Review of A Gruesome Find - Minions Engage

WARNING: Do NOT write reviews about black metal if you still want to like the genre at the end of the day. While the preceding admonishment doesn’t necessarily apply to A Gruesome Find, it’s quickly becoming a rule of thumb for yours truly.

Here, though, we have Minions Engage – the quartet’s sophomore outing unleashed by none other than Crash Music Inc., which releases nothing but hot or cold records. To diminish ambiguity, I’m going to have to relegate this particular disc to the latter category. However, I must also point out that this isn’t mundane BM; it’s just somewhat unfocused, entirely unoriginal, and the best attributes lurk more often than occupy the forefront. Comparing A Gruesome Find to any pseudo-primitive, black metal band is in order – I feel – and many of the songs are slightly enjoyable, if not a tad on the boring side.

At close to an hour total, the ten numbers found here seemingly endorse the typical modus operandi that’s adhered to way too often to be anything but discomforting. The sweeping compositions are laced with BM shrieks, the song structures are at times a throwback to Darkthrone and complementary to Drottnar, while the components of Minions Engage are a bit jumpier on the whole. The uncontested pinnacle of this disc, though, is “The Nightmare Within.” The quirky rhythms, hypnotic guitar leads, and seamless meshing betwixt the instrumentation and vocals allow(s) “The Nightmare Within” to soar unlike its predecessors and followers. But, one must absolutely remember that the aforementioned is a diamond in the rough, so to speak, and the other tunes are not nearly as inspired and/or endearing. Still, “The Nightmare Within” makes me want to don a witch’s hat and cape, and then dance around my bedroom while my black cat looks on with big, confused eyes.

So, to backtrack, A Gruesome Find signed a three-album deal with Crash Music, which means we’ll be hearing from these Ohioans again. Minions Engage isn’t anything the metal world hasn’t been graced with before – it's been done much better I might add – but it does thrust potential into the faces that behold the record firsthand. Despite my praise for their conspicuous talent, after perusing the band’s promotional pictures, I managed to reach the conclusion I knew I would. Black metal: I hate you.

Release Details

A Gruesome Find

Minions Engage

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