Reviews list for Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind (2009)

Washington grindcore act Magrudergrind really hit me hard when I first discovered them off the back of this debut album back at the time of release. I'd just returned to the extreme metal scene after spending the previous decade exploring electronic music & was looking for artists who could take me to new levels of extremity. The "Magrudergrind" record certainly did that & did it with a such a consistently high level of quality that I've found myself returning to it several times over the seventeen years that have elapsed since, even going so far as to claim a spot towards the top of my all-time grindcore release list in recent times.

Magrudergrind had been around for a while by the time the self-titled record became known to me, first forming back in 2002 with their original lineup of vocalist Avi Kulawy (Gravesend), guitarist Marc Levin & drummer Chris Moore (Repulsion/Coke Bust/Kontusion) having been maintained through to this sophomore album. It shows too as Magrudergrind prove themselves to be a finely-honed, well-oiled grind machine across these seventeen tracks, producing a wonderfully powerful release that sounds fantastic thanks to the well-credentialled engineering team of Scott Hull (Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Anal Cunt/Pig Destroyer/Suppression) & Kurt Ballou (Converge/Kid Kilowatt/Supermachiner). Each of the three contributors make their mark in emphatic fashion with Moore's precision extreme drumming display being right up my alley. It's the face-shredding vocals of Kulawy that are the real highlight here though as it's difficult to describe how vicious & maniacal he sounds while ripping into his higher register screams which were just what the grind doctor ordered in my opinion.

The tracklisting kicks off incredibly well with opening track "The Protocols of Anti-Sound" being arguably the best thing that Magrudergrind ever produced. You have to wait until the middle of the album for the quality levels to rise to those sort of heights again but the one-two punch of "Cranial Media Parasite" into "Excommunicated" brings things back to an elite class very nicely. I also really dig the untitled closing track which utilizes recordings of Reverend Jim Jones to great effect with Jones addressing his people just before the mass suicide/murder of over 900 members of the Peoples Temple in Guyana in 1978. It's a suitably unnerving, eerie way to end a release whose sociopolitical messaging is very much a part of the attraction. The rest of the album is all very solid & rarely dips below a compelling platform of blasting, punk-infused mayhem with only the novelty electronic components of "Heavier Bombing" seeing Magrudergrind's integrity dipping slightly. This should be essential listening for all grind nuts.

For fans of Wormrot, Insect Warfare & Nasum.