Difenacum - Pais De Sordos

Bola - Bajo y voz
Ivan - Guitarras y voz
Pelaka - Bateria y voz

Spaniards Difenacum are back again with another ear-bleeding grindcore album. They have done their homework well and they show it to you in a way that you will not forget very easily. Where their previous album Lapsus sounded derivative and devoid of any outstanding qualities, Pais De Sordor not only sounds fresher in comparison, it is also faster, more intense and overall more cohesive. Basically, when this music enters your ears it is with the intent of penetrating the ear drums, and if your ear wax gets ploughed in the process, you should only be grateful for it.

Influence-wise too, Difenacum have no longer remained dog-like loyal to a certain legendary group and instead like a cat roam all over the grind neighbourhood to satisfy their palate and even that of their listeners. So in addition to the original From Enslavement to Obliteration as well as the Fear, Emptiness, Despair era of Napalm Death, Difenacum have imbibed grind influences from old Terrorizer, crusty ones from early Extreme Noise Terror and after gargling them properly in the mouth, spew it out on your face with the fiery intensity of Denak.

As any grindcore album of this nature would demand, Pais De Sordos is furnished with adequate (barely – Difenacum don't want to pamper the listener) variations and no, they do not qualify as ‘relief' parts. There is no relief to be found here unless you stop the music. So the variations I was talking about are usually in the form of tempo changes or the music leading to a catchy Terrorizer/ND riff or a breakdown. Vocals though are ferocious and totally unforgiving, constantly attacking you with their grainy growls and scathing rasps. The guitar tone is the rawest one you will ever hear; it is not of the gravelly kind and it is not even serrated, it is just...RAW. It feels like the sharp edge of an iron block is being rubbed against the side of your head with pressure. As their lyrics are in Spanish I am not too sure about their political stance, but they have sheep on their cover and I have a feeling they don't mean them any harm.

Pais De Sordos is really not an accessible album. To it if you were thinking of holding your girl's hands and swinging her about in a racy dance, forget it. Her heels will break and her contacts will fall off, to say the least. This, however, is a grand moment for all pure grindheads, because seldom a grindcore album of such unmitigated vehemence is unleashed upon the masses.

July 30th, 2008