Magrudergrind

8/10

Even though these Washington, D.C. dudes have been sweating it out in basements, living rooms, scummy venues and modified washroom stalls masquerading as scummy venues since 2002, arguably their biggest promotional coup came courtesy of Scott Hull’s grinding powerviolence compilation This Comp Kills Fascists. It also helped that this coincided with a surprisingly substantial portion of the extreme music population (re)discovering its interest in those sub-genres.
Being the “Rules? What be they?” loose cannon sorts they are, what do Magrudergrind go and do on their second full-length, first for Willowtip? Of course, start incorporating a Swedish death metal feel and expanding the template! But it’s not like Swedish death metal has ever really gone out of vogue, so the churning, Dismember-ish dirge of “Bridge Burner,” “Lyrical Ammunition for Scene Warfare”s nod to death ‘n’ roll and “Excommunicated”s stroll down the left hand path just makes the already powerful trio sound all the more gritty and explosive, even without bass. The majority of the rest is still true to the powerviolence blueprint with lightning fast thrashcore (could something titled “Built to Blast” be anything less?) trading off with the feedback-drenched sludge in “The Protocols of Anti-Sound” and “The Price of Living by Delinquent Ideals” and an untitled hidden track featuring ominous electronic noise grafted onto samples of the last days at Jonestown, Guyana. They’re not all about upside-down smiles either; “Heavier Bombing” features a little Beastie Boys-style funk ‘n’ fratology and Trailer Park Boys samples always rule no matter what the context. It would seem that mixing things up is good for the soul and the whole.
-KEVIN STEWART-PANKO - Decibel Magazine

Magrudergrind kick faces on this Willowtip debut, their second full-length. The 16 tracks of abrasive grind is a big swallow. Executing grit with force, Magrudergrind don't sound like pimpled youth as on 2007's Rehashed. These aren't the same kiddies smashing blastbeats and freakouts every 20 seconds. Substance reels this trio into a meatier core. Drums, guitar, and vocals are equally strong, for which Magrudergrind thank Kurt Ballou and Scott Hull.
The first seven tracks shred at full speed. No other is as breathless as "Assimilated Pollutants." With relentless guitar and blastbeats, it might as well play in reverse. But Magrudergrind slow halfway at "Bridge Burner." This riff throbs as thickly as death metal mongrels Entombed. Although cleaner in sound now, R.J. Ober's guitar tones and tempos hint at death-n-roll. Plentiful sound clips supply comical relief, yet strengthen Magrudergrind's political message. A politician "is nothing but a debater," according to the screaming man in "The Price of Living By Delinquent Ideals." Mildewed basements won't be able to contain these pissed-off delinquents much longer. - Invisible Oranges

"Destruction of eardrums / creation of tonal sores / aural death and anti-sound / the protocols of the harshest noise / the sound of noise ascending through your skull." By god, I think we've found a set of lyrics (from "The Protocols of Anti-Sound") that encapsulates the damage that will be inflicted on listeners from time spent with MAGRUDERGRIND's self-titled sophomore album! As can be expected from virtually any Willowtip release, the music contained on said disc is quality grindcore.

Not unlike the recent output from label mates AFGRUND, MAGRUDERGRIND keeps its grindcore interesting by changing up the pace, applying a couple of coats of crust, and plunking down some well-placed samples. There is traditional grindcore aplenty, yet enough wackiness and mood shifts to make the affair a fun one; the sort of thing that has portions of the disc recalling the work of JAPANISCHE KAMPFHORSPIELE. There is even some old-school hip hop (the "beats produced by "NAPALM DEF") that kicks off "Heavier Bombing" before fading out and giving way to a blast 'n grind fusillade, and then returning to a brief loop that could have come off an early CYPRESS HILL album; and yes, the shakeup is a welcome one. It is as welcome as "Bridge Burner", a down tempo, distortion-riffed, bass buzzing groove that gets that snarl and head bob going automatically. It just sounds right.

Lyrically, the trio is not afraid to call out the army of cockroaches that march down the middle of city streets touting the virtues of the hypocritically pious and the hideously inbred. Or as MAGRUDERGRIND may describe them "A fuck-up, underachieving filth of mankind" (from "Pulverizing Hate Mongers"). Yeah, I know, militant grind; big surprise, right? Just beware of the dumb, kids. It doesn't make it any less relevant and surely not less truthful, just like the grind of the MAGRUDER clan is no less entertaining because it is not wholly original, though a variety of spices are used in the recipe. More fun than a barrel of meth-head monkeys. - Blabbermouth

It’s hard to picture Norwegian black metal evolving as it did were it not for its fog-wrapped forests and ice-floe choked fjords as a backdrop. And we never would have been blissfully pummeled by the nihilistic machinery of Godflesh if the industrial clang and smog-choked atmosphere of Birmingham hadn’t weighed upon Justin Broadrick so oppressively.
My point being, grindcore tends to lack a sense of place. It’s either involved with issues too macro (war, destruction, government malfeasance) or too micro (just how many severed cocks can you cram in a suppurating pussy?) to take notice of its surroundings and draw inspiration from its own neighborhood.
None of that would have occurred to me were it not for Magrudergrind whose eponymous second album and Willowtip debut so perfectly encapsulates D.C. – a schizophrenic city that’s both overwhelmingly poor and black and at the same time home to the nation’s white (in every sense of the word) halls of power. But the trio of Avi Kulawy (vox), R.J. Ober (guitars) and Chris Moore (drums) thoroughly capture the city’s vibe on a sample-laced album that touches on themes of gentrification (“Fools of Contradiction”) and the divide between D.C.’s Fedland core and its impoverished southeastern swath (“The Price of Living by Delinquent Ideals”). Even the elegiac and stirring “Martyrs of the Shoah,” the last true song on the album, comes off as downright prophetic after a geriatric bigot from the burbs decided to shoot up the Holocaust Museum to impress the RaHoWa retards back home.
Sonically, everything is polished to a sheen courtesy of producer Kurt Ballou and mastering by Scott Hull (who selected the band for his This Comp Kills Fascists throwback) as Magrudergrind blast through half an hour of ferocious punk at the nexus of grind and power violence. The Magruders do throw the occasional curve ball with the slow kindling “Bridge Burner” or the hometown shout out, white boy funk of “Heavier Bombing” that’s one Chuck Brown cameo short of perfection.
This is the sound of band coming into their own, kicking back with a half smoke at Ben’s Chili Bowl and deciding to pen a love note to the city. - Grind & Punishment