Complete Failure – The Art Gospel of Aggravated Assault
It’s easy to forget flavors of grindcore can vary as wildly as a blind chimp-run Baskin Robbins. Most albums sent our way have feet firmly planted in early Death Metal musically, but as our dear readers already know, that is far from the only story to tell. Erupting from Pittsburgh, PA, and sonically outside the DM-influenced norm, are Complete Failure, a grind band sprung more from the duct-taped pedals of powerviolence and hardcore enthusiasts than those utilized by Bill Steer disciples. The thick, fibrous walls of the ‘His Hero Is Gone’-guitar sound are the unstable fission fuel employed here, promising bleeding eyes and dissolving bowels to all those who step into Complete Failure’s restricted area of grind. Underneath the roiling riffery, decaying, four-string rods with the warmth of early ’80s punk flavor and bass-chording styles of Man Is The Bastard absorb and reflect the distorted energy in flux around them. Joe Mack voices the meltdown, his fury sloughing walls of concrete to sludge, while admonishing victims to take up grievances with and battles against those responsible for the debacle. But while echoes of politicized/electrified/amplified punk angst overarch the approach here, all-Metal rage-shakin’ half-times reminiscent of Rotten Sound do rear their filthy heads now and again, just enough to pull the unsuspecting into the pit with an authenticity that can neither be ignored nor disobeyed. Throw into this disavowed event a drummer as unafraid to grind with spirited tomwork as he is with blasting snare, and it’s time for FEMA to rope off the area from any unprotected onlookers ill-suited for Complete Failure’s noise of invisible death. A record awaits, tailor-made for when you finally fire off that angry letter written in blood to (insert name of whatever hated person in power here), so seek out the three-years-in-the-making The Art Gospel of Aggravated Assault wherever fine grind is sold – if unpeaceful protest is your stomached cup of tea. -Jim
Season of Mist
Worm Gear 