It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Slund’s If You’re Angry and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.
This we’re backtracking a few months to cover a new Slund release. Now I know that this month alone saw Slund do EP splits with the mighty Agathocles and Maggot Bath. And as a band that’s only been around for about two years, that’s pretty awesome. Their output hasn’t been slow, at least material-wise. But if you’ve heard of them before, you might remember them more for their sludgy slams that maintained healthy bits of grind, that eventually became their grinding slams that maintained healthy bits of sludge. Not to mention their constant Christmas cheer.
If You’re Angry And you Know It, Clap Your Hands is a 14-track bombardment of grind in the vein of Magrudergrind, The Kill or ACxDC. That last one being more powerviolence, but you get the picture. Now sprinkle that with some of the doom/sludge attitude of Fistula and you’re ready for what Slund has in store for you. And that pretty little piano music to lead us into the album is exactly what we need.
“Oh the Joy” let’s loose with a rip roaring cannon blast beat that’s likely to blow out your living room windows. Through 11-minutes, the Slovenian grinders are at maximum overgrind. Tracks are usually under a minute with some spoken interludes to break things up as it bellows forth.
What makes this release so great is how well Slund incorporate their sludgy brand into the tracks. Things get plenty slow, but it almost always feels like a grindcore record. “Sick of the Fake”, for example, is a sludgier song, but it’s really not that slow and still feels like it’s building off the momentum of “Oh the Joy” by just adding in a dash of heaviness. Meanwhile, “Living to Die” is a much slower song but keeps things grinding and picks up only to slow things down again.
However, the record is at its absolute best when “Reverend X” comes on. From the spoken bits, to the lyrics, to the groovy as hell, thrashy grind, the track is a golden great. Every time that damn track comes on, it’s a fucking riot. Biotch.
Slund is grinding at their strongest right now and it sounds like their game is only going to get better. Instrumentally, Slund write killer, tight albums that deserve more attention. And their shift to a more grinding sound won’t raise any complaints from me. The bitter, sometimes hilarious lyrics are also amazing. But hey, loosen up and get into the groove. I guess “The Slund Boogie” put it best: “Let yourself go, honey.”
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