Cripple Bastards - Variante Alle Morte
FETO Records - FETO-0014 - 13 October 2008
By Paddy Walsh
Cripple Bastards may be familiar to grind afficionados, as they've been peddling their punky grindcore snce 1988, albeit mostly in the form of various demo tapes and 7" (in the grand indie spirt of this genre). At this stage they've released something like 20 EP/split EPs and 4 full-length albums, so they're certainly no slouches in the prolificy department either.
Variante Alla Morte is a furious slice of grindcore, more
Napalm Death than
Carcass you might say, and fully politicised to boot. The lyrics are, ahem,
sung in their native Italian - which seems to suit this style of music for some reason - and it's mostly relentless from the get go. Growls, screams and rasps make up the vocals, typically, but they're done with a level of intensity that ensures their worth.
Cripple Bastards have secured a fantastic, crisp and ultra-heavy production for this work, courtesy of metal favourite Fredrik Nordstrom (who has twiddled knobs for metal heavyweights from
At the Gates to
Dimmu Borgir), and his talents ensure this leans in a more metallic direction than it's punk/hardcore influences might suggest.
With song-lengths ranging anywhere between 8 seconds and 5 minutes throughout the 24 tracks on offer, what's served are a mixture between short, snappy grind blasts, hardcore-esque breakdowns, and screamy assaults. Whilst it may seem a bit linear at times,
Variante Alla Morte in nonetheless a fully accomplished and blistering exaple of it's kind, and there's a
Nasum-shaped hole in the grindcore world that needs to be filled by top-drawer grind acts such as
Cripple Bastards.
Official Cripple Bastards Website
Official Cripple Bastards MySpace
Official FETO Records Website
