It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Age of Violence by Internal Damage.
First and foremost, a very happy New Year to you all. If you made a resolution (or several) I hope you keep it (or them). I didn’t. I know better. And hopefully any remnants of a hangover have long since dispersed by now. I’m currently saying goodbye to a Glenfiddich bottle.
So let’s keep things simple for the first Grindcore Monday of 2017. Saint Petersburg, Russia grinders Internal Damage put this one out back in 2012 on the Polish label EveryDayHate. There’s not a ton of releases in the band’s catalog since their 2009 inception. This is only their sophomore album actually. But it’s still a banger.
You might be thrown with this album upon the first track actually. Though it’s the title track, it’s mostly just a drum solo with some growing background noise that goes on for two minutes. Even after that, it only leads into a slower paced section that takes up half of the second track “Under Surveillance.” What did I say about this album being simple? Hm. But it’s memorable and sticks out in a genre that’s all about blasting speed. And after three-minutes and eighteen seconds, spanning one-and-a-half-tracks, that’s where we find ourselves.
Once Age of Violence gets blasting the album keeps the pace. There’s the occasional interlude here and there but only enough to break things up and set the mood. The album tone is very metallic and the writing splits itself well between the hardcore/punk (see: “Trendy But Dead”) and death/thrash metal sounds (see: “Prison Regime”). There’s a good divide within the sound but never a divorce. Internal Damage keeps things together without ever becoming a cross-genre (i.e.: deathgrind).
There’s also an inescapable feeling of doom and gloom running amok. Age of Violence is very dystopian and paranoid in its approach. Something that’s no stranger to the grindcore mindset. Tracks like “Downfall” kick things off with that conformist mindset (see: clip from They Live) that many despise but fall into anyway for survivability purposes. Many of the track titles reflect this as well, including “Our Aim – Your Slavery”, “Enslaved”, and “Conspiracy’s Within Our Government.”
If you like blasts, if you like grindcore in general, then Internal Damage has it down. Veering between death metal and hardcore/punk influences, the band keeps the basics together. It’s what you’d expect from a grindcore band both old and new. So grind into 2017 with some Age of Violence. Sometimes the old ways are best. Sometimes you just gotta play it as loud and as hard as you can. Internal Damage do just that.
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