Axis of Despair: so THAT is what happened to Coldworker?!? After Nasum broke up, drummer Anders Jakobson went on to form Coldworker, which was a pretty damn tight little grind band. After 3 solid albums (the first 2 being the best), I totally lost track of those guys. Well lo and behold, while researching Axis of Despair I found out that minus their guitarist, they basically ARE Coldworker, which makes much more sense as to why this is a catchy as hell, kicking little grind album in its own right.
With obvious Nasum and mid-discography Napalm Death influences coming through loud and clear, and this collection of veteran talent, Contempt for Man pulls no punches. This is straight up blast beat driven, 1-2 minute long grind in all its stripped down glory. The aforementioned Jakobson is joined by vocalist Joel Fornbrant, who has a fitting hollow yell that has a bit of Napalm’s Barney Greenway in it. Oskar Pålsson is back on bass, with guitarist Kristofer Jankarls coming over from Infanticide (which is another band grind fans should seek out).
The whole album clocks in at just over 32 minutes, with the large number of tracks that is a grindcore genre staple (20 total on this one). You do get some groove parts, namely in the almost 3 minute (WTF!) 9th track “Crush the Empire”, and closer “Flytande Död”, but luckily no instrumentals or any other fluff. The production is a bit thin in the low end, which was likely a conscious choice to avoid an over-produced sound. This is grind at its most basic, and it’s a wonderful thing.
