Trendy BastatrdI haven't really listened to much grind as of late ever since a lot of the bands got real fucking gay with the fashion bullshit, but these guys from Muscatine, Iowa bust out with a furious brand of grindcore. I mean what better place to have a grind scene than some town, out in the middle of nowhere? I mean seriously what else is their to do but start a band. Musically these guys cram 6 songs that clock out around 8 minutes on this one sided 7 inch. In terms of their sound, they slightly remind me of Forge Again Records, HeWhoCorrupts. There's good bursts of chugging by the rhythm guitar with bass lines that usually follow the rhythm, but every now and then will bust out with a nice eerie little line, while the drums blast away and the lead guitar player wales out some effective one note leads. For how spastic these guys are, they definitely have some heavy riffs. The combination of high scathing vocals with the low guttural vocals make for a good vocal performance. The recording is my biggest problem with this record. Everything sounds so murky, none of the instruments really get a chance to stand out. If these guys got a good recording, these songs could do some damage. Another gripe I have is that there is no lyric insert, because I do like to know what the band has to say, no matter how random or even idiotic it may be. Probably the biggest strength of this record is the layout. Though the layout is in black and white, the random, crazy little illustrations look good interspersed with the silhouetted pictures of the band members. The actual vinyl looks fantastic. Green vinyl that was silk screened on the b-side with white and blue, with a strange drawing of some weird alien mother fucker, real off the wall.
Rating: 2.5/5
Songs worthy of replay: Slick your dyed black hair to the side and stick your disgusting head in the oven, Cheap Trick: A band named after my mom
Thesis: While this thing definitely holds it own musically, I could've used a better recording and a lyric sheet. Even if you don't like these guys that much musically, this thing is worth the 4 bucks for the crazy looking vinyl. Hit up GivepraiseRecords.com if your interested, or check out the band at TrendyBastard.Org