Apocalypse is their shortest album.  18 songs in 20 minutes.  The band has released what could possibly be their most lethal grind album and “Pacify” opens the album with the ‘Holy Shit’ moment for 2023.  I would advise you to keep those headphones on the low setting, as this album is not only loud but right out of the gates this song starts with such a vicious grind whirlwind blast that is intent on ripping your head and limbs off within the 42-second run-time.  Rotten Sound has returned and before “Pacify” begins it is over.  The title track has more vicious blasts and vocalist Keijo sings so fucking fast, it’s pure insanity.  At just a tad over a minute, this is one of the longer songs on the album.  Not much in variation though.

“Empowered” is the longest song at just about two minutes, and actually does not start with a blast beat.  It’s more old-school 90’s death metal speed until the grind comes in then it slows down some more and the guitars are just razor sharp and rooted in that buzzsaw Swedish death metal sound, the song is bludgeoning and I appreciate the tempo shifts on this song. Vocalist Keijo Niinimaa sounds especially angry on this album…well he always does and I always feel his spittle through the speakers, because he means business.  Sami Latva’s drums are punishing.  How he manages to blast like this is beyond me. Listen to the tightness of the blasts, then the drum rolls and the bashing of cymbals.  It’s almost like Animal from The Muppets show playing drums.  Pure chaos, and unbridled fury.

“Renewables” has tempo shifts where the song slows for a bit before grinding us back into oblivion.  “Denialist” starts with a slow and lumbering doomy heaviness.  Rotten Sound has experimented with doom before, on their prior releases, and this totally breaks up some of the monotony going on throughout the album.  The song picks up speed and then goes into high-octane grindcore.  Personally, I would have liked the opening riff on this song, to last longer, and allow the song to breathe more.  And if you did not know Keijo is in a number of bands and you need to check out Morbid Evils.  Total doom death metal sludge and you can hear his vocals on the lower end of the spectrum.  Their Supernaturals album was probably the heaviest album to drop last year.

Apocalypse ends with the song “Inflation” which starts mid-paced, before gradually picking up speed throughout the song.  The album ends just as it started-vicious.  Apocalypse is rooted in pure hatred and this is power violence grindcore.  Much of it has to do with the vocal delivery of the shouting and screaming.  He never gets irritating like some power violence singers, but there is some monotony because there really is no vocal tone variation on the album.

The music is played exceptionally well, but at the end of the day, this album is fairly monotonous.  Not much in the way of variation and the slower moments of songs like “Sharing” and “Denialist”, with the faster moments at other times during the songs, make those blasts sound even more punch you in the gut brutal.  At the end of the day, you know what you’re getting with Rotten Sound.  This is exceptionally executed and produced.  No question there, but their prior albums had more variations to the songs, not much of that going on here.  Rotten Sound can do better.

The debut album, Under Pressure, shows a band clearly trying to find their sound.  This is not the same band that would go on to become one of the most ferocious and violent sounding grind acts today.  Under Pressure is a death metal album.  Keijo’s vocals, the original Rotten Sound member, had more of a gruff vocal style, deeper at times, and screaming, as well, with some hardcore type of vocals.  He still had the hate in his vocals back then.  I’ve seen this debut album panned quite a bit, which is unfair.  While it’s primarily a death metal album, there still contains a fair amount of blasting.  Shit picks up pace with the third track, “Stages”, one of the best tunes on the album.  Awesome opening slow guitar riff, before the holy shit blast beat comes in a few seconds later.  This is an intense song right off the jump.  The 1.23 scream drowns out, right before the blast comes in.  “Social Rinse” is another wonderful track, with a little bit of a nod to Napalm Death, in the grind part.  The groove section is killer, towards the end of the song.  The guitar tone has a little Hypocrisy flair to it.  Again as a debut album I think this is a pretty damn good start.  Again, more rooted in death metal, with some grind influences.  Probably one of the first true death/grind albums, when you think about it.

2 years later, Rotten Sound would go on to release Drain and this is the start of their grind career and their new logo, which is the same as today.  Album opener “Calm” comes blazing through with quite an extraordinary Swedish buzzsaw guitar sound that Erik Thomas would say “Holy crap, I gotta get my hands on this reissue, quicker than Frank can say Friday Flapjacks Fell Forward Friday Funday”.  Yes this is the Rotten Sound that would eventually continue to create and turn the grind scene on its head.  “Calm” just grinds, comes back to the opening groove and is punishing!  “Dirty Currency” has an awesome drum beginning and the slow to fast grind parts are just outstanding.  Keijo’s vocals began his true hate, piss and vinegar vocal style right here on Drain.  “Super Satan” is a terrifically named song with the Holy Shit part at the 1.10 part with the isolated buzzsaw guitar riff before the grind whirlwind blast comes in and rips all your limbs apart.  “Cartender” is one of the best and fastest songs Rotten Sound has ever written.  Brutal beyond belief and a real catchy guitar riff.  Drain is vicious.

The reissues have been remastered.  I compared them to new album releases out today and the sound is as loud as those, therefore these 20 year old recordings have definitely been tweaked in sound.  It would have helped if the liners mentioned this.  Both reissues have the original album covers restored and both are digipaks with the lyrics printed on the inside panels.  Some of the reissues that were released came out in jewel case formats and I’ve heard of some glitches with incorrect song numbering.  If you are a fan of Rotten Sound and never heard their first 2 albums, find these immediately, since they were pressed in limited quantities.  Excellent reissues!

And holy hell that guitar tone.  It’s sick.  PLAIN.  FUCKING.  SICK.  ZIKA AND THE EBOLA VIRUS HAD BABIES LEVEL SICK.  It’s a nasty (dare I say rotten?!?) buzzsaw guitar tone that is instantly recognizable as one of the most distinctive in all of metal.  These guys, along with Meshuggah, are 2 bands that I would recognize instantly by the sound of their guitars alone after listening to no more than 5 seconds of any track.  It’s that tone that forms the basis of another absolutely inredible album.

The album starts out with “Lazy Asses”, which features a short intro before the 25 second mark at which point the aforementioned guitar tone of Mika Aalto and the raving lunatic vocals of Keijo Niinimaa are released upon your cochleae with the subtlety of roundhouse kick.  Halfway through the next track, “Intellect”, is where the tempo slows down a bit, which I have always loved when they decide to go that route.  It’s likely the fact that the slower tempos really allow the guitar tone to open up a bit more and one can further relish it in all its glory (have I mentioned yet how bad ass the guitar tone is?).  This carries over into the opening of the next track, “Fear of Shadows”, before the subsequent ones get back to doing little more than inciting violence with drummer Sami Latva’s furious blasts and Niinimaa’s vocal bombs.

There’s a well-chosen mixture of these two styles on the rest of the album before culminating in the final track, “Extortion and Blackmail”, which I can (and have) been listening to on repeat as it’s that damn good.  It’s the optimal blend of speed and chaos in the beginning, before dropping into a drawn out lurching riff at the one minute mark that heaves and chugs its way to the end of the song while being backed by Niinimaa’s pained vocals.

In typical grindcore fashion, all songs on this album hover around the 1-2 minute mark, save for the last track which is actually the longest one on the album at just under 5 minutes (it’s worth nothing that there is a bonus version with 2 extra tracks (18 total), but my press copy ended at 16).  The whole album is just over 28 minutes, and features a killer production that allows you to hear what is going on but comes nowhere near to the dreaded “overly polished” sound found on a lot of modern metal.  It definitely helps that guitarist Mika Aalto and Keijo Niinimaa have been around since the band’s inception in 1993, as they have formed an unshakeable foundation to their sound.  No doubt a contender for album of the year, and an absolute must buy.

Now clocking in at just over 8 minutes this EP is a long way from an hour, but it drops the hammer regardless of brevity.  Anyone familiar with their sound knows what’s on the menu: the aforementioned guitar nastiness, Keijo Niinimaa’s trademark growl, blast-beats-a-plenty served up by Sami Latva, and a side helping of “FUCK YOU” delivered by bassist Kristian Toivainen.  “Cause” begins the beating, with following track “The Game” showing off the restraint this band so masterfully has worked into their sound in order to keep it from becoming stale, which can be a pitfall of this genre.  “War” sees the same break about halfway through, but if you’re listening to this you know what you’ve came for, and Rotten Sound’s punishment is one your hollow metal heart can’t get enough of.

This is most likely an appetizer for an upcoming full length, and a good excuse to break your New Year’s Resolution of not listening to so much grind metal this year.  Wait… who the hell would actually make THAT New Year’s Resolution?!?

With several albums under their belt, including a number of EPs, a compilation release and live record, Rotten Sound really started hitting their sweet spot with 2002’s Murderworks. Since then, they’ve continually made improvements to their craft, and their newest album, Cursed, continues that tradition. The first thing the listener will notice is a slightly different approach to the production of the album. Undoubtedly, the band hit an incredibly high mark with their previous album’s (Cycles) sonic balance, which elevated the ultra-tight and punchy qualities of 2003’s Exit with some added body and heavier low end to help carry the blastbeat train with extra heft. The production of Cursed did take some getting use to (mainly because my ears are highly critical in this arena); the crispy punch has been fine tuned a bit in favor of a modest buzz that sizzles, with the mid-range filled out a little more. I’m sure most fans will find this suits the band quite well. In fact, after repeated listens, I’d say this is the ideal production for Rotten Sound‘s style.

The album starts things off by tearing out of the gate post-haste (unlike the warm-up/”ease into it” type of tracks that intro’d the last two full-lengths) with the 59 second cutter “Alone”. This song sets the template for Rotten Sound‘s, err… sound, as a whole, all in under a minute – blast beats, distorted bass, d-beat breathers, and a chunky finish. From there the album, traverses their usual spectrum of speed and riffing. HOWEVER, the songs are sounding more deliberate instead of a pick-n-choose of blastbeats that match up with random riffs. This makes their scope of songwriting seem broader – it’s not just dictated by a cool riff or speed. The fourth cut on the record, “Choose”, is a prime example. Who’d have guessed Rotten Sound would craft a nearly two minute long song based around a simple but very catchy riff and knead it into variations of the original and ultimately into a singular piece of music? They go there, and it works.

The album clocks in at 27 minutes and 38 seconds, with 16 songs total. While I mentioned above that this album seems to be more balanced and deliberate in nature, I do think I’m liking the first half a bit more, but only slightly. That might have something to do with “Green” being one of the most savage and fast songs the band has ever written, along with the other highlights touched upon, and the shredding “Self” (for which a video was made). However, the second half has equally amazing parts; the dirge-y plodding of “Declare”, with it’s pitch-shifted vocals around 1:47 into the song, is deliciously evil. The way the deck is stacked with this album, the second half trades some of the speed in for more emphasis on vibe (ie. dark and a little more groovy), but just a bit, so no need to fret.

It seems blasphemous to call a grindcore band’s newest album an example of their maturation – like mentioned in the first paragraph it’s strange for a band within such an extreme style to exemplify refinement, but dammit if that isn’t the case with these guys! Those careful improvements to their sound and style definitely bring Nasum to mind, and that is a shining compliment and accomplishment for Rotten Sound to wear with pride.