It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Mellow Harsher’s Served Cold.
We’re going back to being all about the blasts this week. Just non-stop, pure frickin’ rage. Eight tracks in about six-minutes and nary a moment wasted. Hell, only one track clocks in over the minute mark. Mellow Harsher is exactly the kind of pistol whip wake up call we need.
Hailing out of small town Sloughton, WI, (a little south of Madison) a city that claims to have originated the coffee break (something everyone needs on a Monday), Mellow Harsher play a mean strain of grindcore, with some splashes of powerviolence, ala No Comment. It’s hyper-caffeinated, maniacal rage that should have crushed their small city by now.
The aptly named “Brickbath” kicks the album into gear. And it almost sounds like they’re trying to go toe-to-toe with the The Kill for intensity. The screaming, the blasting—everything just shoves forth like an electrical surge. The drums go from blast to blast, until the song slows into a break down that closes out the song.
Served Cold’s strength lies in how little they hold on to anything. Blasts go by quickly and riffs switch up often. It’s got the irregular beats that powerviolence is well known for but only a fraction of the breakdowns. When the band does breakdown in songs like “Narc” the band is still moving like a steam engine. Hell, the breakdown isn't even that slow in that song.
Despite its short run time, Served Cold packs a wollap. Tracks like “Cellmates” and “Open Sore” are total burners. They’re brief, fast and total burners. They get the blood pumping and the teeth clenching. “Insanity Plea” is no different and probably the best song title on the album. It’s practically what all these tracks sound like: crumbling sanity with a heavy dose of ADD.
Mellow Harsher brings the riffage and rage. Served Cold is an EP that never gets boring because of how jam-packed this song writing is. This is what would happen if The Kill and No Comment had a baby while listening to old Pig Destroyer. It’s a delicious, amusing piece of grind. Go read the Bandcamp tags and note the “Working man’s Pig Destroyer” note on the album. These guys can have a laugh. Also, that’s probably the most honest portrayal of Charlie Brown ever. Or I’m just fantasizing.
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