My only previous exposure to this grinding Swedish trio was their 2007 split with Relevant Few, and I immediately thought the likes of Gadget and Rotten Sound finally had some competition to be Nasum’s heir apparent. Now I have not heard the full length debut Svarta Dagar, so I can’t compare Vid Helvetets Grindar, but I can tell you despite their best efforts, Afgrund are still going to be compared to the likes of Gadget and Nasum.

As you’d expect, Vid Helvetets Grindar is 15 songs, 26 minutes of mildly catchy but powerful blasting, punk fueled mid range grindcore littered with some massive groove, some samples and feral snarling vocals. As with most grind of this style, the tracks blow by with intense tightness and merciless tenacity, but just enough memorabililty to keep it interesting. From opener “A Future Europe in Flames” through the likes of “A Burning Cross on Your Perfect Lawn”, “Forbrukningsartikel”, “Klinisk Digital Kyla”, “Kuken som Vapen”, blistering “Maskin-Manniska” to closer “Loneslavar sla Tillbaka” the formula of ‘Swedish grindcore’ is perfected with the precision of a surgeon and the ferocity of a coked up Pit bull.

Despite a few attempts to break the Nasum reference and mold such as the appropriately titled “T(h)rash Vortex” and huge Blood Duster -ish groove, melodic punk rage of “The Empire” and the epic neo thrash of ( read 3/12 minute) “The Great Cover-up Apocalypse”, its hard to shake the Nasum tones, and that’s not a bad things when its done this well.

After closing out 2008 with a grinding assault of Maruta, Phobia and Kill the Client, Willowtip appears to have picked up in 2009 where they left off with Vid Helvetets Grindar, Defeatist’s Sharp Blade Sinks Deep into Dull Minds and Magrudergrind’s self titled effort, easily making them the premiere grindcore label around right now.

[Visit the band's website]

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