Another one that slipped through the cracks late last year, Ireland’s Grot are a new grind/death band who, by all accounts, sound like they could be sticking around for a while. Sporting a polished overall production, their debut EP I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is a scorching six songer that clocks in at about 13 minutes and it’s over before one can bat an eye. But in that span of time, Grot delivers the goods in spades.

Though the EP is a tiny amount of raging mayhem, the task of obliterating everything in sight is accomplished because the songs – five originals and a Napalm Death cover (“Unchallenged Hate”) – are a scathing mix of savage grindcore and groovy death metal. Similar to what the aforementioned Napalm Death were doing back on their Words from the Exit Wounds, Inside the Torn Apart and Diatribes releases, Grot toe the line nicely between the two genres. The Irish lads also switch tempos smoothly; one second they are hammering away with reckless abandon and then in the blink of an eye the gears shift into a more streamlined, hook-laden death metal assault.

There a few drawbacks to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, though. For starters, the production is a bit too polished and clean for this type of pulverizing metal. The drums sometimes are a bit too clicky and the guitars, while barbaric and raucous, have a wooden sound to them. Similar to how Six feet Under’s Warpath and Deicide’s Serpents of the Light suffer from a muffled/wooden guitar tone, the songs on I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream suffer greatly because of this. It’s a shame, too, because the riffs are powerful as all hell, but the sheer venom of the instrument has been sucked away in the studio. The other drawback is that the EP ends too soon, but that’s more of a greedy gripe than anything.

In the end, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is solid, if not perfect. Hopefully when the trio gets around to cranking out their debut full-length, they can retain much of the raw nastiness with their instruments. Death metal and grindcore is fine when the production is clean, but it absolutely has to be nasty as well. These guys certainly have what it takes to launch grenades into the listener’s ears, but here’s hoping they leave some of that glorious abrasiveness in the final mix next time out. Still, it’s a fine start to what will hopefully be a lucrative career.

[Visit the band's website]

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