Terminally Your Aborted Ghost

Rating: 6.5

Country: USA

Release Date: 2006

Track list:
1. Underbelly Lover [mp3]
2. Trenchfoot
3. Minimalistic objectivity
4. Mollusk
5. Inanimately soundless
6. Eyeshadow whore
7. Obelisk
8. Disingenuous quotation

Band Website: TYAG

Terminally Your Aborted Ghost - Inanimately Soundless

Nick Lang - Drums
Devon Wedge - Vocals
Adam Spalding - Bass
Matt Rowe - Guitars

Aha! I remember receiving a two track CD-r of these lads about four years ago, along with some material by Dripping, but ended up giving it to a friend after a promo 'n' tape Spring clean clutter clear-out, so I was more than pleased to hear how they've progressed. I remember the pair of tracks being a mite clattery and clumsy, and although they were turgid with much chug 'n' blast enjoyment, the fiddly widdles came out a little muddled and the technical waffle served only to baffle. I haven't heard anything since that early murky vision, so I was happy to note that it'd undergone various phases of crystallisation, this EP being a great example of how well certain features of contemporary Grindcore and Brutal Death Metal can complement each other if they are fused within tightly written songs. The style comes across as a hybrid of bits o' Post-Grind and EuroGore, with a distinctive American Brutal Death feel, which is akin to Internal Bleeding and Skinless.

An appropriately robust rhythm section provides a firm foundation for slamtastic pit-fodder with generous sprinklings of squirming solo-string strangulation. Vokills are putrid guttural slobbers and threatening barks, a solution made from, to these ears, equal measures of Deformity and Debodified. There's a bit of a Jazzgrind mentality evident within the piquant approach to song structuring, which smacks of some of Relapse Records' purveyors of such bamboozling scratch-head Mathcore. Thankfully, the Grind-theory logarithms on 'Inanimately Soundless' are kept to a minimum, as well as being buffered by frequent frolics through comfortable major key chuggery. TYAG could've been lobbed carelessly into the Puzzlegrind category if it wasn't for their emphasis on honest catchiness, which ensures their ideas fit together snugly, not smugly. I just love it when those chaotic, blast-happy shred-runs ascend to an ecstatic plain of chugphoria, some of them recalling 'Driven to Conquer' by the aforementioned Internal Bleeding. The lyrical content is very good, centring on intriguing, oxymoronical prose, congruent with the colourful songwriting.

Now my bout of fellatolocution has ended, it's time to point out the major weakness of this disc and its devastating effect upon the album rating-score. It is of course the dreadful production job. The cloying treble and near-imperceptible bass results in a fizzy texture, which causes the guitars on this EP to sound like a feeble Urethral Enema promo CD-r. In fact, no sound generated by the band has survived this mixing-console ordeal untwatted. The deft pitch bends and crafty widdles are reduced to meek squeaks, the skilful drumming turned into a series of thuds 'n' hisses and the accomplished vokills made to sound mic-cupmuffled. In summary, this is a selection of well-written tracks that undoubtedly sounded nice and chuggish at rehearsal, but ended up wan and sluggish on record.

May 28th, 2006