Blockheads - Shapes of Misery

20 tracks, 27 minutes, face-to-a-sander grindcore. You’ve heard these albums before (Nasum’s Grind Finale contained about ten of them), so why should you hear this one? Because it kicks, that’s why. It’s raw, it’s pissed off, and it’s efficient in a way that somehow seems environmentally conscious. I picture these Frenchmen working in soup kitchens to the sounds of Phobia and Terrorizer.

All the classic grind ingredients are here – clattering blastbeats, piledriving guitars, papa bear/little bear vocals. The songs fly by quickly, but, really, this album is one long cathartic fit with nineteen pauses for breath. Yet melodic and rhythmic variation keeps things interesting, and the production sounds natural.

The lyrics take aim at Dubya, creationists, capitalism, materialism, and so on. Socially conscious grindcore is almost a redundant term, but I am glad for each and every such record done well. Not only is it a vote against the status quo, every dollar and euro that goes to it is one less that goes to a multinational corporation. You can find this in the US at Emetic and in Europe at Overcome.