Canadian grinders Fuck The Facts are nothing if not prolific. Since their inception as a one-man unit in 1998, FtF has released eight full lengths (or more, depending on how you define “full-length”), four EPs including this one, one live record, and one compilation record which collected many (but not all) of their thirty-seven splits. Along the way, they’ve evolved into a full band, one that consistently releases challenging and quality grindcore, twisting the basic structure of the confined style into something recognizable and yet well above the simple punkish blast-and-fast approach of many more straight-ahead units. Their last effort, 2008’s Disgorge Mexico, displayed the band’s ever-increasing reliance upon more complex structures and ideas, a trend that pushed (and is pushing) the band deeper into their hybridized tech-death-grind area, a world of music both cerebral and destructive.
This cleverly (un)titled and self-released EP serves as a teaser for a forth-coming full-length that will hopefully appear later this year, and if Unnamed EP is any indication, I sense another year-end-lister coming down the pike, in whichever year it may be released. Unnamed’s production is markedly rawer than that of Disgorge Mexico, a gnarlier, looser sound that fits the band’s raging angularity even as it dulls the punch a bit. Topon Das’ riffs are still generally jagged and sharp, and Melanie Mongeon’s throaty growl is vicious.
On Unnamed EP there are four original tunes, plus a bonus for longtime FtF fans in the form of two re-recorded tracks, “La Tete Hors De L’eau,” originally from the Overseas Connection split, and “Doghead,” originally from 2001’s Mullet Fever. “Tete” is a highlight, with its twisting riffs, and the only of the two new versions that I’d heard in its previous form. Of the new tracks, the unnamed opening cut is massive, from its feedback-to-blastbeat intro onward, as is third track “Wake,” while admittedly “Time Is A Dictator” is a bit of a throw-away, the disc’s softest and yet weakest moment in a minute-long post-rock-ish instrumental with some spoken word samples.
In true DIY fashion, the band handled the release of this EP themselves, from start to finish, from recording to design to manufacturing, and as with all of their work that I’ve run across, their efforts are well worth a listen and highly recommended.
