I wanted to like this album after really digging their other two, I really did, but this one just didn’t do it for me. After 24 tracks and nearly 36 minutes, I honestly found myself bored to tears. The songs run together in one big maelstrom, and it all goes by with literally nothing to grab onto. I spun this album at least 7-8 times, finding and digging for something, but it just never came. I even went back and listened to Behold the Failure, and they sound EXACTLY the same; like they are literally the b-sides from the studio session for that album.

Now you might be hollering “it’s grind… what did you want sweeps and melodic harmonies?” No, but ask a band like Rotten Sound how they have managed to keep the genre fresh and you can see the contrast here. Or Pig Destroyer. It can be done, but in this case unfortunately it hasn’t been. Vocalist Thomas has an authoritative bark and the production is solid, but the guitar work is beyond mundane and I find this whole output sorely lacking in any of the grit and nastiness that defines the best grind bands. If you’re short on time and are curious then pick out one song from this album, and based on your personal tastes, it will be either really good or pretty lame. If you like the one you picked then give the whole thing a spin. If not, then I wouldn’t waste your time with the rest as it all sounds the same.

Misery Index release the shortest track of their career on ’49 Seconds of Hate.’ As you could guess, the track is 49 seconds long and it’s hateful. There’s also a re-recording of the Discordia track ‘Meet Reality,’ tastefully executed (but then, the LP version was too, so why did they bother re-recording this?). Adam Jarvis’ drumming is indubitably the best thing on these four Misery Index tracks, blazing through this brief section of songs like it’s his last time he’ll ever drum before being shipped off to have his legs amputated for a poor boy in Idaho. Or something.

Then there’s Mumakil, Switzerland’s resident burgeoning machine of blastcore. Where Misery Index resigns themselves to a drum-heavy production, Mumakil thunders in high contrast with dissonant guitar chords right off the bat with ‘Mass Murder Institution.’ Plainly, one track, that ONE track is worth the price of admission. It is a savory, minimalistic blastfest featuring nothing more than the necessary elements that give people the will to kill. Entertainment is one thing, but evoking spiritual misanthropy is another, and Mumakil’s got that in spades from the get-go. When that new Relapse full-length of theirs drops, you would be wise to pick it up (better yet, forcefully snatch it from the hands of the weak and feeble with a Kalashnikov in tow).

Are thirteen and a half minutes worth your hard-earned money? Yeah, if you’re a grind lover like me. The uninitiated may want to check out each of the band’s full-lengths before pursuing Ruling Class Cancelled.

32 un-named tracks of furious classic grindcore (not that spazzy, chaotic, scream filled bullshit kids are calling grindcore nowadays), this is Napalm Death (In fact, track 21 is a cover of ND’s “Social Sterility”), Rotten Sound, Phobia and Nasum styled fury of a pretty high quality.

Complete with a few oddball samples (the Robocop sample stat starts Track 11 is particularly amusing), Mumakil’s short, sharp bursts of dual vocal (deep grunts and higher register screams) grindcore is pretty much a perfect display of the genre. A few slower grooves littler the savagery (i.e. Track 12, Track 14, Track 15, Track 17, Track 22) but otherwise this is a skin peeling high velocity assault, and at 36 minutes, the album is surprisingly long for such consistently good, short, savage tracks.

Frankly, Mumakil is the most ferocious thing to come out of Switzerland since….erm….er…..let me get back to you on that…