January 2020 Feature Release - The Horde Edition

The start of the New Year is upon us which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.    

This month's feature release for The Horde is 2000's third & final album from US grindcore outfit Discordance Axis entitled "The Inalienable Dreamless." It's less than 24 minutes in length & is usually thought of as the pinnacle of the band's career so we're interested to hear what all you death metal fanatics might think of it.

Oh boy, time for me to rant about Grindcore for a second. 

I don't shy away from Grind because it's a genre that I do want to become more familiar with, but it's just so, so rough for me. I'm not the kind of metal listener that gets any enjoyment out of pure 24/7 aggression, so I'm really going against the grain here. I can appreciate the furious tempos, riffs, and the insanely angry vocals and atmosphere, but nothing ever sounds interesting to me. It's the case of having so much going on at once at all times that everything just blurs together and it just isn't...enjoyable. The song structures are also so short and condensed that things like buildups, climaxes, solos, and other portions of song structure that I tend to really enjoy just don't exist. 

That being said, from what little Grind I've listened to this is definitely some of the best sounding and...most cohesive? I found myself treating each small song simply like part of the entire 26 minute album rather than focusing on when a song ends and begins, which helped me a little bit. The back part of the album was definitely better for me, but that's probably because the songs actually had some length to them. 

I was in dire need of some violence & brutality to revitalise my metal mantra when I finally returned to extreme music after a decade in the electronic music wilderness in 2009 & this requirement was promptly met in no uncertain terms by the 2000 third album from New Jersey grindcore act Discordance Axis. “The Inalienable Dreamless” unapologetically beat my brains in with a jackhammer & left me wondering if the entire scene had gone insane in my time away. Strangely, I haven’t returned to it since so a revisit has been well overdue for many years now.

In classic grindcore style, “The Inalienable Dreamless” comprises of a full 17 tracks but takes just 23 minutes to pummel you into submission. It doesn’t muck around either because this is some of the most ridiculously abrasive material you’re likely to find in extreme metal & this isn’t just due to the awesome blasting drum performance of talented skinsman Dave Witte whose amazingly powerful performance is highlighted by a brilliant understanding of how to use his ride cymbal to further accentuate his blast beats. Front man Jon Chang unsurprisingly screams his fucking guts out & there’s a spasmodic chaos to this record that borrows heavily from mathcore acts like The Dillinger Escape Plan in order to create an added layer of interest with the use of odd time signatures & more angular riff structures taking the album to new levels of interest & intrigue.

Despite pushing past the majority of its peers as far as pure savagery goes, this really isn’t your average grindcore record. It’s much more sophisticated than that & sports a production job that offers the perfect balance of clarity & extremity. The fact that I often find myself looking back at each track & wondering how the band have managed to stuff so much substance into such a short period of time is a sure sign of a superior grindcore act. It's worth mentioning that this is not the type of album that I feel like sticking on all that often though as it fits a very specific niche & does it particularly well to say the least as you’ll rarely find a release that possesses more energy, violence & chaos than this one. These are some of the primary requirements of good grindcore music too which makes "The Inalienable Dreamless" one of the most effective examples of its type. In fact, I’m gonna go so far as to say that it’s just slipped past Pig Destroyer’s “Prowler In The Yard” to snatch the honour of being my all-time favourite grindcore release these days so it should be essential listening for anyone interested in the genre.

For fans of Gridlink, Fuck The Facts & Antigama.

4/5