ANTIGAMA

The crux of this review is that "Zeroland" by Poland's ANTIGAMA is a quality slab of Relapse-style schizoid-grind, as was the case with "Discomfort". But first I've got to pitch a bitch about the band's third "full-length" release. Given that "full-length" has been placed inside quotation marks, you have probably figured out that my beef is with the use of terminology pertaining to an album that is 24 minutes in length. Because it is a grindcore album, 24 minutes wouldn't be so bad. The problem is that the last track ("Zeroland") is nine-and-a-half minutes of a series of TV/radio/whatever clips spliced together into artsy cerebral intercourse. So that leaves eight tracks and a running time of 15 minutes. But then "Starshit" is a minute-and-a-half of screams and dissonant effects, leaving a total of seven actual songs for a whopping 13 minutes and some odd seconds. That irritates me. In a nutshell, don't buy this "full-length" album if you think you're getting 24 minutes of grindcore. Buy it if you want to hear seven killer grindcore mashers and 11 minutes of messing about with disharmonic foreplay.

As for those seven songs, we're talking some good shit, kiddies. The fine folks at Selfmadegod prove again that they know what they're doing when it comes to bringing grind goodies to the poor huddled masses. ANTIGAMA's style of grindcore is closer to the audio terror of a PIG DESTROYER than the more traditional grind of bands like SEWN SHUT. It's insane blasting, effects-laden vocals (that move outside of traditional pig grunts or sewage gurgles, even into "cleaner," albeit spacey, fare),and riffing that will slice that pointy fuckin' nose right off your face. Feel me? "Seed", "How", "The View", it really doesn't matter; each tune is a skull-cracking gem.

The phrase, "Relapse, eat your heart out," comes to mind, and I would have made that my opening sentence had I not been so hacked off with the running time. For the record, I've got no problem with the title track and "Starshit". Both fit well with the band's MO; I just wish they'd have thrown a few more formal tunes on the damn thing. I was tempted to drop the rating to a 6.5, based on the misleading "full-length" part, but I'd hate for anyone to miss out on some cool-ass grindcore because of it. All I'm saying is buyer beware.