Hailing from the wonderfully chocolate-y, powdered sugar-coated mountain caps of Switzerland, Mumakil has emerged with a new record that is cocked back and ready to blow the face off of everyone and anyone within earshot…alright, the Candy Land bit was far-fetched, but there’s no playing around when it comes to the Swiss grinders’ latest effort Flies Will Starve. This thing slaps.
From the first track, it’s easy to discern that Mumakil’s brand of grind is blended with a healthy amount of groovy death metal a la Decapitated. And for this reviewer, that’s the best way to serve the too often blast-ridden subgenre. There’s a ton of really catchy riffs in these songs, which are appropriately used to transition through different song structures. The production is fat and fairly well-balanced (the absence of a “typewriter” trigger effect on the kick comes greatly appreciated).
Now if one were to look at the track list of this record, the first and most logical reaction would be to gawk at the amount of bonus songs included…but there aren’t any. Flies is no less than 24 songs long. The great thing is that while there are potential pitfalls in including so many songs in one album, Mumakil is able to avoid most of them thanks to their proficiency in truly tasty riffage. With each song sitting in its own tempo and working its way around a central idea, one could almost look at Flies as a compilation of etudes on how to write a solid deathgrind song. Well, class is in session, and I’m in. Flies Will Starve drops on June 25th.