Chairmaker is everything that’s good about grind. Those riffs where you hit 16 million power chords in the space of 10 seconds, no one really knows how you do it, it’s just crab action all over the finger board. It’s aggression, it’s confrontation, it’s a challenge to the mélange of bullshit we are exposed to everyday. Don’t you dare step in its way. The subject matter is dense, cryptobro dealers vie for the money of people who don’t really have it, whilst leaders sneer at scientific fact and espouse a constant sewer pipe of sludgey propaganda designed to make you look elsewhere. Thank god then that Chairmaker exists, a relief valve for the steaming pressure cooker of day-to-day life, a release from the constant misery, if only to be a reminder that it exists and we should not let it define us.
From track one there is a bludgeoning destruction of the drum kit, the man’s got cardio to say the least. Blast beats a plenty, d-beats for days and a constant grind running through it all like a chainsaw that needs oiling but refuses to stop running. Trawl through some of the freshest grind in years and you’re rewarded with delightfully punctuated vocals over the top of dynamic riffs.. You thought you were headbanging enough. You weren’t because you need to lay down with Chairmaker’s new record and succumb.
Oh my lord it’s even got samples before dropping into the absolute sonic assault. It provides reprieve only to take it away with a tasteful slow blast or regular 4/4. This is pop music for extreme metal fans, it manages to encapsulate everything that’s great about our end of the musical spectrum. And whilst it’s clearly an angry record, it can’t help but be cathartic in its style, providing release through ramping up the anger and letting it wash over the listener.
“It's aggression, it's confrontation, it's a challenge to the mélange of bullshit we are exposed to everyday.”
One thing that really stands out is the memorability (is that even a word?) of the riffs as they crop up days later when you’re checking out the middle isle in Aldi. And they hit just as damn hard. Sometimes grindcore can be lost in a wash of thirty second songs, undiluted rage and speed. And yes this Leviathan Carcass has those in oodles, but it’s matched with a carefully curated melody that does so well to encapsulate everything the record is about, whilst remaining listenable, even charming perhaps.
It’s equal parts an old suit that’s been given new life due to paying into the dry cleaning scheme and part flashy new Italian number that has all the privileges of modernity to play with. It’s so well rounded, whilst encapsulating the title of its genre with the brutal efficient sounds of grind. Tone. vocals. Drums. It’s a cornucopia of riffs with vocals that rival the intensity ov Knoll, and the song writing chops of Pig Destroyer.