CD REVIEWS

Reth - Precursors To Extinction

If you haven’t heard of Reth, then I’ll hazard a guess that you are either living under a rock covered in posters you tore out of Kerrang! or else you don’t reside in the UK. There is rarely a moment when this Leeds based grind outfit aren’t out and about lugging their gear on and off some stage in some pub or other, whether as support act for such luminaries as Napalm Death and The Berzerker or headlining shows in Leeds, Bradford and neighbouring towns.

After seven years of gigging and releasing demos they have finally pulled a full length album out of the bag in the form of Precursors to Extinction; an exceptionally brutal 9 track assault which clocks in at just over the 16 minute mark, so you can probably work out exactly how condensed these 9 tracks are. Then again, grindcore was never about penning 12-minute long epics, was it?

So, what about the music? Precursors to Extinction takes you on a rough musical ride, encompassing plenty of twists and turns that will have you hanging off the edge of your seat and clinging on for dear life. Crushing guitars and aggressive drums hammer along with vehemence before the elements disconnect, tailing off into their individual metrical patterns eventually regrouping and charging back off in unison. Screeching guitar sounds slowly unravel as ferocious bursts of abhorrence are spurted forth, while a stomping rhythm bridges together the pieces as a sludgy interlude develops into a wall of insanely fast grinding, while guttural gurgles force their way out. ‘Sowing the poisoned hubris’ has an interesting experimental feel which runs away with some insane blasting before all slows down into a heavy sluggish passage that leads into a jazzy breakdown. ‘Deacathexis’ explodes with a speeding double bass attack which contains a nice organic feel. Some old school death metal guitar riffs can also be heard here, as a volley of hate filled screams permeate until the track gradually slows down coming to an eventual grinding halt. This is brutally intense and an example of grindcore at it’s best. About time a label snapped them up (edit: since this review was written Reth signed with Anticulture Records).

Luci Herbert