Beaten To Death - Xes And Strokes

(CD, Mas-Kina Recordings, 2011)

BEATEN TO DEATH hail from Norway and have chosen the Grindcore path. Ok, everything seems fine until now but why do I get the impression that something is not right here? It is the song titles, is it the band photos I came across? I don’t really know and I guess I won’t find out until I press the play button...

First of all let’s take a look at this rather interesting lineup since we’ve got INSENSE’s Martin Rygge and Tommy Hjelm, drummer Christian Svendsen known from his time in bands like TSJUDER, STURMGEIST and GOTHMINISTER, as well as SHE SAID DESTROY’s Anders Bakke. The only bad thing here is the half of the band looks like hippies, while the other half looks like... hipsters! Hahahaha!

So, “Xes And Strokes” kicks in with some mindfuck parts and you need additional time to really realize what’s happening. I mean, the band claims to play Grindcore, but the blasts are frequently interrupted by some kind of aggressive Post parts, as well as some more classic Hardcore/Punk breaks, too. It’s like these guys tried to squeeze in some BURST elements into their Grindcore. To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure if they managed to succeed since this album is pure mindfuck. I’ve tried to listen to it many times, but it always entered my brain through a different gateway. There times I loved it, but there were also times I hated it as I failed to understand what it was offered.

I don’t know if BEATEN TO DEATH is a great Grindcore band, but I do know that they have managed to craft a really interesting album that needs several listening sessions before it starts spitting out its darkest secrets. After all, we’re talking about an approximate duration of 18 minutes. It’s not that hard to press the repeat button several times...

NO RATE

Links:

www.BeatenToDeath.Net
www.MySpace.Com/BeatenToDeathMetal
www.FaceBook.Com/pages/Beaten-To-Death

Tracklist:

01. Pointless Testament
02. Winston Churchill
03. On Running
04. A Soulless Alarm
05. 3-2-1, It’s On
06. Cat Olympics
07. A Word To The Wise
08. Groundhog Day
09. Xes And Strokes

Lineup:

Anders - Vocals
Martin - Guitar
Tommy - Guitar
Mika - Bass
Christian “Bartender” - Drums

Written by Yiannis Dafopoulos Thursday, 16 February 2012 13:47