Man Is Mostly Water / Exit The King
Split CD
0
Man Is Mostly Water
Production: 4.5
Songwriting: 4
Musicianship: 4
Though on a self-admitted “break,” Man Is Mostly Water do indeed have something going for them on their side of Split. “Thermal Inertia Ruin” is a two-minute, spazzy grind extravaganza, but grind in the sense of, say, modernists Genghis Tron rather than traditionalists Napalm Death. On their second offering, however, MiMW decrease the speed as if they’d prefer to drag, and coincidentally, much of “Itsumade” reminds me of the way a Comity piece unfolds. The strained vocals are still in full bloom, naturally delivered at a rate that matches the tempo. Let’s hope the hiatus doesn’t hamper the progress of the full-length to be released on Arclight Communications in ’07.
Exit The King
Production: 4
Songwriting: 4.5
Musicianship: 4.5
Not to be confused with the Epic-signed band with the same name, this Exit The King are a spazzcore outfit that do Dysrhythmia, Behold…the Arctopus, Orthrelm, and Canada Songs-period Daughters proud. “The Case for Concealed Firearms” and “The Human Abstract” are both dense and dissonant, containing guitar tones that can’t help but draw comparisons to the aforementioned groups in the previous sentence. The vocals are predictably raspy screams, and the compositions are truly hard-hitting. Contrary to a few of their peers, this group aren’t afraid to slow down occasionally, flesh out a passage, and then return to tense, abrasive insanity. While I like what Exit The King have to present on Split, I wish I had more material to take in since “TCfCF” and “THA” clock in at 1:42 and 2:44, respectively.
