Rating: 6.7

Country: Japan

Release Date: 2005

Track list:
1. Introduction
2. Skate of Bulgaria
3. World Dun Hole
4. Umber
5. Hello Alone
6. Re-Shit
7. The End of the Rainbow
8. Time Out
9. Everybody Has the Wet
10. Shit Drop
11. Rest in Piss
12. PS From BS
13. Stihs Latem

Total Playing Time 40:09

Band Website: Bathtub Shitter

Bathtub Shitter - Dance Hall Grind

Daisuke Tanabe - Guitar
Keisuke Sugiyama - Drums
Masato Henmarer Morimoto - Vocals
Yuki Kuoki - Bass

Usually a cup of morning coffee enhances my already stirring bowel movement. Then in a slight daze, I stumble into the can with a copy of the New York Times nestled under my arm. Typically I look at a picture of George W. Bush for inspiration, and 90% of the time I come away completely satisfied when a massive log splashes down hard enough to wet my hairy ass cheeks. Yet, sometimes that 10% cause's trouble, when this happens, it is what I call a “Half assed shit.” This is when I complete what seems to be a gigantic dump successfully, but after my morning shower, right when I am leaving for work, I suffer a slightly awkward desire to shit. This feeling isn't enough to make me run into the bathroom for another brown deposit, but that 2 inch turd lodged in my gastrointestinal tract is filthy. Till I saddle the next toilet, I bust out extra stinky farts all cause of that 2 inch Hershey bar lodged near the edge of my rectum. Yeah, its fun in an adolescent sort of way, but mostly it's an experience that gets old after the first 25 farts. Akin to this experience is the latest album by Japan's Bathtub Shitter called ‘Dance Hall Grind'.

After Bathtub Shitter' record ‘Lifetime Shitlist' with its combination of speedy and slow rhythmic Grindcore sprinkled with an underpinning Heavy Metal vibe, I was sure that anything new they released would be as wonderful as a shit after a colossal bean burrito soaked in flaming jalapeno sauce. Instead, with ‘Dance Hall Grind' I am left with a slower pace, more doom gloom thrash in the guitars, and less grind. Overall the pace of the recording when contrasted against their past albums that encompassed sadistic guitar shredding, minimalist blasting drumming, and a raunchy rapist production is now similar to loading a Kenyan up with many beers before a marathon. Dare I say that Bathtub Shitter has become too “Groovy” and this fact is enhanced by the extremely high syncopated screaming vocals of Masato Henmarer Morimoto that squelch the listener's eardrums more on ‘Dance Hall Grind', than on previous recordings. Sure the sickening low end diarrhea gargled vocals are present, and in effect they along with the Black Sabbath and Witchfinder General riffs save the album from stark mediocrity. Otherwise what remains of Bathtub Shitter is an effort that is a regression from the intensity of ‘Lifetime Shitlist.' Sounding like Black Sabbath ain't bad if you are a Thrash or Death Metal band, for example, but Bathtub Shitter is a Grindcore act (Yeah purists, I know Black Sabbath is ubiquitous in Metal.). Almost gone are the elements Bathtub Shitter had woven into the steaming feces of their past quality material from such bands as Extreme Noise Terror, Nasum and Cephalic Carnage via mid-paced melody and harsh production.

This album is not total rubbish; therefore, fond readers should not mistake my analysis for an outright shit on the band. As always Bathtub Shitter has found a way to keep things amusing with their lyrics dedicated to shit. This is a fun contrast to all that BROOOOTAL redundancy about killing, raping, Satan, eating corpses, and dousing school girls who wear diapers in a brown shower. While I can do without the D.R.I cover song “Time Out” tracks like “Umber,” “World Dun Hole,” “Hello Alone,” “Re-Shit,” “The End of the Rainbow,” and "Rest In Piss” are all stalwart. Overall Bathtub Shitter' sense of comedy is a terse contrast to the chest thumping machismo of bands whose theatrical insistence on looking and sounding TOO grim, TOO evil, TOO brutal, or TOO intimidating makes them funny instead. My hope is that Bathtub Shitter goes back to their crazed Grindcore. Perhaps the best method for contrasting the sound change Bathtub Shitter has undergone is to recognize that in the past they had done cover songs on their albums from bands like Scum, Holy Moses, and Witchfinder General, and on this recording they have chosen to redo the D.R.I.' song “Time Out”. Sometimes the truth of a bands direction lies in their emulation of a certain sound past what is obvious. If this is the case, then Bathtub Shitter' future recordings may embody more of a Thrash, Speed, Doom sound than the more “Groovy” Grindcore found on ‘Dance Hall Grind'.

May 17th, 2006