Review: Slugcrust ‘Ecocide’

Grindcore is an amazing artform. Schizophrenic drumming aimed at constant impact at a breakneck pace, interacting with atonal riffs under massive amounts of distortion to create a uniquely musical anti-music. Upon this harsh and extreme sound, the human voice, the most versatile instrument, can do absolutely anything and everything at once.

Slugcrust 'Ecocide'

Slugcrust are a band from the remote wilderness of South Carolina, dabbling in grinding crusty righteousness, and they are doing good work. After two EPs they’ve delivered their first full length, Ecocide, that’s full of wrath and indignation aimed at the self-destructive methods of humanity, and they’ve delivered a magnificent beast of a grindcore album.

From the launch, the sound is tight, and the production is sharp. The vocals are intense and brutal, and the guitar tones are hot. The first track, Demise Promise, takes its time growing into a fucking maelstrom. It’s a great opener with an amazing slamming finale. Getting to the third track, Buzzard Csar, we find a slightly different animal. Although the band at all times maintains a skill in fluid song structures that are extremely organic and brutal, they manage to experiment in quite a diverse array of rhythms and paces.

The vocals are intense and brutal, and the guitar tones are hot…

Sometimes the lyrics are more intelligible than others, but they never fail to paint vivid and devastating pictures. A range of vocal stylings are applied to awesome effect on all the songs on Ecocide.

Slugcrust is a band that feels fresh and angry, with a solid sound and poetic yet viscerally angry lyrics. The title track, Ecocide, in particular seems to encapsulate what the band wants to communicate as a historical testimony of pre-extinction times. The final track, Event Horizon, incorporates the melancholy of this tragedy and is a testament to the rage that the human triggered ecocide shall reap.

The album cover is the face of one of the many creatures we share the planet with and are very much present in the soul of these tracks. A really solid album that merits a listen from any fan of grindcore or crust, and I expect no one is going to be disappointed.

Label: Prosthetic Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram

Scribed by: Goro Riffs