Mincer

Whereas Agathocles already seemed to be on auto-pilot on their previous full length album 'Superiority Overdose' from 2001, it took them over 4 years to go into the studio to record the next one. 'Mincer' was recorded over three months in late 2005, was released early in 2006 and would turn out to be their only official full length studio with drummer Roel Tulleneers despite him being in the band for 4 years.

'Mincer' has become a largely forgotten and overlooked Agathocles album. But don't let the fact that this was Roels only album fool you. It wasn't his fault as such. Roel was actually quite a good drummer. I admit, I didn't think so at first. Until I dove into other recordings from this line up apart from this album and those awful sounding first 4-track recordings from 2003. He was actually very tight but as I said in another review his precision-playing didn't always blend well with Agathocles when the drum sound and production didn't do him much good as he was often buried under a sonic pile of guitar and loudly mixed-in vocals.

So let's get to the production issues here. On 'Mincer' Roels drum performance often disappears because of not only the shitty wooly guitar production (which also is mixed in way too loud) but also because the drums are not balanced out. The faster he plays, the less the snare drum can be heard. This is far from uncommon. Even a novice producer or engineer knows what velocity is, right? And how to easily fix or overcome these things? How come there was no one in the studio nor in the band able to hear this and intervene? Also some major balancing issues, just take the toms in the breaks and fills on 'Matadores Del Libertad', 'War Fetisjists Kill' and many other songs which are way louder than the kick & snare making the drums sound oddly unmixed. Or listen to 'Maze of Papers' after the 1:50 mark and tell me you don't notice the guitars are way too loud compared to the drums, vocals and bass. I'd like to call for an entire 'And Justice For Roel' remix.

Okay, let's leave the bad production behind us for now and continue with the song material. The best songs on “Mincer” are over all the longer and more dynamic songs that have clearly been composed with more care, being 'Maze of Papers', 'Empty Frame', 'War Fetisjists Kill', 'Archives and Files', 'Logical Exodus', 'Goredom-Boredom', 'Yuppie Career Freak' and 'Misery Destiny' which range from hardcore punk to Xysma/Repulsion inspired death grind. These songs show what Agathocles can play and write if they truly make an effort.

However most of the other material on the album suffers from the same auto-pilot songwriting mentality which made the previous album 'Superiority Overdose' such a mediocre one. One gets the feeling Agathocles were making less of an effort and just recorded every single idea they had laying around to complement the earlier mentioned songs and make an album out of it. Don't get me wrong, I love Agathocles playing short grinders as well but quite a lot of them here could have done with some more work. A simple cool break, a fancy intro, whatever. Just a little bit of effort to give them their own face. Listening to 'Bass the Gabbers' makes you feel you've already heard 150 earlier songs with the exact same blueprint.

No, I never liked that simple stomper 'Kurose' despite the strong lyrical content. I think 'Expendable Goods' is a missed opportunity as it could have been played way better and more effective/fitting on guitar with some thrashy/crossoverish palm muting. And the worst song is clearly 'Forced to Masturbate'. How many times can you shout 'masturbate' in a 2:22 song? Too many times it turns out. And masturbation is probably the last thing I could associate with Agathocles. So dear reader, if you're seeing them live in the future and they dare to play this godawful song, please feel free to throw sausages at them.

Conclusion
Apart from quite a few pretty great songs, the album as a whole wasn't much of an improvement over 'Superiority Overdose' and productionally even worse. All in all a rather mediocre experience, especially when considering Agathocles would musically enter an even worse period next which lasted until guitarist Koen joined them years later. The higher standard of “Black Clouds Determinate”, “Thanks for Your Hostility” and “Razor Sharp Daggers” was clearly far out of reach for this era of Agathocles. However the earlier mentioned good songs would have made quite a good EP had they been released as one and produced with more care. Well, the shorter songs 'Matadores del libertad', 'Pricks at Gigs' and 'Mincer' are fine as well so they can be added too. Still 11 songs, slightly over 22 minutes here which are worth the time.

Leaving us with 10 obsolete songs taking up 13 minutes which is more than 36% of the albums duration. Add to this my issues with the production and I'm having serious trouble giving this album more than 60 points. So I won't.

Just some last words. To whom it may concern.
If you, band, label or bootlegger, ever plan to do so: Do not, ever, re-release this album until after you fix the basic drum sound, fix the velocity issues, fix the amateuristic disbalance between toms versus snare/kick and last but not least replace the guitar entirely with a tone a la 'Thanks for your hostility'. Because this album really needs a total makeover. Remember how Heresy's 'Face Up To It' album from 1988 was rereleased by Boss Tuneage in 2018 with an entirely improved sound and mix which completely blew the original away? Well, get to work.

Agathocles is one of the most prolific grind bands, they've put out over a hundred different releases. Unfortunately, this in part contributes to the fact that they are a quantity over quality band, though their discography is not without a few diamonds in the rough, such as Razor Sharp Daggers. This is the first album I listened to outside of their recommended material, and I get why I was not told to check this one out. Mincecore is not a genre that requires a ton of technical skill to make, but that doesn't mean that it's effortless or can't be made interesting. After all, bands like Haggus and Archagathus have taken this sub-subgenre in cool new directions.

However, Mincer does not go anywhere the listener hasn't likely been before. This album even goes places it already has gone, like how Logical Exodus and Diary of White Trash might as well be the same song if not for the latter's intro clip. Dethrone the Emeperor renders deep cut Expendable Goods, well, expendable goods, since it's a better version that occurs earlier in the tracklist. Even though expectations weren't high, I wanted more than just a handful of interesting songs, most of the tracks on here are made up of 2 or 3 simple riffs max. Another piece that needs fixing is the production, which seems to have become extra clear and sapped of balls, in that the bass knob seems to be turned way down, causing the growls and kick drum to merely tap rather than truly hit. The new drummer's beats aren't super interesting but they get the job done, even though there is something maddeningly inconsistent about the way the drums are recorded. The guitars and bass are the loudest and clearest instruments, somehow dodging the brunt of the album's mixing problems as well as delivering most of the hooks. The vocals are played pretty straight for mincecore, they're not very aquatic or distorted at all, and the two voices are not very separated either. Sounds a bit grim, but honestly, I'll cut them some slack here; this album is totally listenable, and even though it's not that great, it's perfectly acceptable background music for playing video games or cleaning the house.

While certainly not the greatest album to name after the microgenre they started, Agathocles serves up a fair enough slice of grind here. That said, it is likely not the first place to check out mince, or Agathocles, or grind really. Its easiness and simplicity totally obfuscates the fact that it took over 4 years to make, but to be fair, music like this has its place; and, while Mincer's place isn't at the top of any heap or best list, it certainly isn't at the bottom either. Just don't expect it to dethrone any emperors.