Band's List Grind Death Grimness 69 The Bridge

Italy's Grimness 69 started off as a band playing hardcore/grindcore, under the moniker of Grimness. But with the renaming of the band also came a genre change, with the band deciding to infuse extreme metal elements into their brand of grindcore, and subsequently releasing material that lean towards death metal territory. The Bridge is the band's third full length album in their 9 year long career, and is a display of the result of the band's transformation from a pure grind to a death metal/grindcore band.

The death metal elements that the band has infused on The Bridge are immediately evident, and unless one is aware of the band's history it is almost hard to tell that the band started off as one playing grindcore, with the dark and heavy atmosphere and the crushing riffs present that are more typical of more brutal death metal bands. Nerve's gurgling growls also lean more towards a brutal death metal style, though he occasionally breaks into a more grindcore-sounding style. The music on The Bridge is urgent (though not exactly blazing fast) and brutal, with the two guitars of E.T.H.M. and Dr. Faustus working together in unison to present a nice effect; while one guitar provides the abrasive trem-picked riffs, the other contributes the palm-muted chugging, and bassist Gigi providing an underlying melody of his own at the background. This urgency is further emphasised through vocalist Nerve, often growling out vocals to his lines in a continuous fashion, without stopping to gather his breath, like on White Room.

Unfortunately, the album tends to fall in the band's songwriting department. Despite the quality of the band's playing, songs on the album tend to be unmemorable, with few songs really creating a lasting impression even after numerous listens to the album though it is hard to deny the heaviness of the music on The Bridge. While the band's effort to fuse elements of death metal and grindcore is commendable, most of the songs tended to end up sounding similar, with most tracks utilising a mid-fast paced start before breaking down into a slower chugging section in the middle, and little surprises for the listener as the album progresses. However, it is not until after the halfway point of the album that things start looking up, with the ending of Illheaven Hells and songs like the instrumental The First Words of a Dead being some of the standout moments that really caught my attention with the high energy present.

That said though, each of the tracks contain enough technical chops by each of the individual members to keep fans of more technical metal entertained, in particular the drumming of J.C. Hooker (which is further boosted by the crisp drum tone), and songs like The Shining Key are evidence of the technical and somewhat progressive side of the band. Furthermore, the band has included a personal pet peeve of mine - the inclusion of more than 2 minutes of silence before the final track begin though the silence fortunately comes as separate tracks and can be easily skipped.

Overall though, like already mentioned above, this album presents nothing new to the death metal/grindcore genre, with the band choosing to stay on the safe side of songwriting. The Bridge however, is worth the listen simply for the musicianship present, and should also be pretty enjoyable for the more conservative listeners who don't like surprises, but don't want to compromise the technical aspects in their music as well.