Friday, May 5, 2017

Agathocles - "Commence to Mince" (Selfmadegod Records, 2016)

Band: Agathocles
Title: Commence to Mince
Genre: Anarcho-Grindcore
Year: 15th September 2016
Time: 34 min
Rating: 73/100













When I talk with my friends about Agathocles, the conversation becomes a total delirium. In fact, it's incredible the ability of this legendary Belgian trio to spew forth many releases every fuckin' year, remaining also very faithful to their kind of music since the early '90s but, at the same time, losing nothing about the fury, the impact and the strong anarchist militancy of their early days. If it wasn't enough, this is confirmed again by the 13th album titled "Commence to Mince", the new "Mincecore" manifest released by a Polish label like Selfmadegod Records, totally fit to support the "campaign for musical destruction" made by Agathocles.

Containing the beauty of 35 songs, "Commence to Mince" is a total devastation where the ears of the listeners are annihilated by a music enough easy to described: a grindcore characterized principally by wild incursions into crust punk, chainsaw guitars literally able to lacerate your meat, and a vocal performance where there are inhuman vomits, gurgles and some absurd screams. All this is synthesized into songs with structures so instinctive and simple that many of them lasts only 20 seconds. So, here you are the so-called "Mincecore", the term coined years ago by the same Agathocles to describe their Anarcho-grindcore.

Now, despite its extreme minimalism, "Commence to Mince" presents a good variety with the result to create some curiosity into the listeners during the listening of the album. In fact, in addition of the usual grindcore shrapnels like "Dark Masks" or the crust apocalypse represented very well by tracks like "Wasted Words" (in very Discharge-style!), you will find also two numbers that lasts even 3 minutes of lenght, both mid-tempo from start to finish: I am talking about "Freeze, My Dear" (guided very much by the bass of Jan) and the dark "The Only Honesty" (full of wicked giggling). Incredible to say, there is also a very sui generis song as "Orgulho Americano" whose its first part is all dominated by a teenager punk in mid-tempo with the first ultra-simple (and very rare) guitar solos of the album. Instead, the unstoppable "Nazional Sozialist Security" (one of my favorite songs) presents even some death metal riffs during its almost 3 minutes of lenght while, here and there, Agathocles offers putrid slow tempos as in the dynamic "I Piss as Defence". Other interesting variations are listenable into "From Market Place to More Space" with its schizophrenic tempos, and "Demons in My Head" where there are spectrals inserts of keyboards à la early Dead Kennedys. Finally, I have to mention "Kill Thrill" because it has an atmospheric guitar intro before the album goes to the ultimate auto-destruction thanks to the nihilist 5 seconds of the conclusive track "Chinese End".
In brief, we aren't in presence of a true masterpiece but it's sure that Agathocles hold their sceptre of "Kings of Mincecore" with this "Commence to Mince" due to very intense and raw songs for a "campaign for musical destruction" of a rare coherence and intransigence. I'm sorry to reviewing it only now since I had its promo kit since December 2016 but, in these cases, it's better late than never. But now it's very curious that Agathocles haven't released something new during this 2017. Is there something to worry about?

Tracklist:

1 - Bathing in Hate
2 - Noise Abatement Crusaders
3 - Snobhunt
4 - Bad Space Cake
5 - Opportunist Swines
6 - Lights Off
7 - I Piss As Defence
8 - No More Faith
9 - Freeze, My Dear
10 -  Dark Masks
11 - Black Evil Rays
12 - From Market Place to More Space
13 - Anarchist Spectrum Disorder
14 - King of the Scene
15 - Thanks Man!
16 - Orgulho Americano
17 - Why Do They Gaggle?
18 - Demons in My Head
19 - (Sh)out
20 - Wasted Words
21 - Interrupted
22 - Flag Up Your Arse
23 - A Late Abortion
24 - Different Direction
25 - Opgefokt
26 - The Only Honesty
27 - Dadaesque Orange Attack
28 - Hypotrips
29 - Commence to Mince
30 - Excellent Toilet Paper
31 - And the Winner Is
32 - Nazional Sozialist Security
33 - In the City
34 - Kill Thrill
35 - Chinese End

Line-up:

Jan - vocals/bass/guitars
Koen - guitars
Nils - drums/vocals

Selfmadegode Records: http://selfmadegod.com/shop/en_US/index

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