Blood Bastard
Next To Dissect
6.8
As much as I’m drawn to the intensely extreme, when it comes to my metal/grindcore, I’ve never been the biggest fan of a large portion of goregrind, but I’ll almost always take note whenever it comes to a band that can comfortably blend death/gore metal with grindcore while keeping the two predominate influences similar yet separate.
Next to Dissect has one of the thickest goregrind productions I’ve heard in a good while--the whole sound has this characteristic sort of chunky, bottom heavy rumble to it without for one instance sacrificing the clarity. And while the power isn’t quite conveyed by the rhythm section as most would expect, the heavy reliance on the guitars creates a sort of visceral domineering approach that instead of quickly ripping apart the listener slowly chops them to pieces one by one by a reserved, yet potent display of power. The only major drawback comes from the fact that the mix is slightly unbalanced in favor of the guitar.
Blood Bastard is by no means the most technical or the fastest band out there, but while they primarily lack the sort of skin flaying guitar lines and machine gun riffing that characterizes a good many grindcore bands like Squash Bowels, the intense brutality harnessed by most deathgrind and splatter death bands is absent as well. In its place Blood Bastard have opted for an infectiously blood soaked, down tuned groove. In an offhanded way Blood Bastard are reminiscent of Aborted’s ability to create a serious impact with some of the most rabidly memorable riffs on the market. After its perquisite intro, “Gore’d Part deux” hurls the album forward with this burly ham fisted demeanor that makes up for the lack of subtlety with enough conviction to put legions of hardcore bands to utter shame. Blood Bastard easily shifts from the straightaway grind influence of “Chainsaw Fiesta” and “Headhunter” to the sludge ridden gore metal of “Impaled and Quartered” without even the slightest hint of hesitation. These guys know how to get down to business, the only real shortcomings they have can only be attributed to the stylistic venture and overall concept behind the band, not in it's execution.
What I consider to be a heavy drawback to Blood Bastard may actually garner appreciation from a good many. And that attribute is the complete at face value the music commands. With Next to Dissect What you see is what you get, and once you’ve heard the few tricks they have up their sleeve by the first few songs you’ve basically seen all there is to see on the album--perhaps the slight recapitulation that reworks the same basic, albeit strongly played concepts over and over again. There's not a whole plethora of room for surprise. When you really get down to it though, the music might be overtly simplistic and a bit too overtly obvious to the more refined extreme metal fan, but for those who couldn't give less of a damn about panache in favor of the sheer level of enjoyment an album conveys will undoubtedly find plenty of solidly played material to gorge themselves on.
