It's Monday and Mondays suck, so let's grind it out with Blame God's Power and Control.
Yeah, it's been a few weeks. Things come up. New schedules begin, etc, etc. So, while discussing things that have been put off, here's a bit: I haven't done a piece on Blame God yet. Don't know why, should have by now, especially since I've been jamming Strategically Confined for two years now. But they've got a new crusher, so let's talk about that.
Blame God has been putting out crushing grindcore since 2016. And though they've only done a handful of releases, their body of work is top notch. Power and Control is the band's third release and their growth in sound and as musicians is showing. And the band has taken on a much stronger death metal tone than in previous releases.
When the EP opens with "Dogs Are Dead", you can hear the HM-2 pedals cracked straight to eleven. The track is dirty, sharp and less noisy than anything one will find on Strategically Confined. The thing is, it sounds cleaned up. The production value is definitely better than the punkier kinda powerviolence sounding previous release. But perhaps the most notable thing now is that this band cuts like a razor. These songs are tight sounding.
Blame God almost feels like they're on a crusade to crush you has viciously as they can in their jagged concrete teeth. What this record gets so right that so many bands never grasp is an balance between a sharp sound while maintaining an edge of chaos. The second track "Power and Control" is a perfect example of this. The track begins as a savage beating and breaks into a heavy chug fest.
However, it's tracks like "Created in the Image of Pain" and (especially) "Arson in God's Pasture" that the band really starts sounding death metal. There's still plenty of grindcore to go around, and Blame God is happy to indulge in blast beats. But this round they're a little more methodical and a lot more heavy.
Power and Control is a killer EP for Blame God and an interesting step in their direction. It's like a fusion of Entombed and Assück. Blame God's sound is changing directions and it isn't for the worse. If you're hungry for grindcore and death metal, well, didn't you just show up on the right day? Grind down your Monday with this one!
