I chose a difficult moment to listen for the first time Here is a rope, good lucks debut album NOTHING to write home about.
Picture this: It’s four in the morning and I’m standing in line for passport control at Istanbul airport. I haven’t had a coffee or anything to eat yet. I’ve probably only slept for an hour at most. What do I decide? Do I turn on ambient music, go into zen mode and float gently to my gate? Or do I instead listen to an album that has a beautiful cover with an illegible logo of a metal band on it? An album that received a wonderful review from AThe editor-in-chief simply wrote: “This sucks.”
Since I am an absolute idiot, I naturally chose option two.
Opening track “WE’VE HOWDIED, BUT HAVEN’T SHOOK” immediately got my head bobbing and my feet tapping. Sweeping riffs paired with an atmospheric tremolo guitar line are accompanied by relentless grinding drums. My jerky head movements probably gave the other flyers the impression that I got the approval, but in reality I just wanted to jump on the bar and see if I could organize a wall of death while “STARTING A FIGHT IN AN EMPTY HOUSE” did its best to blast my eardrums.
I realise that this is no ordinary grindcore album, even if I enjoy the obnoxious slams and gruesome blast beats. It has a deliciously modern and tight production that is more reminiscent of a deathcore band than a gutter grind act.
Michael Carroll from the now disbanded mathcore band Destroyer Destroyeris adept at playing all instruments and effortlessly switches between wild grind and wild beatdowns. Even more impressive is his ability to incorporate mathcore influences that add an extra dash of spice to the whole thing, as can be heard on the wonderfully titled “I’M THE ONLY HELL MY MAMA EVER RAISED”.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the additional textures found throughout the album. Here is a rope, good luck is undeniably relentless in its fury, there are moments of calm, such as on “FINDING A WHISPER IN THE WHIRLWIND” or at the end of “DOWN WITH THE SNAKES”, where more atmospheric moments allow listeners to enjoy the relative calm before the storm.
Of course, singer Brian Cole does his best to make sure he doesn’t lose the wildness throughout the song. NOTHING to write home about. Every time he opens his mouth, all it takes is a throaty growl or a throat-shredding screech. You can almost feel his saliva coating you, and a smile spreads across his face as you watch him destroy everything in sight.
If one of your main hobbies is discovering new music, it’s honestly a great joy to come across a band that’s releasing a fresh-sounding debut album. So much has happened in the wild worlds of grind and deathcore. It’s nice to hear a band that has effortlessly fused the two in a way that’s exciting and never boring, which is probably also due to the relatively short runtime.
If I had to complain about one thing, it would be the relative silence that surrounds this release on music websites. Entertaining grindcore albums from bands that don’t just focus on the hackneyed cliches of bukkake and shitty puns are one in a million, and I don’t want this one to fall through the cracks. Hell, I even told my poor, poor mother to give it a listen (unintentionally violating the album’s title by writing home about it). More people need to listen to this album and share it with others, because if it doesn’t put a smile on your face while you madly punch holes in the walls of your house, you’re lost to us.
