(11.12.06) There is so much breakcore and speed metal on Aaron Spectre’s debut release as Drumcorps that it takes the muscular lifting of two labels to get the record out. Spectre’s lifelong fascination with the howling tsunami of grindcore is tapped for Grist, and the resultant blending and fracturing via a rack of virtual machines produces a collection of blistering breakcore tracks that are equal parts Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Bong-Ra.
While Spectre doesn’t quite go to the Agoraphobic Nosebleed extreme of seconds-long tracks, he compresses a few down to brutal collisions of howls and beats. “Grainbeast” is a maelstrom of vocal effects, a single voice turned into a whirlwind of noise that elongates into a fury of warped organ notes and skittering words; while “Saddest RMX” hammers its way across the stage like a John Zorn/Mike Patton improvisational concussion blast. “Terrible Things,” at a minute and a half, spends part of that swirling through Air Inspector territory (one of Spectre’s less brutalizing aliases) before snarling up into a Godflesh-style intro that throws the listener right into the heavy guitar work of “Forgive and Forget.”
The longer tracks wear their influences clearly. “Botch Up and Die” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to ’90s hardcore band, Botch; while the hand percussion and technoid rhythms of “Pig Destroyer Destroyer” throw a bone to the bass-less Pig Destroyer. “Botch Up and Die,” the opening salvo of Grist, seems like a true-to-form grindcore song: foaming vocals, twisting guitars, hammering drums. But Spectre starts to sneak in breakcore effects by slurring the drums, tossing down bleats of noise, and by staggering beats into chopped dub echoes. “Pig Destroyer Destroyer” eschews the pummeling sound of the double-bass for atmospheric burps of noise and synthesized chords. The guitar is sampled, thrashed and looped back on itself like a time-delay Möbius loop until it breaks open a wall in the Time/Space Continuum, releasing an inter-dimensional howler and an Nth dimension breakbeat programmer who transform the song into a caterwauling anthem of grinding breakcore.
The beauty of Grist is how Spectre has found a commonality between the heavy thrash of the metal and the cryptic data overload of breakcore to produce tracks that so cleverly belong to either camp. “Incarnate” leaps and howls like a demonic goat whacked out on meth but manages to do backflips with breakbeat tear-downs between verses. “Worse” begins as a percussive interplay between a couple of snare drummers, adds samples and some shortwave interference, before layering the breakbeats on top of the stick work. “Time” tags in, stealing the percussion and mood of “Worse” as the rhythm section for an escalating battle between grindcore vocals, speed guitar and thundering bass.
Grist is one of those records you don’t realize you’ve been waiting for until it kicks you in the face. Aaron Spectre’s homage to grindcore and fascination with breakcore results in a record that takes no prisoners and offers no excuses for its intensity. You either dance or die with Drumcorps. Some days, we need this sort of adrenaline rush to jump-start our nervous systems. Grist is the juice that will power your rocket. Suck it down.
Grist is out now on Ad Noiseam and Cock Rock Disco. Buy it at Amazon.com
