Rotten Sound : "Apocalypse"

 This band is one of the bigger names in grind core. This gives me higher expectations for them. I understand they are working within the confines of the genre , but the album starts off with some rather uniform burst of anger. In fact first two songs might as well have been the same song. It is not until the head banging groove of "Sharing" that I find something that makes my ears perk up. True to the genre they keep things typically under two minutes. This formula does not allow for much in the way of dynamics or songwriting, which is normally my complaint, though given that I like bands like Wormrot and Portrayal of Guilt, short songs is no excuse. 

Lyrically they rage against the machine, which in Finland seems like they are doing it out of punk expectations. I am able to tell when it changes from song to song. That gives them more credit than the bulk of bands doing this kind of thing. "Newsflash" feels like watered down Napalm Death, but with less interesting riffs. The death metal elements in "Digital Bliss" stands out amongst the blur of the rushed punk fueled riffing. Some of these explosions of sound are more urgent than others. It is not until things get more deliberate on "Denialist' that I hear any interest in songwriting. But even then they do not manage to maintain it more the song's meager minute and forty five seconds and speed it up so it sounds like all the other songs here. I am not even what the purpose of writing a song under 30 seconds is. However "Fight Back' does feel longer than it's minute and four seconds.

 When they blast at you in hyper speed, there is very little point and it feels like noise. This makes a song like "Patriots" just feel like a death metal temper tantrum. There are a few riffs here and there that seem cool, leaving them to feel wasted in the songs they are used in. The rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make, and it is felt hard on this album. At almost two minutes long "Empowered" is an opus for these guys. but it is not their best use of time. One cool riff crops up but only for a second. The last two songs sound almost the same. I will give this a 5, as they captured the sound they are looking for and if you are into the sound then you might care less about the songs, otherwise well I think I made my thoughts clear, they are short songs so you are not tortured for long.