ANTIGAMA-The InsolentTHUMB

Exclusive Album Stream: Antigama - The Insolent

ANTIGAMA-The Insolent

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The trick to good grindcore is that one minute it’s locked-in, and keeps listeners feeling rooted and upright, and the next it gives you the spins. Death metal is all about knocking the listener flat, giving them the sensation of being rolled over by some massive wheel or tank tread, but grindcore lives in the moment before that: the seconds where equilibrium is lost and the human mind is reduced to a soft little thing in a big ol’ brain case it can’t control, wondering “is it my body moving, or the rest of the room?” That’s why the songs are so often so short: that sensation is hard to set up and then maintain.

Poland’s Antigama do this with remarkable consistency. Their upcoming album, The Insolent will be their seventh. They’re practically ancient in grindcore standards, and all of that experience is used to great effect on this somewhat restrained album. While background electronics add textures throughout, jazz percussion bits are relegated to mere snippets, leaving more room for vocalist Lukasz Myszkowski to unload his fierce-but-monotone bark. The first half of the record focuses on songs that express the classic grind idioms, but things get looser by the end with the pure punk rhythm of “Sentenced to the Void,” instrumental “Out Beyond” and the seven-minute closing track. I recommend listening to the album from front to back for maximum impact, however.

— Joseph Schafer

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The Insolent drops May 7 via Selfmadegod. Follow Antigama on Facebook, or on Twitter at @Antigama.

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