Phonophobia

This is about the second to last Extreme Noise Terror release that languishes in crust/grind territory before veering off suddenly into something different and more interesting. This is fairly good crust/grind, with the most important change from the band's earlier material coming in the form of vastly improved production. The rehearsal room atmosphere is nice and all but it begins to wear on you after a while, so a nice, professional production job is a change for the better.

Apart from that, there's little to distinguish this from any other early Extreme Noise Terror release. I have to give them some credit even though they sound generic, since they were the first to pioneer the generic crust/grind sound really. Beyond that cognitive appreciation, though, this doesn't excite me greatly. All the conventions of crust/grind are played out on this release: simple, punky riffs, fast d-beat drumming, and shout/screeching vocals. The songs are short, the songs are simple, the songs are just fast, more distorted punk music when you get down to it. Punk is cool from time to time but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a metalhead first and everything else second.

In essence, this is strictly conventional crust/grind. There are many people who are into that sort of thing, me included. That being said, it's well-composed crust/grind, with fairly tight instrumentation, songs that don't get boring, and a genuine sense of aggression and intensity throughout. It does not go beyond being reasonably well-composed crust/grind though, which is where this falls short while later material goes crazy and impresses me. Recommended if you like the style of music, but otherwise unessential.

Extreme Noise Terror’s first early releases were consistent from the point of view that they were great grind/crust. With messy riffing, distorted bass, loud, hardcore, yelling vocals, fast drums and near blast beats, albums like ‘Holocaust In Your Head’ and ‘Phonophobia’ were sure to demolish the listener with constant pounding and grinding.
The EP’s influences are obvious: hardcore (clear also from their socially aware lyrics), punk and thrash. There’s no melody to be found, production values are more or less non-existent and technique is messy, and purposely so. But that’s the beauty of Extreme Noise Terror. In their prime (which for me is this era) they were highly original (not in playing terms or song structure and ideas thought), influential and most importantly…loud.
Repetitive? Sure. Recycled? You could say that. Boring? My ass. I believe that Extreme Noise Terror should be given props for just plugging in, turning up and blasting out at 11. They weren’t trying to be something nice and petite, and they weren’t caught up on useless hopes of future grandeur. They wanted to make noise, so they took their unadulterated fuck you attitude and did just that. And that’s what makes this recording so special.
This is grindcore, those looking for melody, proper song structure, clean production and catchy choruses should look elsewhere. For this is for those that just want to headbang into infinity.