Lista de Bandas Grindcore White Eyes Beastmode

I was recently witnessing a conversation on Spirit Of Metal’s forum where people were wondering if Black Metal had any leaders left. It’s not that I have an opinion on the subject but a certain post caught my attention. One user was basically saying that Metal, extreme or not, had reached a dead end and would end up being stuck in its current form and that no evolution was possible.

I’m sure that kind of talk must have taken place quite a few times in the history of music. Only to be continually proven wrong. Did anyone predict the birth of Death Metal from the ashes of Thrash Metal with bands like Possessed or Death? Was it reasonably conceivable to expect Napalm Death’s Scum in 1986? Did you think bands like Suffocation or Pyrexia would take Death Metal a step further? At any given time in the history of Extreme Metal, people grow complacent and believe that they have reached the pinnacle of ‘Extreme’ and that nothing newer, more brutal, more violent may ever come up. And at any given n+1 time, there’s that new band, more fucked up than the others, coming up with yet another degree in the Extreme Metal scale.

White Eyes is one of those bands.

Beastmode, released by Australian grind merchants Blastasfuk, is one of those records that does not sink in too easily. It takes some time to get to know it and it nearly took me almost three weeks before I could even fathom where it was heading. Up to this date, I'm still unsure if it is heading anywhere but I have waited too long to put a proper review of this album.

It won’t serve any purpose if I just tell you that this shit is one of the most violent things I’ve ever heard. It’s not that it’s not true but it just wouldn’t do that record any good because besides the violence lies something much deeper.

White Eyes come from Germany. This is their first full-length release and I hadn’t had the pleasure to listen to their aptly named first EP “A Demonstration Of White Eyes” released through Baskat Recordings. Even though their myspace page says they play “Progressive Violence”, it won’t tell you much. Since reviewers throughout the world are all doomed to categorize and label bands, I will define their sound as Electrogrind with hints of progressive music scattered throughout the record. Obviously genre-defining can sometimes turn to be too small of a box and since these guys’ music is rather out of the box, you’ll excuse me if I do not add yet three or four words to get to the exact definition of their music. Let’s keep things simple.

Electrogrind is a genre that has grown in the shadows of genres with larger spectrum of influence. It takes most of its substance from Grindcore, takes a few bits of Electronic Music, IDM, Powerviolence, Crust, etc., etc. Still it’s a very vivid scene with countless acts, most of them not even worth mentioning and a few here and there that make up the top of the cake. Among the most ‘famous’ ones, Genghis Tron, Trencher, !T.o.o.H!, Antigama and to a certain extent (though most will retort that they're not Electrogrind), The Locust or NYIA.
Genghis Tron, recently signed by Relapse Records (as well as Antigama), is probably the most successful and well known protagonists of the whole bunch.

White Eyes is not that much different from those guys. Their music is a rough blend of Grindcore that leans more on the Hard Core side. The guitars are tuned up rather high (can you spell Six Finger Satellite?) and they contrast with the more down-tuned Grind acts that incorporate more of a Death Metal feel. Vocals alternate between the high-pitched throated screams of anger and the classic grunts-growls characteristic of the Grindcore scene, though the latter get purposely drowned into the mix reinforcing that harsh noisy feeling. The refreshing news is that White Eyes does have a real drummer and that’s quite a change in a scene where most guys feel they can handle the whole business in their basement (only eventually producing stuff that should never get released).
31 tracks deliver one of the most violent musical experience you’ll ever listen to (until proven otherwise). Most tracks amount to one or two minutes, which is typical of Grindcore, but they all fade in each other providing one hell of a gigantic aggression. Unlike their more famous counterparts, White Eyes does not give in those ethereal ambient tracks that are more reminiscent of Dark Wave or Trip Hop. Beastmode is all about rage and its various expressions. True, the record is divided into two distinct parts, each beginning with a "chapter" and ends in a pandemonic progressive noisy maelstrom but that's about the only rest that the Germans will lend you. Imagine someone trying to drown you maintaining your head in the water and all the pain and frustration that could arise from it and that someone keeps your head above water for a few moments so that you can breathe. That’s how I felt. And in this regard, the artwork is awfully appropriate. Everything’s in it is pitch black except for a few white words here and there, like 95% black and 5% white. Definitely fitting for this recording.

Would I have written that review after the first play. It probably would have looked something like that: “Fuck me, that was intense”. And that would have been it. Just like when you’ve witnessed something unnatural and mind-devastating, words get stuck in your throat and have a hard time coming out, taking the shock deep inside and leaving you gasping for breath.

Even now, as I write this review, I still feel it’s impossible for me to express myself with the right words because there may not be words for this. As violent as it is, still I find myself perversely drawn to Beastmode and I usually end up playing it on and on until I can take no more. Over the days, it has grown on me and I won’t lie to you if I tell you that it has become one of the best records I listened to this year. Instant classic? I guess it depends on everyone else’s conception of a masterpiece, but to me Beastmode is that good.