Consume to Contaminate

Rotten Sound have always been a band of the more interesting side of the grindcore spectrum. They have always shown a tendency for some degree of experimentation, something uncommon for most representatives of their genre. They aren’t groovy like Nasum, or as relentless as Pig Destroyer, their uniqueness lies in their technicality and song diversity. In my opinion, their last years grinding opus Exit was where they really realized their potential, showing off their tremendous skill in both their individual instruments and songwriting.

One would think a band relying so hard on their drummer’s ability to keep the speed at car chase levels would have trouble recovering after a loss of their superbly talented drummer, Kai Hahto, who left the band to concentrate on his new main project, Wintersun. At this point many bands would have gone with the ever-so-bland drum machine. Rotten Sound, however, proceeded to find another almost equally astounding feller to sit behind the kit, Sami Latva of Deathbound fame. Another major change for the band is that they lost their long-time producer Mieszko Talarczyk (Nasum), who (as most of you probably know) died in the tsunami. The sound has changed accordingly, though nothing too drastic has been done. The sound is more “meaty” and full, but also less clinical and a bit messier.

There is a lot of music jammed into these 8 songs and 15 minutes. Musically there isn’t much change to what we’ve used to hear from these guys. Both the fast traditional grindcore and slow monolithic steamroller parts are present. The inclusion of Latva has brought a bit of groove into the play as well. The songs are varied and logical in their progression. The aforementioned groove allows the band to be even more aggressive when it’s time to grind necks and take names, keeping the material in balance. The most obvious example of this would be the collaboration between the EP’s longest clocking song GDP which flows into the slow instrumental CTC (which also includes a bit chord instrument that I think is a violin). This simple formula repeating throughout the EP keeps it interesting and varied, though it also becomes a little predictable once you get the hang of it. None of the riffs here would be misplaced on the Exit album, and that isn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, the guitarwork in general is more interesting than in your average grindcore band. Same thing can be said about the vocals, which are reasonably eclectic for this genre, the vocalist changes between a dry barking scream and a more guttural growl, working together with the guitars and driving the music forward. All of these elements are however eclipsed by the drumming.

This little transitional EP is nothing spectacular as such, but it does show that Rotten Sound’s evolution has not stopped yet. While some of the material heard here is more nondescript than for instance on Exit, after a little tweaking this format would make an excellent listening experience if put on a full-length as well. Good grindcore is hard to come by but Rotten Sound have managed to make it interesting enough.