Albuquerque art-grinders Noisear jump from Relapse to Willowtip for this, their third full-length effort. I have to admit that I missed out on last year’s Subverting The Dominant Paradigm (to my loss, I’ve heard), and from what I’ve read whilst preparing for this review, in the interim between then and now, the writing duo of Bryan Fajardo and Dorian Rainwater made a conscious decision to streamline the barrage of ideas into something a bit more cohesive. Whether or not that’s true, I obviously can’t say for certain, but I can say that, even now, Turbulent Resurgence is what it says: turbulent. There’s still a barrage, but it’s a cohesive one, a grind extravaganza that exhibits a noticeable death metal influence but not enough to call this overt death / grind. Overall, Noisear follows the Brutal Truth / Discordance Axis approach; spindly and skronky riffs fly fast and steady, more tech-oriented than punkish, and the whole of them here and gone again before you know what hit you.
According to the press materials, Resurgence was written in a day and recorded in two, the product of jamming between Rainwater and Fajardo. Given that approach, the interaction between the former’s guitars and the latter’s drums is obviously the focal point, and it’s in their connection, their interplay born of fifteen years of playing together, that Noisear truly shines. Aside from its three TRT-padding ambient tracks (labeled “Intro,” “Intermission,” and “Outro”), Turbulent Resurgence is a full-on frenzy in no time at all. Of the 23 tracks, aside from those ambient bits, only one song tops one minute in length. From the sliding introductory riff of the aptly titled “Pressure Blast” to the squalling harmonics of “Murderous,” Resurgence embodies those titles brilliantly — the blast-and-release shifts of “Blood Bag For The Leeches” rocks, while the nonstop tumult of “Harsh Reality” crushes. Rainwater’s riffs are consistently hooky and solid, whilst Fajardo brings the blasts with the same skill we’ve come to expect from him based on his recent grand performances in grindmeisters Kill The Client and Phobia. The vocals stick mostly to a death grunt, with some of the traditional trade-offs into higher Jon Chang-esque shrieks.
All in, the guys in Noisear manage to overcome their regrettably corny choice of band names through simple quality. Turbulent Resurgence is blast-happy and violent grindcore, spastic in good ways but still very capable of linear motion. At a whopping eighteen minutes long, there’s not much else to say about this Resurgence. Regardless, if you’re looking to grind, then here’s a great chance: Check it out, turn it up, and get thoroughly blasted.
Imagine what these guys could do if they spent two days writing and three days recording…
