Rating: 7.8

Country: Japan

Release Date: 2006

Record Label: Grind Freaks

Track list:
1. Confession
2. Perigo Minas
3. Realities of Terrorism
4. Murderer
5. Justice?
6. Buried Terror
7. Free From Fear
8. Broken Into Pieces
9. Maniacal Discharge #2
10. Mortification #2
11. Mortor Charged #3
12. Blind Barrier
13. Goddamn Bullshit
14. Deadly Terror #2
15. No Racial Superiority
16. Horribie Mass Graves #2
17. Politician's Fake
18. Excruciation (Repulsion)
19. Manslaughter
20. Missing Children #2

Band Website: Unholy Grave

Unholy Grave - Terroraging Crisis

Takaho Komatsu - Vocals
Tee - Guitar
Yasutaka - Bass
Kazumi - Drums

In India, there is said to be this music raga, Megh Malhar, the proficient playing of which would induce the rains and end our miserable droughts and famines and make everyone here dance thinking they are peacocks. Similarly, in Japan there exists a form of grindcore music which when played correctly causes earthquakes of unaccountable proportions. The benevolent act is usually performed when there is too much injustice afflicted upon this world by the terrorists, racists and fascists whom the earthquakes apparently single out and gobble up for very early breakfast. Luckily for Japan, it still has musicians who can play. And Unholy Grave seem to be the one of the very few acts remaining who can competently perform this catastrophic grind ritual without losing any shit over it.

It begins with the strumming of strings, rumbling and noisy, to produce raw and caustic grind/crust riffs that manifest themselves into a sonic cannonball that bounces off the surrounding buildings, not before brutally damaging their foundations. Distorted shrill vocals that follow detonate all kinds of glasses at once, creating a torrent of sharp fragments that mass-rape your ears. The beating of the drums causes the ground to heave beneath you, and then with the critical smashing of the cymbals, it suddenly gives way, taking with it the earth's crust like a blanket pulled by someone from under your bed. Fissures run amok like scissors through it, causing utter mayhem and terror in the vicinity. This is the actualisation of the Japanese legend by Unholy Grave whose prolific career explains why their country continuously bears the brunt of so many earthquakes.

Unholy Grave‘s songs are not blur-paced nor do they have a life span of mere seconds. Indeed, the songs have more than a semblance of structure and what makes them so lethal is their explosive energy and their chaotic vibe, which is so wickedly fun that mere contact with it will shake the very skin off you. Take for instance “Free From Fear”; it begins in its standard riotous style, revelling in the earthquake it has created, but after the halfway mark when the swaying buildings are about to fall, the music changes gear and speeds forward to narrowly escape the ensuing crash. “Realities of Terrorism” sees the band churning out such a shamelessly catchy part amid the prevalent chaos that it is simply impossible to be still, even for a paralytic person. Then in “Mortification”, which is probably the best song of Terroraging Crisis, there is a steady build-up and following a fiendish laugh, all hell breaks loose. From there the song takes an unexpected turn to play hardcore punk tunes accompanied by clean “woohoo” shouts, and then amazingly, towards the end Unholy Grave plays Bolt Thrower parts, the slow lamenting as well as the fast stroboscopic ones, the latter completely obliterating your environment.

From what I have previously experienced by this band and lived on to tell you about it, the chaotic music on Terroraging Crisis is definitely more organised than Inhumanity, and while not as catchy as Crucified, it's insane fun all the same. The production makes the experience sound real - you can actually make out the musicians wobbling in the quake. Each of their instruments is as lovingly wrapped in layers of static as if it were meant to be a Christmas present. And when played together, enough electricity is generated to light the planet for three generations – the catch is that everyone unanimously turns epileptic. Takaho's shrieks are ludicrous as ever, more hair-raising even than the exasperated mother-in-law bitchscreams of Bathtub Shitter. I have always felt they sounded like someone shoving an electric rod up his ass, but instead of the needful being normally done at the end of each line, here they sound as if Takaho was made to sit on it all through the recording of this album.

Seriously, Terroraging Crisis is not the kind of album you would want to listen to lying down with your legs dangling playfully from the edge of your bed, as it will bring down the fan on you along with the ceiling and mince your bum into unfamiliarity. What you have got to do is run around constantly, preferably with a panic-stricken expression pasted on your face. It is only reasonable for this is sheer earth grinding chaos. The way you scream is your choice, though.

September 8th, 2007