It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Six Brew Bantha’s Blight.
With powerviolence reigning supreme the last few weeks on this column, I basically forced myself to post something not powerviolence this week. Which was actually harder than I thought it’d be, given my current, rekindled focus on the genre. But hey, Victoria, British Columbia’s Six Brew Bantha recently unleashed a new grinding full-length. And Blight is pure, grinding glory.
For those unfamiliar with Six Brew Bantha (or Sixbrewbantha), the trio has been slaying since 2009. They’ve done splits with greats like Suffering Mind, Archagathus and Water Torture (among others). And while 2013 saw the band putting out a lot of material, their output has never been on the massive scale. Certainly not for an almost ten-year-old band. But hey, quality over quantity, right? It’s been just over three years since Intravenously Commodified, with only a compilation tape to hold us over in between. So, lets bite into Blight.
You know, it’s odd featuring something that’s only got six tracks. I’m used to albums that have thirty and still clock in at ten-minutes. Hell, we’re down three from Intravenously Commodified. But you know what? I doesn’t matter. Six Brew Bantha has always pushed out groovy, violent grindcore. It’s one thing for a band to blast, it’s another for a band to blast and groove. The opening title track is three-minutes-twenty-seconds. And it’s got groove for miles.
See, Blight is a reminder of why Six Brew Bantha stand out amongst the grindcore crowd. Why there’s real enthusiasm surrounding this band: they just know how to play. They know how to write an interesting song that’s just twisted enough to lodge itself in your head. It's the kind of thing you keep coming back for. There’s never a huge focus on sticking on a riff or beat for too long. The band scrap things as quickly as they get into them, but it works because every time they start a new lick or blast, it’s just as interesting and twisted as what was just playing. “False Portrayal” (one of the shorter tracks, clocking in just under two-minutes), flies all over the place. It’s erratic, catchy, persistently blasting, and constantly neck-breaking.
The album clocks in just over seventeen-minutes and not a moment on the record feels tired. Six Brew Bantha hardly ever slow. And when they do, it’s not for long. Usually, records like this can be hard for people to get into because they’re constantly switching themselves up, but no. Not this. This is smooth as butter, but also as raw as rolling in broken glass. If Pyrrhon, Magrudergrind and Hummingbird of Death started playing grindcore, it’d sound like this. So Blight up this Monday and get grinding.
