Barren Path : "Grieving"

 Japanese grindcore bands are normally pretty decent, so let's give these guys a shot. Gurgled vocals bubble under the more screamed vocals that are higher in the mix as the thrash-like riffs at thrown together with a jagged compact arrangement that sounds like they were written during a car crash. Most of the songs clock in around a minute long, so not much time to establish hooks. The songs have a uniform attack and begin to run together in their outburst at times. 

Time is not always what they need, as "Insufferable Weight" finds the vocal might have more purpose in the verse, but they do not expand on the dynamics even when closing in on the two-minute mark. "Relinquish"   is a spastic punishment with no breathing room. This is carried over into "Unreliable Narrator" with more of a death metal feel. "Lunar Tear" also dips into gore-grind slightly, lyrically, who knows, as you can't understand any of the vocals.

These vocals, as just a human layer adding to the fray element, also cause the uniformity of their sound to increase. The last two songs you can not tell apart. At this point, the fact that they were once Gridlink is not helping them as songwriters, and I am surprised they are on Willowtip. I will give this a 7, as it does not fail the genre but does not add to it either. 

pst622