Grimness - Increase Humanity Disgust
Two Fat Men - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
It's been a while since I've been sent some black metal to review. Perhaps that's because nothing particularly essential has happened to the genre in recent months. In keeping with this, the debut full-length from Italy's Grimness may not exactly be revitalising the black metal genre in any way through the tracks that comprise Increase Humanity Disgust, but the quartet have crafted an occasionally quite engaging album that takes influences from Anthems-era Emperor, older Satyricon and the more melodic Swedish contributors to the genre to craft an album which, while somewhat derivative, is nevertheless pleasantly stocked with intermittently immersive melodic (but not symphonic) death-tinged black metal.
Of course, Grimness are immeasurably helped by a very clear, detailed production which, while robbing the blast-centric drumming of some of its punch, does allow the dissonant melodies and inventive riffage in the guitar work to flow over the listener and drag them into the music. The vocalist doesn't really do much that hasn't been heard before, and generally speaking this isn't a particularly adventurous release. But the two guitarists do manage between them to conjure up enough atmospherics and memorable riffage to lift Increase Humanity Disgust above the more mediocre acts in the genre.
The dissonant harmonies behind first track proper 'Dimension Evil' and the squealing, crawling riffage that begins thrashy stand out track 'N.D.E.' along with other moments that betray the quartet's more old-school thrash and death metal influences provide this album with the sparks that could fan out to transform Grimness into something more essential. For the moment, however, this isn't quite good enough to get really excited about.
6.5/10
Grimness's Official Website
Two Fat Men's Official Website
Two Fat Men - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
It's been a while since I've been sent some black metal to review. Perhaps that's because nothing particularly essential has happened to the genre in recent months. In keeping with this, the debut full-length from Italy's Grimness may not exactly be revitalising the black metal genre in any way through the tracks that comprise Increase Humanity Disgust, but the quartet have crafted an occasionally quite engaging album that takes influences from Anthems-era Emperor, older Satyricon and the more melodic Swedish contributors to the genre to craft an album which, while somewhat derivative, is nevertheless pleasantly stocked with intermittently immersive melodic (but not symphonic) death-tinged black metal.
Of course, Grimness are immeasurably helped by a very clear, detailed production which, while robbing the blast-centric drumming of some of its punch, does allow the dissonant melodies and inventive riffage in the guitar work to flow over the listener and drag them into the music. The vocalist doesn't really do much that hasn't been heard before, and generally speaking this isn't a particularly adventurous release. But the two guitarists do manage between them to conjure up enough atmospherics and memorable riffage to lift Increase Humanity Disgust above the more mediocre acts in the genre.
The dissonant harmonies behind first track proper 'Dimension Evil' and the squealing, crawling riffage that begins thrashy stand out track 'N.D.E.' along with other moments that betray the quartet's more old-school thrash and death metal influences provide this album with the sparks that could fan out to transform Grimness into something more essential. For the moment, however, this isn't quite good enough to get really excited about.
6.5/10
Grimness's Official Website
Two Fat Men's Official Website
