Sunday, March 12, 2017

Rejekts - "Triratna" (Slaughterhouse Records, 2016)

Band: Rejekts
Title: Triratna
Genre: Grindcore/Black Metal with Post-Metal elements
Year: 6th December 2016
Time: 14 min circa
Rating: 76/100












It's been a while that Rejekts weren't present on these pages. In fact, they didn't released something new even since 2013, when they finally realized their debut album "UNO-" after many years into the ranks. This is strange because this band was very prolific between 2010 and 2013 and, systematically, every almost their production was reviewed by this 'zine with the result that Timpani allo Spiedo was cited into the booklet of "UNO-"! So, many things are changed after that first album, included the drummer of Rejekts because this role belongs now to the new entry Sdru. But, surely, the fidelity of Rejekts to the Underground cause of Timpani allo Spiedo hasn't changed since Black, their singer and leader, has recently send to me their new EP "Triratna", released by the young Italian label Slaughterhouse Records (not to be confound with the US label with the same name). And yet I have to say that this long silence of this band (from Milan, Italy) has not been in vain.

So, we start to say that "Triratna" is an EP characterised by very personal and introspective lyrics, written in Italian as the usual. Precisely, it is a philosophical concept-EP focused on the human nature of which are analyzed its 3 fundamental aspects in 3 distinct songs: the body ("Corpo"), the mind ("Mente") and the spirit ("Spirito"). Hence, these themes are very complex and also not so easy to understand but it isn't a case if Rejekts dubs their music as "Esoteric Black/Grindcore" (and some years ago they utilized the more prosaic "Dark Grind"...).

Now it's the turn of the music, that remains the more important thing without doubts. Going through the discography of Rejekts, I have noted that their initial dark grindcore has always been influenced more and more by black metal until "Triratna", that has finally exposed totally the black metal side of the band. You can listen to this especially thanks to "Mente", literally full of freezing riffs, without forgetting, obviously, the now classic lacerating but expressive screams of Black (a name, a guarantee!).

At the same time, Rejekts have added some new features to their sound, in order to pursue into their inexorable path of evolution so to...reject every fossilization. Specifically, the band has very extended the average lenght of their songs so to make them more elaborated and arranged with the result to abandon completely the classic format of the grindcore tracks made of 1 - 2 minutes of pure fury. Moreover, there is even the introduction of strong post-metal elements useful to add to the music of this band a more desperate and emotive aura, especially during  the final climaxes of the songs. Lastly, every track present a calm and ambient-like intro, so to contrast greatly with the violence, sometimes very excessive, of the music.

My favorite number of "Triratna" is, surely, the second one, "Mente", because it has every feature of these new Rejekts also due to its unusual lenght of 6 minutes, hence this is now the longer song composed by the band. So, "Mente" surprises every listener with an ultra-blasting grindcore mania, very clean and calm moments, potent and evocative mid-tempos typical of black metal, freezing riffs and an excellent interaction between the guitars with the creation of very emotive lead riffs by Joe also if rejecting completely, as usual, the whole idea of the guitar solo. In practice, the only feature absent in this song is the voice of the guitarist Dave with his abyssal growling vocals also if these ones are listenable only during the first moments of "Corpo".

In conclusion, "Triratna" is a very good EP. I say this also because Rejekts are a band able to evolve their sound release after release but without never losing sight of their main features and typical atmospheres made of inexorable darkness and desperation. And the result of this perennial evolution faithful to the roots is always a very good release by Rejekts, a band now able to combine the nihilistic grindcore of Cripple Bastard, the icy storm of the early Darkthrone and the post-metal emotions of Cult of Luna.

Tracklist:

1 - Corpo
2 - Mente
3 - Spirito

Line-up:

Black - voce
Dave - rhythm guitars
Joe - lead guitars
Paco - bass
Sdru - drums

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Rejekts.Darkgrind666
BandCamp: http://rejekts.bandcamp.com/
Slaughterhouse Records: https://www.facebook.com/slaughterhouserec

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