With a name like Ass to Mouth one can't help but be called back to watching Kevin Smith's Clerks 2 where you learned that it's never okay to go ass to mouth. Unless it's in the heat of the moment. And while perhaps you'd expect there to be bits of that sprinkled throughout the grind unit's latest album Degenerate, you may be surprised to find that they (thankfully) don't beat the shit out of their by including a plethora of such references name.
Ass to Mouth actually formed back in December 2004 but has released albums sparingly since their humble beginnings in Wroclaw, Poland. The grind unit has only put out one other full length in 2008 entitled Kiss Ass and since then, things have changed. While instrumentally the band hasn't moved in any different directions, they have enlisted Parracide vocalist, veteran Kuba Brewczyńsk. The result? A heavy as hell, tough as nails, grind fest complete with growls, screams, blasts, and rage. Basically the general makings of a grind album.
The last time I listened to an album entitled Degenerate was when Extortion put out their raging opus back in 2007. And that album is still awesome. Ass to Mouth take things in a differently way thematically and instrumentally (surprise!). The band has moved to writing a lot of songs about drinking and smoking pot, though frustration also runs rampant. Quotes from Leaving Las Vegas are scattered throughout which lends itself to the album's darker tones. The persistence of wasted time and drug abuse makes Degenerate feel a little less like something Municipal Waste wrote, though at times it feels lyrically influenced by such (see: “Drunk and Stoned”).
Ass to Mouth are without a doubt excellent ragers. Degenerate is a banger start to finish. Instrumentally the album is, for the most part, straight forward grind with little relenting. Tracks like “Under the Razor's Edge” and “Scumbag” are full-on destruction, blasting and burning like a barrel of petrol. The stomping grind of “Alcowhore” is also one of the highlight tracks that burns like straight shots of Wild Turkey's Rare Breed. In summary, the band knows how to blast and they're damn good at it.
What's really thrown me for a loop is one of the almost anthem songs on here, the aforementioned “Drunk and Stoned.” The composition of the song is something reminisce of my days listening to the radio rock stations. It's not bad song. It's certainly a song that I might here in a bar in Wisconsin…that I'd be attending if I had any cash to go bar hopping (or any cash to pay outrageously priced jukeboxes for a song that doesn't even clock in at two minutes). “Drunk and Stoned” serves to break up the action for a very memorable song actually. I found the piece stuck in my head on more than one occasion (and if the vocals were done clean I bet it would actually get hits, no shit). The follow up track “One Mackerel Drama” has a similar texture but blasts a little more and throws us back into the fiery fray.
If there's one thing this album suffers for it's that it isn't terribly memorable. Degenerate is very well made and probably the best thing Ass to Mouth have put out (though Kiss Ass is pretty kick ass) but songs tend to blend and the whole of the album is mostly broken up by the Leaving Las Vegas segments as well as the George Bush/spoken bits of “Idiot's Crusade.” I still can't name most of the songs by intro without consulting my playlist. That doesn't make this album bad by any standards though. It plays within the confines of its genre and it plays well.
If you're a Squash Bowels, Neuropathia or Parracide fan then Ass to Mouth should definitely be on your list of albums to check out. The music is heavy, the blasting is excellent, and the flow of the album is smooth. Degenerate is definitely on par with anything the band has done and is as good as any heavy grind album you're going to find. Hopefully Ass to Mouth's next album will be released in less than six years. That'd be a marked improvement.
8/10
Twitter: @CoffeeCupReview
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