Mefitica - "Vessazione Cronica" (Branco Suidae/Hellbones Records, 2018)

Band: Mefitica
Title: Vessazione Cronica
Genre: Crust/Grindcore with Hardcore Punk and D-Beat influences
Year: April 2018
Time: 19 min circa
Rating: 87/100












3 days ago I reviewed an HC/Grindnoise matinée...and today the HC noise attacks again on these brutal pages! In fact, this review is about "Vessazione Cronica" (Italian for "chronic oppression"), the second album by Mefitica. An Italian trio born in the winter 2012 between Carpineto Romano and Colleferro (two small towns in the region of Lazio), Mefitica are "influenced by everything's rotten that reigns on this society, by the death of the soul because of the daily distress, by the anger, the labour exploitation and the '80s Italian hardcore punk", so they conceive their music as a combative way to survive into this fuckin' reality. All this is expressed with extreme rage into "Vessazione Cronica", an all Italian coproduction between Mefitica, Branco Suidae (a small DIY live gig agency) and Hellbones Records (it was just the owner of this Young Roman label that sent me in person the physical CD of this album).

Okay, but what's about the music? Is it hardcore punk? Yes and not at the same time. Opened by the death bells of "Iride di Cripta" ("cryptic iris") and closed by the frightul hidden track "Necro Collage" (very close to the cavernous intros and outros by Black Witchery) after the chaotic real closing song "Senza Ritorno" ("no return"), this album shows basically a very violent crust/grindcore with touches of hardcore punk and D-beat. The atmosphere spewed forth by the band is very special because it's really dark and necro while the intensity is so violent to reach sometimes destructive levels of chaos due to the ferocious blast-beats of the drummer, the biting guitars (with no solos) and the vocal department.

In particular, this last one see a literally tormenting alternation between the miasmic growls of the bassplayer Antonio "Camomilla" Macera (what a strange nickname for a crust punker! In fact, "camomilla" means..."camomille"!) and the demented screams of the gentlewoman guitarist Pam "Ireful" Salvati, who seem to be really possessed thanks to her ultra-distressing performance! To say the truth, also the drummer Gianluca "Fast" Fondi has some vocal duties but he (violently) screams only in few songs, so to create, in songs like "Miasmi" ("miasmas"), an intense vocal annihilation along with his bandmates.

Even though the speed and the sonic aggression reigns supreme on the album (it's incredible but the first mid/slow tempos are listenable only during the intro of the 4th track, the same "Vessazione Cronica"!), its tracklist show a good variety. In fact, you can find 30-second shrapnels of blast-beat madness like "Rivivi il Male" ("re-experience the evil") or more D-beat numbers à la Discharge called "Cleptocrazia" ("cleptocracy"). And you have also to enjoy the slaughtering version of "Il Contagio"  ("the infection") by the infamous Un Quarto Morto (an Italian fastcore band active for 5 prolific years between 2006 and 2011), or the atmospheric "Mefitica" (where there are only the spoken vocals by Pam), which represents a touch of (apocalyptic) relax among a sea of ultra-violence, but without forgetting to mention "Coltan", where there are some very groovy parts in mid-tempo.

The lyrics, sang in Italian, exactly reflects the darkness and total intensity of the music by facing, as explained by the band on their biography on FB, "inner disasters" through visionary lines not always easy to decode. Against working for a miserable salary so to be exploited and humiliated ("Mefitica"). Against the religious Easter tradition to eat lambs ("Lo Spreco" - "the waste"). Against a "wealth that is a valium able to anesthetize the masses ("Coltan"), and against the thief State ("Cleptocrazia"), Mefitica draws an agonizing world with neither hope nor return, as in the tradition of crust punk. To fight all this, ther's only a solution for the band: "surviving to a mephitic life that doesn't belongs to you" through standing you out from the crowd ("Mefitica").

After 19 minutes circa of total earslaughtering massacre of this kind, the listener can do only this thing: re-listening to it from start to finish. This because "Vessazione Cronica", whose CD seem to be a little vinyl, is a gem that express a necro crust/grindcore that reminds me a bit of Nis, a crust band from Southern Italy that released in 2008 an outstanding album called "Presagi di un'Insulsa Rovina". Maybe, some people will not appreciate the fact that, like in the most chaotic moments, the riffs aren't so understandable while I have to say that, on the booklet, there are some spelling mistakes but who cares? Now, I would like not only to receive more HC releases of this kind to review in the future days to come but also to see live on stage these 3 crazy crust punkers so to mosh until death during songs like "Cleptocrazia", "Iride di Cripta", "Rivivi il Male" and others. Fortunately, Mefitica will play on 19th May 2018 along with 4 bands in Rome (flyer on your left)...and I CAN'T FUCKIN' WAIT!

Tracklist:

1 - Iride di Cripta
2 - Sangue di Latte
3 - Ossessione Perpetua
4 - Vessazione Cronica
5 - Miasmi
6 - Lo Spreco
7 - Cleptocrazia
8 - Il Contagio
9 - Mefitica
10 - Coltan
11 - Suicidium
12 - Rivivi il Male
13 - Senza Ritorno

Line-up:

Pam "Ireful" Salvati - vocals/guitars
Antonio "Camomilla" Macera  vocals/bass
Gianluca "Fast" Fondi - drums/vocals

FaceBook: https://it-it.facebook.com/Mefitica-389604247794434/
BandCamp: https://hellbonesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mefitica-vessazione-cronica
Hellbones Records: https://www.facebook.com/HellbonesRecords/