It was a sad day in music history when grind legends Nasum decided to call it a day after the untimely death of lead singer Mieszko Talarczyk in the tsunami disaster of 2004. Putting out four albums and a few splits in their existence, the Swedish noisemakers have been given as befitting a tribute as is possible, with all the current grind bands lending their sickness to this album. Fifty three tracks in total, it is a stonker of an achievement to get so many bands together on one release (although the addition of Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed would have been the icing on the cake), and playing such fantastic material, things don’t get much better, or any more chaotic.
One debate that will arise amongst purist fans is whether it is right to cover a bunch of songs, which are fairly impossible to beat. This release shows both sides of this argument, as a number of the groups featured are so loyal to the original songs that they could just be demo versions of the classics. Bands like Rotten Sound, Afgrund, Misery Index and Coldworker (who even have Nasum’s drummer in) don’t have to try to hard to emulate the political anger which once had so much force in the scene.
For those who like a little bit of change, there are a fair few goregrind bands which add a new edge to Nasum songs. It is interesting to hear the guttural likes of Dead Infection and Romperprop downtuning their way through Nasum’s back catalogue, whilst Leng Tch’e, Putrescence and Sanity’s Dawn turn things heavier, whilst keeping the up-tempo punky intensity to a maximum. Conversely, some punkier outfits have to get a little heavier, which Total Fucking Destruction and Nyctophobic nail perfectly.
This is a rowdy bunch of grinding bastards we have here, whether they try and replicate Nasum or mix things up a bit, and such an accomplishment will be hard to better anytime soon. Things get decidedly underground in the latter half of the album, so anybody who recognises all the bands featured on this tribute should award themselves a gold star, and add this to your collection immediately. Those who don’t have both an amazing tribute album in their hands as well as a comprehensive ‘who’s who’ of grind to boot.
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