Distaste & Bastard Peels

Distaste vs Bastard Peels

Written by: PP on 19/07/2010 18:47:54

Another grindcore split your way comes, but unlike the last many I've reviewed in the genre, this one's actually very, very good, thanks to a superb performance by Distaste in particular. Grindcore is usually associated with unmelodic pounding at breakneck speeds with little thought to structure or melody, leaving the untrained ear confused as to what is exactly the point other than to play as fast and as brutal as possible in 30 second intervals known as 'songs'. Here, however, Distaste shows another way to how grindcore can be played: with hardcore energy surrounding the grindcore base sound, giving the songs actual melody and hooks. What a foreign concept on a grindcore album, but Distaste integrates it with style and class on the split album.

The influence of seminal hardcore/metal group Discharge is audible all around, but Distaste don't just leave it at that. "Needs", for instance, even has a Gothenburg melodeath-style guitar melody racing against the hyperspeed drumming - think At The Gates playing grindcore and you have the picture. Then you have "Robots", which sounds almost like a melodic hardcore piece, reminding me of a sickeningly fast version of Capital or even This Is Hell in places. Weird names popping up in a grindcore review, I know, but that's what makes Distaste so fucking good. They play grindcorehardcorepunk. Or maybe it's hardcoregrindcorepunk. Anyway, you get the point. No growling here, just brutal yelling and lots and lots of melody within their songs, but without forgetting grinding groove like that found on "Burn". Fantastic stuff all around.

Bastard Peels, on the other hand, swear to brutality and death metal in their approach to grindcore. Their vocalist is fucking terrible, ruining the otherwise excellent serpentine riffs played at double speeds compared to their origins in death metal. Such meaningless gargle style has just never, ever grabbed me. It's a shame, because instrumentally Bastard Peels are also better than so many others in the genre. A punk rock d-beat (albeit sped up) similar to Distaste is the driving force for this band, together with rapid-fire riffs and a generally morbid soundscape similar to the legends Napalm Death. Here, too, melody is absolutely overwhelming compared to what you're used to hearing in grindcore, so for once, I'm willing to ignore the crappy vocalist and give these guys praise too.

Grindcore fans and bands a like, take out your notebooks, listen to this split between Distaste and Bastard Peels, and take notes about how grindcore should be played. It's brutal, it's fast, but it's also melodic, and has real structure and thought behind instead of the meaningless grind that 95% of the bands in the genre are releasing these days.

Download: Needs, Robots, Wenn Du Gehst
For the fans of: Discharge, This Is Hell, Napalm Death, Rotten Sound
Listen: Distaste, Bastard Peels

Release date 21.03.2010
Refused Records

Distaste:

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