Review of Cripple Bastards - Desperately Insensitive

Obviously I am not the biggest fan of grindcore, but I'll tell you what..I do know a professionally composed compilation of songs when I hear one. Cripple Bastards surprised me w/ not only the range their music takes on, but how tight and well produced their newest record is. "Desperately Insensitive", according to their promo sheet, is a mixture of all these ludicrous labels and more: "post-hardcore", "brutal death metal" (laughable because there's maybe 2 minutes of it total if you add all the moments together), "old-school fast-core", "noise/math-core", and "jap-core vocals"(that one kept me laughing for a good hour), essentially ending in one majority product of grindcore. This basically reminds me of very early Napalm Death but w/out the sloppiness and horrific production. Now it also says that Cripple Bastards "attack the hypocrisy of the Punk/Hardcore scene" w/ this album, but that leaves the question as to what they are attacking. Are they attacking the anarchist punk idiocy or are they attacking the music of punk itself? The reason I ask is because of this: When you listen to Cripple Bastards, you're going to hear a lot of changing up between grind and punk. Basically two genres that I abhor immensely. My guess is that during the grunts and "Jap-Core" screams, they attack the core ideology of punk music being the desire for a governmentless society, because there is punk music in this stuff. Supporting it would be a mindless gesture and that's the truth. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt because I actually think this album has it's place w/in it's own audience, and I think it's well done. Adhering to typical punk and grindcore tradition, there's 19 songs on here and they clock in at just over 30 minutes total. So if your stomach turns at the sound of this stuff it's tolerable for the short blast of time you have to endure. W/ a discography list longer than Rodney King's criminal record, these bastards have been around since 1988 and have early material in lots of cassette compilations and have obviously utilized their time to establish themselves w/in the grind community. Sadly, I really have no moments of greatness to report on this record mainly because it ain't my shit. Songs fly by faster than greased lightning and moments that interest me are few and far between. But it is well done and for that they get my respect. Production and musicianship are above average for what I have heard of the genre (more than I'd like to). So at least fans are going to get the highest quality product for their interests.
If your one of the goons into this stuff than here's more short-haired grind for ya. Definitely more energetic and interesting than Nasum's grossly overrated noise, this at least has a more organized and varietal approach. And if someone would like to enlighten me as to the long-term goals of "political grindcore" then fire away. Does it have direction? Purpose? Intentions? Or is it content w/ "staying true" to it's root musical styles and bitching about government laws and regulations? Would political grindcore exist if punks got their way and they got to run rampant only to be beaten to death the next day? Obviously I am not a temple of knowledge but some things just confuse the hell out of me because they run the opposite direction of common sense.

Release Details

Cripple Bastards

Desperately Insensitive

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