Exotic Sense Decay

I imagine it'll require a bit of convincing to tell you about how a twelve-minute grindcore EP is a near-mandatory buy, but hear me out. This is beyond what we know as grindcore or death/grind or whatever label you want to put on it, as it possesses a level of intrinsic artistry in its construction that is hardly matched by many other musical compositions. You could call this 'atmospheric grindcore', but even that seems to omit something essential about it; doesn't capture the downward mental spiral of songs like '10 Fingers (My Last Ten Minutes)', doesn't give you the essence of emotional disintegration of a song like 'Pigeon Vs. Crow'.

Released merely a year after their debut LP 'Starving The Vultures', 'Exotic Sense Decay' represents a departure of sorts from Circle Of Dead Children's music. Not really in sound (though this record does seem a good deal darker and gloomier than their other releases), but more in construction; it feels more distinctly conceptual than their other works, yet in this regard murkier and more unclear. As loathe as I am to compare the band to Nine Inch Nails, this EP almost seems like a reinterpretation of 'The Downward Spiral', where it is the soundtrack to an emotional and spiritual disintegration within the character. Other material by Circle Of Dead Children is more external and societal in nature; here, all the conflict is placed squarely within itself.

"Rip and sew/rip and sew/rip and sew/put me back together". 'Exotic Sense Decay' is about finding the beast within yourself and the pain of being unable to reject it. "A wooden heart never bleeds/Yet inextricable thoughts still weave introspection". Lyrics are packed to the brim with rambling tales of self-destruction and alienation from the world at large, but unlike most grindcore, there's no strength or empowerment to be found in such things; instead, only coldness (in some ways making this a great deal more realistic towards the common man). Also unlike most, there's little misanthropy to be found here, replaced instead by wracking inner conflict and pain. A taste of it even slips out on the album cover itself: a human face distorted beyond all recognition, shredded apart and recomposed time and time again.

Instrumentally, the band is top-notch at carrying out such an atmosphere. The music is technical and ever-changing, yet has a distinctly 'loose' feel to its playing. Drums flitter chaotically between barely-held blasting and seemingly random fills, while guitars spin two or three-chord riffs with abruptly shifting melodies and textures or weaving epic tales through tremolo picking. All the instruments mesh and diverge in an organic matter, bound together only by the vocal performance of Joe Horvath (around a 60/40 split between mid-range rasps and deep, guttural growls), who acts as a tenuous rope that holds the rest of the band together. And perhaps such an arrangement is reflective of the EP as a whole: songs bleeding into each other with a reprieve of only brief noise or the sway of guitar feedback before battering into each other again like turkey vultures on the corpse of a woodland animal. The most cohesive track here is the (comparatively at nearly five minutes) epic '10 Fingers (My Last Ten Minutes)', which seems nearly musical compared to previous noise blasts like 'A Wooden Heart Never Bleeds' or the 'You Suffer' tributes of 'Wotton' and 'Grabbing N'.

There is a definite note of desperation to the proceedings: not unlike Bodies In The Gears Of The Apparatus' 'Simian Hybrid Prototype', the band seems hell-bent on saying something. But while the Clearwater band understood their message of apocalyptic revelation, this one seems to get confused within itself along the way, grasping for words they can't seem to find, growing exponentially in frenzy and damnable haste until all drifts away in the concluding ambient stretch of 'Scarecrow Trailer Park'. Fitting for a band titled after the grievous assassination of youth, no answers are given; just questions upon questions on the nature of the self. Through its obsessive ripping at the dark curtain that separates the conscious from the present-but-dormant reaches of the mind, Circle Of Dead Children has perhaps not revealed as much as discussed out eventual fate.

I suppose it's some consolation that someone's doing it.

(Originally written for www.grindingtheapparatus.net)

The Exotic Sense Of Decay EP is excellent, tracks are hard and fast as grindcore is, but doesn't have the cheesy titles we see so much of in the genre like typical Cannible Corpse titles and Cock and Ball Tourcher titles. Insted we are presented with track names with alittle more effort i.e. A Woodern Heart Never Bleeds. But what do track names have to do with music, not a great deal but it does make the tracks sound alittle more appealing.
Well short album so short review, Exotic Sense Of Decay has brutal deep vocals all the way through it with some over laped screaming over the deep vocals which is amazing. Drum work is great especially in Pigeon Vs. Crow and Skull Of A Hermit/Brain Of A Faery. Guitar is hard and fast through out the entire EP. But wait there is a slower song on the EP 10 Fingers (My Last Ten Minutes) is a very slow 4:43 track which is very un-usual in the grindcore dept. the track does tend to speed up at times but drops the tempo very shortly after the speedier parts.
This may only be a 12 odd min EP but it is great and you don't expect any longer with a 7 track grindcore EP, highly recommended to all to check out not one bad track on the EP.