It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with a split from Chop7Times and Burst Synapse.
In my opinion it is the greatest month of the year, so I hope everyone is enjoying it. The temperature has let off, the leaves are turned and crisp, and everyday is fittingly a horror movie both in the digital space and outdoors. Personally, October makes me nostalgic. Which also got me thinking about the column and how it has been awhile since we featured some cybergrind. Enter: Chop7Times and Burst Synapse.
Chop7Times(or Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop) started in 2019 and has two other releases to their name. The one-man computer grind that hails out of New Haven, CT. On the flip side we have Burst Synapse(a name taken from the Full of Hell song) hailing from Toronto, Ontario and another one-man grind unit. Here they come together for seven slabs of noise drenched cybergrind.
The first three tracks are Chop7Times. Readers of the column might remember a band called ESPMayhem that was featured back in February. Chop7Times, although not a synthgrind band, definitely shares some qualities with them. The opening track “Getting Rid of Worthless Friends” is a heavy slice of cybergrind with looping noise, industrial distortion and digital drums that sound like they are punching out a DDOS attack.
“Let Em Come” follows as a more aggressive, jarring track. Something that really gets in the listeners face and does not back off. It comes off like a track from The Locust at times, with the time signature getting funky. Meanwhile, the final track “You Are My Enemy” starts slow but escalates quickly into a barrage of keyboards and synths. It keeps things punchy throughout and constantly raises in intensity.
Chop7Times had this to say about the tracks:
“This year has felt especially apocalyptic, so I’ve been writing a lot. Experimenting with different sounds, time signatures, samples, etc, has been my distraction from everything. When it comes time to write the lyrics, that’s me confronting it. I think that the songs on my side reflect this sort of mindset.”
Burst Synapse enters with “Formaldehyde”, an explosive track with bass drums that sound dummy thick. Where as Chop7Times was very electronic, Burst Synapse sounds very raw and live but still keeps the whole thing cybergrind. The four tracks go by extremely fast, with three of them clocking in under a minute. There is a lot of noise tying these together. Fuzz and static coat the backgrounds and “Breath Glitch” even throws in some noise to great effect. It is a very hardcore/punk approach to cybergrind.
The final track “A Flatness Beyond Reason” is Burst Synapse’s epic. At nearly three-minutes, the track is straightforward as a grind track with plenty of punk to go with it. Noise breaks it up in the middle, but it wheels right around again into an old school hardcore mindset that sounds like a circle pit. And then it descends into a noisy and drum ending.
Burst Synapse had this to say about the tracks:
“Part of being an activist is the incredible frustration of seeing the world’s injustices and then feeling crushed as the people in power turn their backs. Hardcore punk was my first real introduction to radical politics. It sparked my will to get out on the streets and try to actually do something about the shit that goes down in my country. Starting to write and record this split right as America fucking exploded at the end of May definitely helped me find some purpose. I wanted to capture how it’s felt to be rendered helpless, holed up in my stifling apartment as I watch people across the border get brutalized for exercising their right to protest. I chose “Breath Glitch” for the music video because it feels like the chaotic press of hot bodies in a riot, the fear of a wall of police crushing you into a corner, the last shreds of hope and strength that your compatriots lend you—to me, that’s what I need to feel to keep fighting.”
Art is political whether one likes it or not, and neither Chop7Times or Burst Synapse are shy about it. They are right to be angry. Grind is a great way to channel that energy and turn out some killer cuts like these. People who like music that Grindcore Karaoke puts out should jump on this. It is heavy, experimental, and fast. Keep an eye on both these bands and get grinding on this!
Chop7Times Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | SoundCloud | Twitter
Burst Synapse Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | SoundCloud | YouTube
