Necromorph - Grinding Black Zero

Necromorph started out as a German black metal outfit, switched to death metal, and slowly progressed to a very Scandinavian grindcore sound. Their first full-length Grinding Black Zero is a pretty predictable mishmash of grindcore, crustcore, and death metal with a lot of that buzzsaw fuzziness that we all associate with the Scandinavian death metal and grind scene. And this shit is better than the new Rotten Sound, so don't be too quick to dismiss it just yet. Also the name "Necromorph" is applicable to the Dead Space graphic novel and videogame series, which is awesome.

Badass orgo-evil shit. Be glad it's common knowledge how to use simple power tools.

As with most grindcore albums, there's not really much to write about considering the genre is generally comprised of a flurry of blastbeats and d-beats, crunchy riffing, and aggressive vocals. The musicianship displayed by these German grind-brutes is pretty competent. "Brainless" opens with a pretty killer bassline littered with some fun rests and a solo, while "Convicted To Breath" has some almost rock-ish riffing towards the end. "When A Whisper Breaks a Neck" is a pretty melodic track as well (especially with those harmonized guitars that pop up for ~10 seconds), but its still got all the aggression of Nasum and then some. Necromorph do enter deathgrind territory a few times on the album which could be a negative for those who only like their grindcore punk influenced, but nobody likes those people anyway.

The production is goddamn chunky like Campbell's soup. Like bonesaws grinding into skulls, the guitar tone reaches a level of intensity similar to that of Entombed. Overall Grinding Black Zero is pretty derivative, but it's also pretty fun. If it pops up on shuffle, well then fuck it I'll listen through all twenty-eight minutes, but its not really something I'll find myself going back to from 2011 unless I listened to the new Rotten Sound and wanted to fix my ears...

6.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Nautic Noise
2.	Idiotus Maximus
3.	Convicted to Breath
4.	Serve to Lead
5.	Exclusive Suffering
6.	Diary of a Disease
7.	Brainless
8.	Shot
9.	Stagnation
10.	When a Whisper Breaks a Neck
11.	Panic Worldwide
12.	Necroville
13.	Forthcoming Emancipation
14.	Black Zero