CURSED: SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF GRIND

Rotten Sound’s Cursed was the last place I expected to find flow. I’m more used to grindcore of the Napalm Death Smear Campaign variety, which is pretty much just death metal at this point, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect besides blisteringly fast riffing, extremely short songs, and all-around chaos. I did find plenty of that chaos (reminiscent of Anaal Nathrakh in both their wall-of-sound and ferocious riffing) on Cursed, but I also found a more structured presence in the album, which was completely unexpected.

Don’t get me wrong — Cursed is heavy, brutal grindcore done right. Songs like “Machinery” and “Doomed” make me want to smash faces through windows. But it’s not fast the whole time; as on the band’s last release, Cycles, there are unmistakable elements of sludge and doom, too. You can headbang to Cursed, not just stand there and be overwhelmed by the speed of it all, as can be the case with some other grindcore acts. “Choose” and “Self” are two of my favorites in this vein, slowing down just enough to give us a fucking break for once before diving right back into the storm.

Since I’m not exactly a grind aficionado, I’d expect songs between one and three minutes in length to be practically unlistenable, but that definitely isn’t the case here. I’ve actually put this on and been able to listen to it without doing anything else. That’s one of my favorite things about this album, in addition to the fact that it really catches you up and takes you for a crazy-ass ride. The one-word song titles convey a sense of inevitability, building up from the explosive, bass-riddled opener “Alone” until the final, desperate track “Doomed,” which slows down right at the end, stopping abruptly. I sure as hell can’t understand the lyrics, but I still get the gist of what Keijo Niinimaa is saying. It’s probably because the song titles are emotions; I can actually feel the titles of the songs in the music. That’s really cool.

I’m still not a huge grind fan by any means, but Rotten Sound would undoubtedly be my first step into the genre if I decided to go forth. A brutal, deserving work with plenty of musical talent and insanity hidden just below the surface.

(4 out of 5 horns)

-AR