torsdag 18 augusti 2011

Splitsville pt 2: Q: And crusties? A: And crusties.

Alpinist/Masakari - Split
2011, Southern Lord

Masakari is rapidly becoming one of really big names in modern hardcore, and the reason why is plain to hear on this brand new split with fellow german crustgrinders Alpinist. And as much I respect the latter, it is essentially for Masakari that I keep returning to this split lp. The material they unleash here is so many fucking leagues ahead of the curve of what anybody else is doing right now it's quite honestly disturbing. They display not only amazing musicianship but also absolutely stellar song writing. These aren't your ordinary everyday glue-huffing crusties who accidentally stumbled into a practice space and started a band "because they could", but fucking solid musicians, capable of writing truly memorable and epic hardcore songs. They incorporate metal elements into their crusty brand of grind/hardcore, both from the doomier side of the spectrum as well as from the death metal side of things. They also slip in a lot of melody and breathing room into the songs giving them a much bigger depth and accessibility, while at the same time also giving them a sense of complexity that makes them not quite as easy to penetrate and figure out as their previous material. These eight tracks are by far their best material yet and I can only hope the band stays the course set out on this split.

Alpinist plays a very similar style but focuses more on the basic staples of the genre; heavy breakdowns, d-beat styled metallic hardcore blasts of midtempo fury, with alot of simplistic melody thrown into the mix, as well as some really cool black metal influenced bits. I actually really love what they do here, but it pales in comparison to Masakari's material. Sorry, guys. It's not you, it's me.

Use bandcamp to stream and/or download this split and check out the lyrics as well.

Masakari's bandcamp
Alpinist's bandcamp

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