Mother Brain - Straight To Business

Mother Brain have a lot to offer everyone and this 7" is the prime example of it. It just sounds mean. On Straight To Business, the tone of the guitar is thick, crunchy and moist. The introduction track hints at a release that is going to take you for granted, it's going to meet you in a dark part of the park and you're not going to know it was there staring at you from behind those bushes. It's a fast, immediate punch to every part of the body at once. The amount of material here moves so fast and with such fluidity that you don't have a chance to consider what it is you're being subjected to. It's really a great representation of all that Grind has to offer - intensity, speed, immediacy and variety. It's not a noisy mess, not an endless incoherent jumble of riffs. The whole thing sounds like they plugged in and played and packed up and went home - something I witnessed firsthand live, and really enjoyed. These guys know they are good, know they deserve something more than fifteen people in a bar.

Joe Marchese's vocals are a little low in the mix here which is unfortunate because he's such a talented vocalist. He can do so much with his voice from high pitched squeals and ultra low grunts to everything in the middle. Dan Hernandez proves himself to be not only one of the most talented riffers in the grind world, but capable of playing pretty much anything you could imagine and Matt Cutty's drumming rounds out a stellar group of musicians solidly. The demo wanders between ultra-fast blitzkrieg attacks of sonic medicine and dosages of slimy oozing sludge-style groove which slide across the surface of this waxy monument like a bar of soap on a hot metal playground slide in the rain. Though short (the whole fray lasts a measly eleven minutes) the release is spot on for what the band is; anything longer and it's possible that it could overstay it's welcome and anything shorter would be a let down. I'm not going to name tracks in particular that rubbed me the right way but "Unamed," and "Scumbag" hit home hard with a furious reckless abandonment matching the smuggish disregard of a hardened mass murderer crushing baby birds and squirrels under a crusty and stench-emitting boot.

The artwork on this is awesome as well from Ken at Sarafin Concepts. If you've not experienced grind, get this... These guys, should things work out for them, could be touring alongside Napalm Death in a few years and I imagine Napalm Death would have a hard time following them up.