What we have here is an anomaly. Mothra is a name I have never come across in my explorations and hopefully they won’t battle with Gojira anytime soon (har har). Like most unknown promos in my mail I hesitated to listen. The retro brown and yellow album cover didn’t help matters either. Once I popped this bad boy in though I was floored by what they offer. The band utilizes everything, hardcore attitude, down-tempo sludge, death gutturals, and progressive forward thinking. All laced with the furry of grind.

“Squats,” wastes no time exposing the urgency that spews from this record. Off time, off chords, and off the charts, I can only imagine what this is like live. “Hooloovoo,” the second track, starts with a progressive feel and then left turns into punk, with a huge scream an a breakdown. “Octarine,” and track five “Bleen”, slows things down with sludgy doom, harmonized guitars, blast beats, and complete madness. The list goes on with a total of seven songs packed into 27 minutes of mindfuckery that should be noticed by many.

Tastefully written and skillfully executed, Dyes is a record that will spend many hours in my rotation and goes down as the biggest surprise to me this year. It’s a record I probably normally wouldn’t like by numerous other bands who try to compete with this. I congratulate Mothra.