It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Fluoride’s Fluoride.
I can’t count how many times I’ve stared at this album and thought, “Man, I gotta feature Fluoride,” only to get distracted by something else. So this one has been a long time coming, as I’ve been listening to it for a long time. Very possibly since its March release. And as the 2017 grind wraps up, this one comes highly recommended. Oh, and they did a tape release with To Live A Lie Records. One more reason this needs to be on here.
Hailing out of New Brunswick, NJ, Fluoride is a three-piece grind/powerviolence powerhouse. They have no other releases. And goddamn are they coming in on a strong note. This album is chaos incarnate.
I don’t know how else to word this, Fluoride sounds hungry. Hungry for violence and destruction through speed and slow, sludgy slogs. And by the gods do they bring it all by the truck load. “Retributivism” opens everything on an unassuming note. It’s not loud or blasting, just noisy. The feedback slowly creeps in and then things get fast. The punk vibe kicks up and the band get into full swing.
It’s “Cool Guy Backed Hard” that solidifies the album’s pace. The track caustic grind that swells into furious blasts. However, it breaks down midway into a slow powerviolence burn. The breakdown recalls bands like Pageninetynine. It’s got an old screamo vibe to it that slowly works its way into the following track “Due Process.” A track that gives more to the slow than the quick. It builds more mood for the album before jumping off into an aggressive, blasting frenzy.
“Tunnel Vision” finds the band in one of their most ferocious moments. This and “Bloodroot” are pure burners. It’s Fluoride taking no shit and blasting forward. It’s frenzied grindcore pure and simple that’s on the fritz.
Meanwhile, tracks like “Restraint” show anything but. The piece is a heavy and slow getting offt the ground, like someting you’d hear from Weekend Nachos. It picks up the pace though and blasts through to “Offest.” Another track that breaks things down like an anvil coming out of the sky. It sounds violent and relentless. And by the time the final track “Death Sentence” wraps up, the band has descended into an almost zen-like violence.
Here’s the thing: Fluoride are a band that are incredible songwriters. Like Cloud Rat or Weekend Nachos they just do what they do really, really well. Enough to make you coming back time and time again. And for a first release, this is incredibly executed. The control over the aggression is masterful. It’s grinding powerviolence with some screamo touches and goddamn does it kick ass. Keep an eye on this band.
