The Drip – “A Presentation of Gruesome Poetics” (Relapse Records)
Despite their seemingly wimpy name, flip the switch on this Washington crew and a flood of grindcore will smash into your face! Speedway riffing that glides up n down the fretboard so fast n raw I can’t even make out the bass lays waste to nauseous ‘songs’ (?) like ‘Catalyst’, ‘Bygones Only Burn Once’ and ‘Lash in, Lash out’ along with quadruple beat snare smashing blastbeat drumming. Think Nasum, Rotten Sound, Insect Warfare and The Drip’ll be in the same rabid pool. Brandon Caldwell’s vocals were the one thing that stood out being uncharacteristically high, sort’ve a combination between Roger Miret’s throat swallowing style and Zakk de la Rocha’s high squeals but no less lacking in obnoxiousness along with his lyrical tirade of bitterness and hate against the world ‘…so what the fuck were you expecting? Another rise to another failure?..’. Still, with the songs clocking over 2 mins (sacrilege – Ed), closet song arrangements and an embarrassingly professional sound, some of the crust is clearly wearing off although it’s by no means an ascendancy into the hallowed halls of yuppie-dumb!
