INTERNAL ROT - Grieving Birth [2020]

When someone who has no idea but is legitimately interested asks you what is "grindcore" and you start explaining that it's this super fast combination of punk rock and death metal, you probably want to show them something like this, as INTERNAL ROT from Australia is probably the perfect example. And what a treat it is to get a full length album that is closer to half an hour (±24mins) rather than some 4 minute split, almost a challenge to fill your journey to work with something else, but a perfect match for my ride. Even though all songs are only about a minute long.

Internal Rot is pure old-school grindcore at it's best with maybe a hint of gore suggested by song titles only. Very heavy, always fast (almost no slow parts) and the composition of songs is just chaos all over, with all kinds of possible rhythm combinations, but always brutal and relentless regardless of what is happening in the structure. The whole experience feels like a massive train that crushes an unfortunate car left on the railway and drags it for 24 minutes without slowing down.
Internet helps me learn the band is a 3 piece (no bass), from Melbourne and playing for 10 years now. This is their 2nd full length album and members have played in Die Pigeon Die, Super Fun Happy Slide and countless other well known names.

As for the sound - guitars are as heavy as it gets and I never felt there's no bass so it's a compensation that works. Love the occasional part-of-a-second squeaks of the strings heard after they are muted and the next riff begins. The vocals are mostly deep growls without much variety, which is something I enjoy in grindcore most of the time, because it emphasizes the extremity of it's nature. The only possible criticism I have is probably that the snare could be a bit louder, because when the blastbeat starts, the whole thing is so heavy I lose the snare in the overall mass. But it might also be a matter of taste as I usually prefer ridiculous over-the-top snares that sound like empty metal buckets.

I wonder who the sad girl on the cover is, reminds me of some actress (which is probably the case as it looks like a photographed TV screen), but I always love the contrast where harsh music meets beautiful images or lyrics (think Inalienable dreamless) or vice versa. This album should become a modern classic built by the best time-tested standards. There are so many great bands coming from Australia, but this stands out in my head a bit due to how pure and simply crushing it is, very good without a need to "re-invent the bicycle". I will play it on repeat until it hurts.