The first thing that ‘s hitting my eye right now is that this French guy at Head Split Design is without question quite good. His design works tend to look a bit similar but the job he’s done on this release is really worthy of note – flawless design, excellent artwork, choice of colors, placement of text etc. Real nice from every angle. Uh, Swedish only lyrics, nice.

On the music side, Afgrund hasn’t changed much since the split with Relevant Few that I reviewed not long ago. I might say something like “that’s how Rotten Sound might sound if they were Swedish”, but the truth is that there is something slightly different going on here. We can take a band like Gadget for prototype, but the sound here is only moderately dissonant, slightly darker, and with some extra range in vocal style. These guys are young but pummel hard at their tools, in particular the drummer has some stamina to display. I am appreciating the production of this work too, but when one talks about Swedes on this field of music you can generally count on quality. The sound is balanced, and thick even when blurring in faster riffing. The songwriting is solid too, actually there is really little one can complain about on this album, except maybe those few annoying mid slow tempos in songs like “Afgrundssjal” (che palle…). My personal opinion? Well, this stuff is fast and powerful, with just a few distant hints at trendy “dissonant” melodies that plague the genre (as in the song “Katarsis”). I believe this is one of the best bands in their biz, some riffs sound even like they were taken from old Extreme Noise Terror. That’s a plus. Honestly speaking however I prefer a slightly rawer and more unrefined kind of grind, as the one advocated by bands like Skitsystem or Retaliation, or even better some of the oldest straight in your face kind of English proto-grind or noise core bands… this is really a bit far from my field, even though i am able to appreciate it.

One neg thing: I had the chance to see the band live a few weeks ago and I have to say it was quite a boring and unpleasant experience. Nothing really memorable, there just was no real punch and things just seemed to slip out of the stage without much mark left behind. This is a way better band to hear on Cd than to see live.

Hey! This is indeed a welcome surprise. I was not sure if this was the same Atrocity from Connecticut that I knew, but aquick glimpse at the logo and my doubt disappeared. I have known this band since the self-produced 7″ recorded on Hogbitch something like 18 years ago, I thought the world entire forgot about them! I was indeed curious to know what happened to these guys, but I quickly lost all hope. While the two records were well distributed here in Italy (they ended up in almost every 2nd hand vinyl store in the country – grindcore was never a big thing), I really do not remember of having read many interviews or news in underground publications. It just seemed to be one of those bands which just hover at the borders of the scene. A pity indeed becouse the grindcore they produced was of quite neat quality.

So. The band is back. But before concentrating on new material the guys from Torrington have decided to rehearse some old songs and update the form to year 2007. Well… we have been lucky. No overproduction, no trendy emo dissonance, no cheap aggro metal riffs. Atrocity has returned in terrific shape. They got the good taste of not washing the sound at all. The trademark classy vocals and raspy guitar sound are all here. If one looks for South American noisecore I am afraid this band could seem a bit outdated, or maybe not too fast, but I think it’s the sublime commistion of two genres going hand in hand that makes this new stuff brilliant and fresher than ever. The vocal style is reminiscent of fucking Terrorizer/Nausea and even early Morbid Angel if you know what I mean. Great shit, distorted but powerful. They might have no impossible all out blasts but the riffs are powerful in their simplicity especially when the guitar sound reminds so much of Sadus‘ “Illusions” (well, to my ears at least). Good grind/death from the past, the main flaw is that it is too short, I really need more from this band – hopefully we could hear some brand new tracks soon! Good to see the lyrics have been reported in the booklet, they are standard antisocial grindcore lyrics but worth a read.

The packaging is also quite bare but very clean and stilys, must be the best one I have seen so far from Open Grave. Besides, support the label and buy this Ep, they are doing a good job and are very active despite the relatively young age!

Man I am so fucking stupid sometimes ah ah! I really don’t want to like it, I always try to convince myself that I don’t like political grind but everytime I hear a band that rips like this Afgrund does, I always have to admit: “fuck, this is goddamn excellent”. Another footprint in the fresh concrete gallery of Swedish Grind. Afgrund belong to this new generation of grindcore that just surpassed the big change of the late 90’s when bands like Nasum began installing super productions in a genre that had deep roots in the filth of crusty punk. This new breed has all the good elements of this late grindcore kind but also a massive sound and loads abrasive energy by the dozens. Names that come up to mind when looking for comparisons are those of their first label No Tolerance – Krigshot, Skitsistem, Wolfpack etc. in other words extremely powerful and groovy grind with a huge sound prouction – this is really nice shit. Good replacement for a Red Bull when driving home in the late of the night. Sometimes this fat sound gets almost messy and a bit splatterish, one can even dare to say some early Malignant Tumour or Squash Bowels hints appear scattered in the songs. I only didn’t like much the very last song “Det Sista Brevet” – ithas some dissonance that I never manage to tolerate. Perfect packaging by Szymon Siech (always a master), since I guess the lyrics are of the introspective/social kind, I really don’t care if they are in English, for once – ah ah!

They have a full-length out now, called “Svarta Dagar” on the same label Lifestage – check out the cover, it’s KILLER. (weird, the label’s website is severaly outdated…!).