and Die” and it’s pretty grindcore, kinda of a homage to Botch, with the eccentric guitars over a grind blast beat, its not only amusing but quite groovy, nicely done, “Down” is kinda dance meets noisecore with distorted samples and guitars into the mix, okkk, “Pig Destroyer Destroyer” has some nice drumming building to a slowed down chopped distorted noise filled beat … are we making fun of Pig Destroyer?, is this supposed to be a compliment or a satire, anyway it all builds up to a distorted guitar breakcore fest, mixing real life drumming with beats and distortion….

“Terrible Things” tsss is a kind of atmospheric interlude to build up “Forgive and Forget” going heavy on the guitars and groove breakdown, pretty awesome beats and catchy samples, it all works pretty well, even with the constant distortion and changes of pace (i guess it’s the point…right), it all goes flat at about 2/3 in… letting it die with echoes and guitar feedback, then it goes into “Grainbeast” that just builds on that feedback… working as another interlude to “Saddest RMX” and back to a more pure form of grindcore, great variety of beats and of mixing them up, but yet short simple and to the point, i liked it, “Incarnate” brings us home to … Amen Break land, old school beats and simple samples…. that get worked up and mingled into some form of breakcore thrash metal, pretty good, i like the old school feel… you can even headbang in the end muahahah

“Worse” starts with some drum work to some spaced out samples, well it feels like another intro to “Time” that builds from the last track into a smooth beat guitar work, that is until it goes all out into grindcore planet, what i like about this is that even when something doesn’t sound that good… it doesn’t matter, since nothing stays on loop for long, and the diversity is very well mixed together… then the last track “Grist” again gives a toned down funky beat … joined later with guitars and sampled vocals, still pretty groovy, the track goes on with different mixing of the same samples, giving them more speed or power, but keeping the same rhythm, it’s pretty nice, until it eventually dies down.

One things is for sure, you have to listen to this from start to finish, at first i tried a couple of tracks and i didn’t know what to think of it, now that i’ve listen to it a couple of times, i can say that this is one funky album, its good for the headbanger metal head that likes it hard and fast, and good for the breakcore noisecore crowd, i enjoyed it… so if your into this kind of music or you want to try something with a bit of an aftertaste, than give this album a go ^^

Official Site Drumcorps
MySpace Site Drumc0rps

Drumcorps - Botch Up and Die
Drumcorps - Forgive and Forget

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Abelcain’s The Garden EP is a nice piece of industrial/metal inspired breakcore which has a certain goth/horror movie feel that sets it apart from other works in the genre. As such, it has a permanent mist of darkness which helps to contextualize the *cough* poetic vocal snippets that Abelcain sprinkles over his characteristic sound.

I would say the first song immediately demonstrates the rythmical intricacy of this album. The Garden starts with some soft legato strings followed by meticulously sequenced mid-paced breaks that quickly mutate into some evil distorted breakcore. After a brief pause, it picks up again with a grumpy bassline accompanied by some cutup distorted percussion. The music then proceeds into a few minutes of breakcore iterations (woohoo!), ending with the sound of cellos, which provides for a pleasent transition into Black Bone Orchid.

This second song begins with a really nice (albeit sad?) intro, performed by the string section, to which is added some slow breaks. After a while, the mood of the music kinda changes as a playful violin enters the party. Then, as always, the song swiftly changes again into jungle/breakcore mode with the addition of a wobbly distorted bass and some seriously mashed-up breaks.

The third “song” is quite amusing actually. Uhm.. I think i would classify Bitter Moon Blossom as a mixture of cut-up metal meets breakcore until halfway through, then proceeds into some creepy ambience and finishes off with some gabber mindfuck action.

This album wraps up with Danse Macabre. This song starts off with some subtle strings followed by a few bars of mid-paced breaks (which kinda remind me of Bogdan Raczynski and Datach’i). Then it takes a turn towards a more rude drum arrangement, as the string instruments increase in tension. The “trademark” of this song are the hyperactive harpsichord/clavichord staccato ramblings, masterfully interweaved with some seriously mashed-up breakcore action.

Abelcain - Bitter Moon Blossom

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