Review by Carl on October 29, 2024.

Eleven tracks in 14 minutes? Well, sign me up, because I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not going to be for people with a tender colon.

And waddaya know, turns out I'm right. This is some serious rabid stuff that Loathe spreads around, and perhaps the best way to describe it is as a brutal death metal take on the old Terrorizer sound. The fluid grindcore riffing collides with a veritable barrage of blast beat frenzy and rattling kick drums, while a hoarse grunt being layered with a screaming vocal delivery rests on top of it, sounding as if hell's mouth has finally opened, and all the demons inside are screaming out for booze and hookers. Musically there can be made some comparisons to bands like Nasum and Rotten Sound because of the relentless speed at play for most of the time, but when the tempo goes down, the specter of brutal death metal comes peering in. There are some inclusions of the occasional slam worked in (like in "Worship in the House of the Abattoir" for instance), which makes for a nice change of pace. The combination of slamming brutality with death-flecked grindcore is one we don't hear all that often, and honestly, it goes down pretty damn well. Add some dissonant guitars to the concoction, and we have a pretty varied sucker-punch of aural terror on our hands here.

A volatile style of music such as this needs a powerful production, and unfortunately, that is kinda lacking here. The percussion sounds horribly plastic, and the guitars could have used some more body to them. A bit of a shame, really, because the guitars would've sounded better with a thicker sound to them, with the digital drum sound is giving the whole soundmix a sterile feel throughout. The music at play is absolutely great, but had there been a kinda 'warmer' feel to it, this EP would've landed the punches thrown more accurately for sure.

Loathe serves up a way above a decent slice of death/grind, with even some original ideas sprinkled in. It's an enjoyable mix, but it gets a tad undercut by a somewhat cold and lifeless overall soundmix. I'm sure that a slighter organic touch to the production would've worked wonders for the music presented. Still, this EP has made me damn curious for whatever there is to follow because while I may not be the biggest fan of the overall sound, the music kicks some damn serious ass.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10