Written by Carcassbomb
- Abu Ghraib
- Enhanced Torture Techniques
- Grindcore
- Melbourne, Australia
- September 16, 2019
- Independant
- 8.7/10
Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram / Metallum
It’s stupid how fast this grindcore is, its speedgrind. Overall I’m super impressed with Abu Ghraib as an Australian band, I originally found out about them by scouring the Metal Archives for hours searching by Australia for the Heavypedia project. I encountered Abu Ghraib and their band photo was so funny and endearing I ended up saving it “for later” which I guess is now because they’ve released a massive grind album that surpasses even their sublime memery in ability and entertainment. There was no sign of this beast earlier in the year with just a demo to their name, don’t be sleeping on this one.
It’s an interesting name that some people have often read as “A Boob Grab” which I think is absolutely reaching but I guess that’s the reputation Grindcore has gotten itself. Based on the album title Enhanced Torture Techniques and prevailing concepts on the album, I’m assuming that they’re named after a town and prison, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the USA committed countless war crimes and inhumane torture there in 2003. The lyrics, which are really well written, explore these horrible experiences as well as the general concept of human on human harm as the track titled “Inhumanitarian”. The lyrics are available on bandcamp, I recommend checking them out, very eloquent. The artwork suits these ideas as well with the old school parody cartoon style typical of the newspapers politics humor.
In terms of audio arts they’ve got blast beats (duh) but there’s also really interesting vocals that bounce around and switch it up a lot. I love the vocals, big highlight for me as well as the more death metal riffs that appear, almost like a hyper sped up melodeath song going on under it all. It’s a good choice of riffs and licks for this mixing style and quality. It’s fucking fantastic to my ears, a lot of mid range which would be perfect on cassette (here’s hoping). It all feels super fleshed out and devoid of laziness.
Australia has put out some insanely top tier grindcore this year, bands like Maggot Cave and Corpseflesh have put out huge albums and Abu Ghraib are right up there in the ranks of wonderfully incandescent turds of the Australian music scene. If you enjoy grind and haven’t explored what Australia has to offer then you are in for a treat, starting here and starting strong.
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