Straighthate and Into the Gore…

"Indigenous" is the latest outing from Greek death/grinders Straighthate (on Blast Beat Mailmurder), which puts forth 12 tracks of the band's continually progressing outbursts in about 40 minutes. There are definitely still plenty of relentlessly blasting drumbeats and blazing tremolo picking riffs backing vocals that shift from burly growls to strained, snarling screams (and everything in between)—as well as thick, at times subtly melodic death metal riffs and loads of churning dissonance and winding layering that's somewhat reminiscent of Napalm Death circa "Fear, Emptiness, Despair"—but there's a lot of variety tucked away beneath the surface. As a whole it's a consistent and focused album where most of the compositions keep things fairly short and to the point, relying on a strong sense of groove —both in terms of the speed and the occasional presence of some "moshy" breakdowns. There are a few fucking outstanding moments, though—such as the rare energetic bursts of more overt melody or some oddly droning/noisy lead lines... and just check out those eerie acoustic guitars that pop up out of nowhere during "Higher"!? Awesome. The recording's a tad on the muddy side, but that's not an issue—just suggestive that there's room for improvement on some level. That density keeps things punchy and in your face without obscuring any of the intricacies of the more involved riffing or the vocals—which actually have a lot of really nice texture and audible strain that makes them sound genuinely ripping. The disc is then housed in a slick looking glossy digipack with some mildly abstracted landscape photos that do sort of tie-in to the general tone of the socio-politically oriented lyrics that tackle religion, the status quo, and a general sense of doom regarding the prospects of the future. Good stuff. This is certainly the band's strongest work to date, and continues to point to bigger and better things to come, so I'll always be curious to see how everything transpires...

Straighthate "Stench of Immortality"
Straighthate "Higher"

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if Blast Beat Mailmurder has any significant distribution here in the US, and I can't locate any distros selling their releases, so definitely contact the label directly via MySpace if you'd like to get your hands on this disc. These dudes deserve much more attention over here, so hopefully the strengths of this album can start to make things happen in that regard!