Grime ‘Deteriorate’ LP/DD 2013
Italian three piece doom sludge miscreants Grime describe their own sound as “ a decaying swamp filled with trash”, and judging by the first couple of listens to their sophomore effort ‘Deteriorate’ then they have got that just about spot on. Raw, down tuned, downbeat hatred is the order of the day on this eight track effort. Everything about this release from the name to the artwork to the song titles tells you everything you need to know about this release, and if that is your kind of thing, then this is an album that has to be tracked down.
The album opens with ‘Burning Down The Cross’, and after a short sample, the filth begins. Drowning in feedback and distortion, each slow bludgeoning riff is like an aural assault designed to crush the listener. One barrage after another for the entire forty one minute duration of the album, and bar another sample at the beginning of ‘Giving Up’ roughly halfway through the album, it doesn’t give up from the start to the very end. Every second is filled with negativity, bad tidings and woe which when thrown together make one of the most oppressive sounding records I have heard in a long time.
The individual tracks seem to flow into one another pretty seamlessly, to make this seem like one epic vicious tirade rather than several individual pieces. Production wise, this has a crude raw sound that emphasizes the grim intent of Chris (Drums), Marco (Vocals / Guitar) and Paulo (bass) to cause destruction of everything and everyone that comes into contact with them.The rhythm section keeps things at a slow meticulous pace while the guitars weave a discordant path through the murky swamp that exists in Grime’s world.
There is absolutely no deviation from track to track and it is obvious that experimentation isn’t high on the agenda of this trio, although when depression and anger is done this well, you need not worry about such things. As long as you can get past the fact that it does sound like a near forty minute track occasionally broken up by the odd whistle of feedback or sample, then there is plenty of reward in listening to this.
Label: Mordgrimm Records / Forcefield Records
Website: www.facebook.com/pages/Grime/209557405747608
Scribed by: Steve Fallows
