Grind is a specific kind of metal that describes, band by band, a single aspect of being, more so than any other kind of metal – or music. The bands that make grind tend to live for that aspect, create for it. Maruta is about tension; sailing riffs on the edge of the world and waiting to see if they fall off. It is the sound of fretting anticipation, dismay, and dread. As with all grind, there is fury here, but while some grind is for repulsion, or agony, or contempt, this is for the razor’s edge of hopelessness.

The riffs compose themselves of diving tech that crash into blast beating chaos. They accent themselves with percussive chords and dissonant strumming. The vocals, standard for most grind, are gruff roars and agonized screams. The drumming is blasty, precise and often groovy. The lack of bass adds to the tension, perhaps at the expense of dimensionality, but grind bands are rarely built for long term contemplation; rather for immediacy, for the moment that is NOW. Even when Maruta wander across the doom darkened garden of “Return To Zero” they are playing for the moment.

The discordant compositions are complimented by the bleak imagery of the lyrics, describing, not a dystopian future as much as a dystopian present. The tension is, in this case, the constant pull of the chains we have already placed ourselves in. Our condition is that of the animated corpse, bleakly unaware of its post-mortality, constantly discovering our own lack of breath and vitality. The screams are of the already damned, the roars are of spirits demanding an end to the living death, for good or ill.

This record is not pushing grind anywhere grind doesn’t already exist. But again, grind is only as fresh as each impact. And while this may sound dismissive, in fact it is the real power of grind that it endures, that each blast replaces the last, whether an improvement or digression – or just agreement. Grind fans don’t require boundaries to be pushed. We require a new impact, a new blast, a new moment of NOW. Maruta delivers NOW with a bleak tale and an emphatic fist.

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