Список групп Grind Death Stillbirth (GER) Plakative Aggression

Stillbirth hail from Germany and have been more or less active for the past 10 years. They've released a full-length in 2004 and a couple split records. Plakative Aggression will be out now anytime soon during 2009.

When Skinless – Spirit Of Metal admin – contacted me to review their latest offering I must admit I was a bit thrilled about this. Germany has quite a history when it comes to Grindcore. Cock And Ball Torture, Mucupurulent, Dead, Blood, The Excrementory Grindfuckers and the mighty GUT have shown us that this was a country not just about older aging Thrash Metal or Death Metal icons, but some real cesspool of festering creativity.

Stillbirth claim Grindcore roots, put it all over their merchandising, and that was enough for me to embark on this reviewing ship and give it a try. I thought ‘Hell yes, I may be about to discover some new gem right before anybody else’. Not.

Grindcore is a dead scene if Stillbirth are to impersonate it. I think this is some kind of devious deception to label such music Grindcore.
Stillbirth’s music is the perfect combination of today’s most trendy scenes. Take a few bits of Deathcore for complicated structures, add some funky groove to it to make it more ‘TXDM’ or ‘Slam’, put in some Hardcore vocals a la Nu-Metal and a good annoying dose of pig squeals to make it sound you’re on par with Devourment and Disgorge and you end up with Plakative Aggression.

I’m not saying here that the album is devoid of qualities. I can certainly relate to some groovy bass incursions that within mosh pits must be lethal. I could also find some technical qualities and the production is above average. Still, I feel like I've been cheated. Where's my Grindcore? Or did someone forget to tell me that early pioneers like Napalm Death, Agathocles and even the aforementioned German bands did not play Grindcore? I think not.

As much as I’m inclined to believe that such music deserves to exist (and who am I to judge what others may or may not like…) and probably will generate a rather decent fanbase, I’m very much dubious to believe that this will constitute a landmark in the genre’s history or even in the band’s history. They definitely have some potential but they waste it by overdoing everything. My advice would be simple: stick to one thing. There really is no need to make it a demonstration that the band can play several genres of music at once. It is just waste of talent and lack of musical identity. Which, in addition, makes me wonder if this record really came out this way because the band members wanted it so or if someone from Rotten Roll Rex or the producer thought they’d be better off with that sound-every-teenager-under-15-raves-about.

I’m still going to give it half a thumb up because creativity, technical skills and singing in German ;) deserve some kind of mention in my book (even if they get put to such a bad use, but it's a whole another story).