originally written by Jim Brandon
Wallowing knee-deep into some seriously thick, crusty grind/hardcore, the Supernova Records’ debut from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Complete Failure is about what you should expect to hear from a band on Steve Austin’s label. Perversions Of Guilt hits hard and fast with calculated bursts of blasting speed, various sludgy slow riffs, howling vocals, and heaps of fuzzy distortion. I’m not so sure it’s the album that will set grindcore on its ear in 2008, but Perversions…certainly shows that Complete Failure is a band to contend with considering the nail bomb they’ve set off here.
Having immediately recognized drummer Mike Rosswog as being previously involved with Circle Of Dead Children, and performing on Today Is The Day’s Kiss The Pig album, it was apparent this was going to be an energetic disc, and it is. While not quite so bombastic as Pig Destroyer, Converge, or CODC yet still grinding with a significant amount of uncomplicated causticity, the band never loses sight of the groove, the flow, or the soul of their music. Despite their wild grind tendencies, there’s nothing really inhuman or off the rails with this band as far as extremity goes. They put a lot of movement into their songwriting, avoiding more mechanized styles of ‘core but still exercising a fair amount of precision and dexterity like on “First Husband Second Wife Thurd Stepson”. Opener “Bipolar Fatigue Hallucination” is a swarming rush of pure aggression before settling into an extended sludgy-slow break that pretty much lays out the law right away as far as what to expect: a punch in the face, and then sitting back and laughing a bit before punching you again, and so on.
The most noticeable thing about this album is the nearly Obituary heft to the guitar tones at various times like throughout parts of “Columbine Like Christ Maneuver”. It’s heavy enough to rival the brutality of primitive death metal without sounding too dated, yet also still retains a filthy punk edge on tracks like “Described As The Regret To Inform”, as well as touching upon a few ornately structured Neurosis influenced traits during massive closer “A Disinviting Self Restraint”, a tune that could have had a minute or two shaved off and not suffered too badly for it.
All in all, there’s nothing too terribly spectacular going on with Perversions Of Guilt, but Complete Failure isn’t a failure at all, really. Some of the blasting grind sections are lethal, with the overall heaviness of the guitar tones making for a dominant presence at higher volumes when they decide to slow down and let the riffs breathe, and the actual songwriting is usually somewhat interesting overall. I don’t see it topping too may year-end lists, but the burly, mood-swinging grind these guys show here is sure to send some further attention their way in the future if they choose to stick around for a while. No bells and whistles, just a nice little musical curb stomp right at your fingertips. Seek, and enjoy.
