Needful Things / Roskopp - Split 7" [Gray]

"This marks Roskopp’s 5th release. Surprisingly all of them are split seven inches. This sort of leaves a guy jonesing for a full length release especially with the brutality that is brought on this seven inch in particular. Somehow Roskopp crams seven songs of pure soul crushing Grindcore onto their side of this release. I feel this is easily their best recording and split, sonic wise, to date. When I jam this record for people from out of town they will let out a small gasp of shock mixed with jealousy. They are shocked by the insane speed of the drums, crushing heavy guitars and guttural growls. The jealousy is spawned from fact that they don’t have a band like this in their town. The drumming on this record is as hectic as it gets, it is just so super-fast. As the blast beats and punk beats switch wildly back and forth it invokes a feeling of rage, the drums sound pissed off. Mainly there is one belcher of lyrics but occasionally a high pitched screeching vulture will swoop in, let out some deranged squawk, scoop up some carrion in his mouth and fly away. Yup, it’s just like that. Roskopp started off sounding more like Disrupt but have formed into their own original sounding band somewhere between old Napalm Death and Nassum. They seem to be getting faster and gnarlier as the years wane on. The Czech Republic’s Needful Things is similar in the fact that they are head exploding Grindcore but they have a little different feel to their side of the split. I find that there is a little more Death Metal mixed with power violence influence coming from their camp. The punishing vocals vomit out on the higher end, really more of a screeching murderous yell. They give us 3 songs of well written madness to soak our heads in. I can’t claim a winner to this record. Both bands really bring it on this vinyl, I might lean toward Roskopp more but that is just because I have seen them a multitude of times live. The artwork on the cover is sick as hell. Really cool piece of art. If you appreciate the real shit over mass produced drum triggered tripe then look no further. Beware this is only for people who love true Grind!" - Will Butler / To Live A Lie Records

FFO: The Kill, BowelFuck, The Arson Project, Death Toll 80K, Whoresnation, Meth Leppard, Noisear, Nak'ay, Blockheads, Organ Dealer, Sayyadina, Takafumi Matsubara, P.L.F. (PLF), Yacopse, Gadget, Feastem, Ground, Maruta, Kill The Client, No/Mas