When word of the this supergroup/side project surfaced earlier this year I immediately pre ordered the album after just hearing one song. And I’m by no means a fanboy Job For A Cowboy or The Black Dahlia Murder, but when vocalist Jon Davy and fellow JFAC guitar cohorts Alan Glassman and Tony Sannicandro team up with The Black Dahlia Murder bassist Max Lavelle AND get joined by death metal super drummer Darren Cesca (ex Deeds of Flesh, Goratory, Arsis, Pillory etc), I’m all in. and the end result is surprisingly killer death/grind record.
10 songs in 21 minutes certainly fits the grindcore fury, so I’ll make this review just as short and to the point. Being a super group and with some of the players involved, there is a bit of a Misery Index/ Hateplow vibe to the recorded putout. Powerful power chord drenched violent grindcore with a bit of a death metal lean and Davy’s snarling vocals, dressed with a razor sharp modern mix /master from Cesca.
The furious assault starts with the intense grindcore burst of “Decoherence” and for the next hand full of songs is full on blistering mayhem until slows things down a bit with “Cognivity”, delivering a bit more groove and control. And that’s the lone moment of respite, as the chaos starts back up with standout “A Mask of Lucidity” and devastating “Hemorrhaging Fabrications” which both would make members of Napalm Death smile.
“Harvest” is one of the album’s more decimating tracks, melding subtle tech death into the grindcore mix, and even a nice little melodic solo and bridge. After blistering “Entranced Euphoria”, closer “Lurid Skin” ends the album with a bit of a waste with half of the 2 and a half minute song an ambient close out what is other wise another tech death/grind amalgamation.
Like the other recent super group of Metal Blade pals, Serpentine Dominion, I’m curious to see if this will be a one time offering, or if this project will continue to develop and release material, as it’s a bonafide sold entry into the US grindcore scene.
