En sorglig historia

I saw Splitter for the first time in 2006, and I was immediately blown away. With insane live intensity, a mix between sheer grind and melody and both bone freezing shrieks and earth shaking growls they swept me off my feet. First thing I did when I got home that day was to visit their website and check them out, and soon I had purchased En Sorglig Historia (A Sad Story).

This record is nearly perfect. The songs are, as I said, both brutaly fast and grindy with sad and "epic" melodic parts. This is nothing I've ever really heard in grindcore, the nearest thing would perhaps be Pig Destroyer's terrifying music, but they still don't sound alike.

Now, some may complain about the production, but I really wouldn't know why. I guess people have got problems with the drums, but to me they sound only unique and awesome. They melt into this guitar, bass and shriek-fest just fine, and together these parts make up some of the best grind I've ever heard!

Only thing I have to complain about is that this EP is too short! Hopefully we have years and years of gründcöre left to enjoy from these boys.

95/100 Swedish meatballs!

In all honesty I’m a little bit disappointed by this CD. I love the two older recordings by Splitter, and so I was expecting this to be even more ear-bleeding since it’s recorded in the renowned Studio Fredman (At The Gates, Opeth, Haunted, Lord Belial etc etc). And I absolutely adore the thick and full sound that both Driller Killer and Wolfpack have experienced in the very same studio. But the sound on En Sorglig Historia bugs me… The vocals are too low in the mix, which doesn’t let the full brutality of Thalberg’s bone-shattering shrieks shine through. And the drums can sometimes just be a murky banging in the background.

But if we put the sound-issue aside this is a really great CD. Totally raging grindcore, varying from crusty bits to a full-on death metal slamming to just pure grinding. And we’re also served some guestvocals by Fredrik Wallenberg (Skitsystem) and Manne (Degrade), and especially the latter one adds a completely new dimension to the music. And as we all already know, Fredrik Thalberg possess one of the fiercest screaming known to mankind, so the album’s full of masterful vocals. Intricate riffing, adding both brutality and melody to the tunes, and a heavy-as-fuck wall of sound (although annoying, as explained earlier). We get socio-political lyrics in Swedish, but with English explanations to ‘em of course. But we can also find some seriously anguish filled lyrics here. Just take Situation Stockholm, kapitel 2, which describes the life of a cold and hungry human being, completely alone and absolutely set-aside from peoples conscience, left to rot in the subway. I’d like to think I’m pretty hardened from all political and gory lyrics, but this really affects me.

I’m a bit split here; don’t really know how to judge this… So freakin’ mind-blowing, but still a tad annoying when it comes to the sound… I’d advise you to check it out and take a listen and judge for yourself. The CD also contains Splitter’s old demo Stundens Chockerande Intryck as a bonus. I’ve already reviewed that one, so I won’t bother doing so once more, but instead I’d tell you to read the old review of it.

Originally written for www.mylastchapter.net