Review by Daniel for Thotcrime - ønyøurcømputer (2020)
The final release in my cybergrind deep dive is the debut album from a multinational artist by the name of Thotcrime, a release that sounds very different to any of the other nine records I’ve investigated thus far. Now, it’s worth noting that I use the term “album” very loosely here because the eleven tracks included on 2020’s “ønyøurcømputer” clock in at just over fifteen minutes in total duration which I’d suggest is more than pushing the friendship when it comes to claiming album rights. Regardless though, I’d have to say that the length of the record is fairly appropriate in this case as I feel that the novelty would wear off fairly quickly.
What we have here is a release that takes the sounds of The Revolution & injects them with a raw infusion of grindcore & electronics to give it an additional dose of chaos. There’s certainly not enough grindcore on offer to be able to justify cybergrind being claimed as a primary genre though & I’d suggest that a dual mathcore & Nintendocore tag would be all that’s required when you consider that a lot of the electronic component leans towards that old-school video-game sound. There are a few touches of traditional metalcore included & even the odd hint at avant-garde metal at times but the dominant elements of this album are clearly rooted in the mathy end of The Revolution.
The screaming male hardcore vocals aren't anything terribly unusual for a metalcore based artist & tend to come across as a little generic if I'm being honest but Thotcrime also include some clean female vocals to change things up a bit, although I have to admit that they don’t really work & I find them to be a touch annoying so the vocal side of” ønyøurcømputer” is certainly its weak point. The instrumental side of the band is much more interesting with the use of blast-beats & blindingly fast double kick work being the major points of excitement for this ol’d extreme metalhead. The performances are very tight with the guitarists pulling off some highly technical & progressive riff structures that include melodic runs that are quite similar to those utilized in the modern tech-death sound. I really enjoy it when the band hit on some of their simpler power-chord driven metalcore riffs too.
It's worth noting that the second half of the album is stronger than the first so I’d suggest that you show a bit of patience if you find yourself struggling a bit midway through the tracklisting. Unfortunately though, despite the wins out-weighing the losses here, I wouldn’t say that there are any individual tracks that stand out as genuine highlights. There’s a consistency to this material that sees the difference between the stronger material & the weaker songs simply amounting to the inclusion of one annoyingly quirky riff or verse. When taken holistically though, I can’t deny that “ønyøurcømputer” offers something of value & I’ve quite enjoyed the experience overall.