Ebolie - Let Loose EP review artwork

Rating: 5.5

Country: Australia

Release Date: 2006

Track list:
1. Tounge Surfing The Vegemite Pit
2. Worked Holes
3. Foetal Grindings (Live)
4. Rape of Sanity (Live)
5. Roy (Live)
6. C is for Cookie (Live)
7. Queer Eye for the Metrosexual (Live)
8. Goremet Cooking

Total playing time 11:46

Band Website: Ebolie

Ebolie - Let Loose EP

Bubsy - Vocals
McChob - Guitar
Chewy - Drums
Drail - Bass

Here's a recent release from the ever-eclectic yet often patchy Grindhead Records, and this time it's a cute little promo with an adorable prolapsed arse on the front cover and a delightful vaginal monstrosity on the back. Let Loose contains two recent studio recordings ‘n' a batch o' live tracks from Ebolie, a band whose atypical Tweegrind twitterin' I had the pleasure of reviewin' back when I first joined DC. As you know, Death/Grind bands from Australia are not averse to tryin' something new and often bring steamin' handfuls o' diversity to the genre, be it rousin' volatility, sheer daftness, excessive intensity or a heady combination of the three, and Ebolie are no exception. The debut disc, Elevation into Disintegration was a jolly hodge-podge of slamular Brootal Death belligerence, quaint Jazz breaks, groovy Gore and silly Grind, makin' for an adventurous album and an uplifting listen.

This promo, or at least its first two tunes, appears to be a continuation of Elevation into Disintegration. The band crowbar a pile o' styles into each convoluted composition, grindin' their time signatures into tatty shreds by pilin' abnormal changes on top of one another, swappin' swiftly from sweaty, balls-out bluster to agile, bass-lick driven funkiness, then expectoratin' some cheeky chunks of Brootal Nu Metal afore returnin' to the torrid ‘n' technical tangle o' bafflin' twangle. The material is produced to an acceptable standard of clarity, with the contribution of each musician being afforded a quite a crisp representation. A clear ‘n' coherent production job is of course imperative for this kind o' Grind; without it, their intricate phrases, elaborate expressions ‘n' dexterous time changes are irretrievably wiped away, thus defeatin' the whole object of the thing. This is why the second part of the promo suffers, and ultimately carves marks off the final rating.

A set o' six live tracks from a gig at Bar Broadway in early 2006 follows, which features a couple o' songs from Elevation… and some other material I haven't heard before. Whether or not the band put in a good performance or not is disputable though, ‘cos the production ranges from mediocre to dreadful; an indistinct, hazy scratch-heap with the only discernible instrument being an unpleasantly bright cymbal. The guitars sound insipid, the vokills are boxy and the bassist was obviously snuggled inside a sleeping bag at the time. I could only stomach about a song and a third of this set before skippin' back to the first two tracks again.

As I probably mentioned in my last Ebolie review, their material has a similar unpredictable ‘n' explosive style to that of Dillinger Escape Plan, with some of the Jazz-themed inflections of Virulence. To give a Brootal boost to their testosterone levels, the band borrow bits from various slam-gangs of recent times. I could just play it safe with Purification…-era Dying Fetus for the time being, but owing to their peculiar twists ‘n' technical turns, Ebolie has a strong Bound and Gagged or Reprobation flavour, along with a little Sikfuk. Actually, selected bits of Ebolie sound a bit like my highly proficient UK Techgrind friends, Re:th, but only if they were to record an album of inebriated B-sides then parcel them off to Australia for the band to unwrap ‘n' unravel then slot into their songs.

This release would've received a much higher rating if it was issued as a two track CD single, with the live material snipped off altogether. If you're a fan of fun, experimental Grind then I certainly recommend this band, although you'd be far better off pickin' up Elevation into Disintegration and/or the split with Maximum Perversion, upon which the two Let Loose studio recordings originally appeared. This is a blip.

August 23rd, 2007