It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with a split from Horrible Earth and Psycho.
Oh man, it’s a very special week. I’d say day, but by the time this gets posted we’re past that very special day. See, two years and a day ago, Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president of this…special, special country. And if that’s what you wanted, good on you. Enjoy the tax hike by 2020 if you make less than $75k per year, pretend that wages haven’t been stagnate since the 1980s, pretend that Goldman Sachs running the country is somehow a good thing, pretend that both Trump and Alex Jones are incredibly anti-establishment, and pretend the Bilderbergs are so going down with this guy in. Make sure to leave a comment below about how I’m a liberal cuck/snowflake for writing this (because I so am according to you, tough guy). Or just, you know, throw the current popular insult buzzwords at me. I always read the comments. Definitely.
So, let’s celebrate. Let’s commemorate that we’ve finally entered a post-Mike Judge state where Beavis and Butt-Head is starting to run the intellectual and sarcastic gauntlet with Daria. And I think that grindcore stalwarts Horrible Earth and hardcore-punkers Psycho have just the tonic for this anniversary of adversary.
If you follow this column at all, you’ll have noticed (aside from my inconsistent submissions this year), that I featured Horrible Earth’s Typical Human Behavior back in November 2016. Back when this was called Grindcore Monday. If you need a refresher on Horrible Earth and don’t feel like reading my old installment, here’s a quick summary: cynical, blasting, brutal, and served with a healthy splash of death metal. Songs go by quick and the whole endeavor feels like it was ripped straight from the late 80s/early 90s. So, you know, grindcore at its rawest. We’ll get to Psycho in a paragraph or two.
Brought to us by Bloody Scythe Records, Horrible Earth kicks off their side with “Congenital Breath.” It’s forty-three-seconds of pure old school grindcore in the most delicious way. Actually, something that’s immediately apparent is how punk this sounds. Granted this is only five tracks versus Typical Human Behavior’s fourteen, but things still feel stripped down in the best way possible. “Congenial Breath” kicks off with some words from your favorite boy and then gets blasting. Forty-three-seconds of brutal, punk-tinged, grinding goodness. And it simply carries on with another punk-pushing, albeit more brutal offering, “Vultures Picking at Vultures.” Over five tracks, it’s Horrible Earth intensifying track after track until “Fattened for Silence” buzzes out. It’s grindcore done right and I just wish there was more.
The Psycho side of things sounds like it was ripped straight out of 1988. Even more so given I’m writing about this as the seven-inch spins on my record player. Psycho only brings four songs to the split, but damn do they do it raw. And just like it was 1983 all over again. Opening with “U.K. Jooglers” the song is pure 80s-laden hardcore/punk. The song is fast, brief and feels like it was over almost before it started, but still sticks around long enough to feel like a circle pit. The second track, “Slave”, continues with the hardcore theme, though mixing this up a bit more. The band ends on a cover of Ramones’ “Bop Till You Drop,” keeping things punk through and through.
All in all, this is a killer grinding split. Horrible Earth and Psycho deliver on all fronts on this most joyous of occasions. So, dear Mr. President, I present you, this here Monday Grind. May Hawaii receive another missile strike notice, may Europe continue to laugh at our incompetence of providing the most basic of humanitarian systems, and may grindcore/hardcore/punk may forever reign supreme.
Seth Putnam 2020.
This post will be updated when/if the Psycho side becomes digitally available.
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