Antigama – Stop the Chaos EP (Selfmadegod Records)
Monday, 25th March 2013
Someone should make it a law that grind albums cannot be more than five or six songs. Obviously, that would make all of them EP’s, which would give these bands less real estate when trying to cram in roughly a dozen songs that will probably sound the same. Or sound like Napalm Death-meets-Brutal Truth. Such is the state for modern grindcore, where the scene has produced a handful of worthy, but hardly head-turning bands. It’s even harder for a band like Poland’s Antigama, who have been stuck in no-man’s land since their 2000 inception.
On their Stop the Chaos EP, the Poles create a sonic maelstrom over the course of six songs, the last of which is an atmospheric outro. The guts of the EP, though, are rife with several trademark grind moments, a lot of which rest their hat on late 90’s Napalm Death, such as “The Law” and the title track, where singer Lucas goes as far as to mimic Barney Greenway’s various tinkerings with clean
vocals, most of which included echoed shouts and layered vocals, the same style that Greenway used sparingly (and to tremendous effect) on Inside the Torn Apart and Words From the Exit Wound.
Part and parcel with French grinders Cripple Bastards, Antigama don’t have any problem getting their traditional grind on over the course of Stop the Chaos’sfive tracks. And they probably didn’t split any hairs to do so…copping Napalm Death is a time-honored grind tradition, it seems.
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)
