It's Monday and Mondays suck, so let' grind it out with Retortion Terror's self-titled EP.
Yeah, I know it's been two weeks since my last column entry. Life happens, just like Mondays do. I had been meaning to feature this EP the week it came out, but either something came up or ADD blasted my attention span away.
Regardless, in case you missed the news last year, Takafumi Matsubara is back with a new band. Who is Takafumi Matsubara? Even if you're not into grindcore, you should be familiar with a little band called Gridlink. Over the span of three releases, Gridlink's brand of technical grindcore melted speakers and minds, and released of the best grind albums of the last decade: Longhena. Matsubara was one of the band's guitarists. However, that project has since gone on hold. Enter: Retortion Terror.
Last year the Osaka, Japanese four-piece unleashed a vicious split with Invidiosus. If you haven't heard that yet, queue it up after this. Now, Retortion Terror make their Horror Pain Gore Death Productions debut with this EP, and damn is it fast. Six-grind-your-head-in tracks whose momentum is like locomotive through your living room.
"Choke Pear" slams in and gets straight to thrashin' and blastin', with only a small section of down time (if you can even call it that). And then it's on to "Hito Wo Norowaba." An absolute burner of a track that goes from frantic to rabid in no time flat, and runs only 58 seconds. It's like the band likes to test how much they can kick up their blasts. "Quagmire" especially brings this to mind.
What's impossible to shake is how much personality there is in this band. Yeah, they play straightforward grindcore, but the riffs, the blasts–everything has a signature. When they play, you can tell they play. Especially with the way Matsubara shreds on that guitar. But the urgency and immediacy of the tracks really comes forth. Yeah, the EP is over as fast as it started, but it's a slice of grindcore that feels organic.
Whatever the ultimate fate of Gridlink may be, there's no reason not to get into Retortion Terror now. Even if grind isn't your usual avenue, there's a lot of shoved into these delicious morsels. It's short lived but by the time you reach the track "Grind the Leeches" come on, you might just feel a smile creeping onto that face of yours. And maybe you'll forget it's Monday too. Get grinding!
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