Originally written by Michael Roberts.
Poland’s Exit Wounds return with thirty rounds of brutal grindcore done the old way. Forget the song-oriented approach of latter-day Nasum or the horror movie atmospherics of Pig Destroyer, Exit Wounds is simply speed and spit all the way. While far from original, the old school thrills and terrifically meaty guitar sound are likely to go down well with grind-heads.
The majority of these songs don’t even sniff the one-minute mark and that works in the album’s favor, given the simplistic but ferociously full-on nature of this style. It has to be said, the screamed vocals are some of the most obnoxious I’ve heard, even by grindcore standards. Thankfully the high-pitched yelps are frequently balanced out by lower, throaty yells and the occasional death gurgle. Scattered amongst the routine thirty-second blasts are some fairly inventive riffs and rhythms (see “Useless Corpse,” “Fire at Will” and “Berserk”), while the hardcore/thrash grooves on tracks such as “Hands of the Dictator” break up the pace nicely. One of the best tracks is the vocal-less “The Hook,” which actually takes time to build the tension with its doomed, basement-dwelling riffs and unnerving sound grabs.
Exit Wounds does pretty much everything right for a grindcore album, albeit within the strict confines of the genre. It’s definitely an above-average entry with an old school nastiness about it that’s quite appealing. It’s also very consistent in its extremity. Me, I’ll probably be sticking with Brutal Truth and Rotten Sound’s latest for my grindcore thrills, but for fans of the genre Exit Wounds are worth checking out.
