The apex of modern grindcore – 94%
robotiq, April 10th, 2021
Let’s get straight to the point. This is one of the best grindcore records ever made. There are millions of grindcore bands in the world because it is easy to do. To clarify, it is easy to do badly. Many bands start out playing grindcore before evolving into other genres, after improving as musicians. Doing grindcore well is another matter. There are fewer possibilities than there are with death metal because grindcore is about immediacy and impact rather than complexity and experimentation. Assück were one of the bands that explored the outer-realms of grindcore possibilities (on “Misery Index”). They didn’t merely do it well, they almost sent it into early retirement. This is fifteen minutes of the angriest, most powerful music I’ve ever heard.
Assück were already underground legends before releasing this record. Their status in the hardcore/punk scene was assured after their debut album six years earlier (“Anticapital”). “Misery Index” sounds like the work of the same band, but there are significant differences between the two records. That debut was rooted in punk and hardcore, with an old school grindcore sound. “Misery Index” marks the ascent of ‘modern’ grindcore. Assück de-emphasised the simple punk-based riffs and created something more complex and substantial. Previous grindcore masters like Carcass and Napalm Death had crossed over into death metal once they had exhausted grindcore. Assück did something different. They borrowed much from death metal, but stayed within the grindcore framework.
Listeners coming from a death metal background might be deterred by a fifteen minute album, but brevity makes sense from a hardcore/punk perspective. Besides, “Misery Index” covers as much ground as any death metal album. The songs average around fifty seconds, each of them is a maelstrom of explosive riffs and inhuman drumming. This is dense music. There is no wastage. A song like “Blight of Element” feels like a Monstrosity or Malevolent Creation song in miniature. Several songs have massive breakdowns (“Corners”), and there are some Deicide-esque rollicking riffs in the likes of “Dataclast”. All these details happen at lightning speed. You may miss them at first, but the album’s overall power is phenomenal.
“Misery Index” is the kind of album that renders entire sub-genres obsolete. How many modern death/grind records do you need? Not many when albums like this exist. It also makes the average brutal death metal record redundant. Assück had everything those bands have, whilst being faster, tighter and more intense. They also had better lyrics and a cooler, less cringe-worthy aesthetic. I wouldn’t say that Assück invented the modern grindcore sound single-handedly with this album (Mörser, Brutal Truth and Discordance Axis all helped), but Assück perfected it and set the bar at a near-impossible height. This is a masterpiece.
rafazardly 