Bestial Tongues/Blemish: Split EP
Grindcore is a genre with a rich history of dudes who are straight-up pissed. Death Metal, as well, is a genre known for absolutely inhuman levels of aggression. And sometimes, those two genres like to do the sideways tango and have a tiny baby of a subgenre: Deathgrind. Combining the speed, anger, and raw sound of the most blistering grindcore with the usual blunt force brutality of death metal, Deathgrind is a genre not for the faint of heart, nor for anyone looking to just fuck around.
And where in the United States is remotely as generally pissed-to-hell as New Jersey? The answer, according to Bestial Tongues and Blemish, is a resounding "fuckin' nowhere."
Split EPs are one of my favorite mediums when it comes to music. What could rule harder than getting two bands on one record? Unless, of course, one side of the split blows cheeks while the other is the best thing you've heard... a million times before.
Thankfully, that isn't the case for either band in today's discussion.
Starting with Bestial Tongues' side of the coin, Droning Hum immediately makes it clear they're not here to fuck around. Between drummer Connor Hastings' absolutely neanderthal-heavy blast beats, vocalist Anthony Izworski's inhuman shrieking and grunting, and the downright discomforting guitar and bass work from Alex Peragine and Jack Rose respectively, no stone is left unturned, no castle left unbured. Throughout their four nails in the coffin that is this split, these four sonic slasher villains blast, smash, burn, and slam their way through insane displays of aggression such as penultimate track, aptly titled "Bestial Tongues." But fret not- all four songs are absolute barn burners. Where the opener and closer perfectly encapsulate what we come to deathgrind for, middle tracks "Transmogrified" and "Bestial Tongues" are genuine, 100% organic ass beaters. "Transmogrified" kicks us in the chest immediately with four-on-the-floor drums and feedback that give way to swirling, PUMMELING blast beats and riffs heavy enough to crush your skeleton in one fell swoop. Where that song is a knife, previously mentioned "Bestial Tongues" is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and covered in someone else's blood. It is pissed, it is fast, it is fucking murderous.
But that's just the beginning.
Flipping over to Blemish's half of the split, we're treated to some of the noisiest and most unrelenting Grindcore I've heard in years. The six songs across this side of the split may be short (only two of the six songs on their half break the one-minute mark), but these gurus of Grind pack each second of their half of the split with as much anger, venom, and pure aggression as they possibly can. Whether it's the blink-and-you'll-miss-it violence of "Blast Olympics 1 and 2" or the heady, almost slinking riffs and drumming in "Torso Killer", these fine lads are here for one purpose: to fuck. your. day. up. Bing Bong, motherfuckers. Whether it be the absolutely throat shredding displays of vocal prowess from vocalist Ken Gelger, the mind-numbing stringwork of guitarist Alex Angley, or the absolute mammoth heavy drumming courtesy of Nick Brucanti,fans of grind the world over will find something that makes them exclaim "sweet holy shit" for years to come.
Deathgrind and Grindcore aren't genres especially concerned with originality, especially as time moves forward. But does that truly matter? While jaded oldheads of the scene may write this off as just another fast split between two new bands, they'd be wrong to do so. Both Bestial Tongues and Blemish have provided music so unbelievably heavy and blisteringly fast that I feel the same sense of "what the FUCK?" that early Carcass or Discordance Axis gave me the first time I heard songs like "Exhumed to Consume" and "the End of Rebirth", and I can't tell you how absolutely wild that is.
Bestial Tongues: 10/10
FFO: Cattle Decapitation (Ten Torments era), Full of Hell, Iron Lung
Blemish: 10/10
FFO: Nails, Discordance Axis, Napalm Death
