Sick Sinus Syndrome’s debut Rotten To The Core wormed its way into my earholes on a regular basis right around this time last year, a blistering blast of classic Carcass-cloning gurglegrind that absolute smokes from top to toe. Furthermore, on a recommendation from the Department Of Better Late Than Never – since this band been around for seven years now – Vomi Noir was another favorite new discovery not long thereafter, as well, looking backwards at killer halves on splits with Neuro-Visceral Exhumation and Grotesquerie. So with 2022 apparently being my year of full-on obsession with the sicker side of life, this bloodspattered pairing is really hitting the spot…
Hailing from Toulouse, France, Vomi Noir doesn’t have the historic lineage that SSS brings to the party, but their guitarist Pierre is also a relatively recent addition to longstanding French gurglers Pulmonary Fibrosis, to whom Vomi Noir bears a strong resemblance. Rawer than their split-mates – though certainly no less vile – this French trio buries their chunky riffing in a vomitous cacophony. Pierre’s guitars are buried back beneath swirling layers of his FX-ed growls, atop Laurent’s nonstop drum-pummeling and David’s subterranean bass. There are riffs contained herein – in the spinning-blade madness of “Méricysme Nécrophagique” or the stop-start attack of the seventeen-second “Epistaxis,” for example – and there’s even the occasional whammy-bar squealed guitar dive. Still, most of Vomi Noir’s sonic room is taken up by those growls, inhumanly pitched and stomach-churning. (Also, the lyrics are in French, but…) Closing out with a nod to Vomi Noir’s influences (and their Sick Sinus Syndrome fellows), Side B wraps up with a pounding take on Malignant Tumour’s “Mors Praetanalis,” a fun and fitting homage.
Splits like these are one of my favorite parts of the grindcore experience. Two killer bands blasting through seventeen tracks in twelve minutes, each side a journey into the gory and gurgly, each a great example of grand grinding that’s as gross as the total income (pre-expenses) from the sale of twelve dozen “Bob Gross” Garbage Pail Kids, and as fun as whatever you’d choose to do with that $500 or so. (Suggestion number one: Buy this record, however you can. It’s digital-only right now, but hopefully physical copies will come along soon enough.)
Like I said in my review of Sick Sinus Syndrome last year (if I may be permitted the admittedly narcissistic allowance of quoting myself: “Bring me more, bring me more, riffs and gore, bring me more.” The gore gods listened, smiled upon me, and here are the spoils. Riffs and gore…
This rules. Bring me more.
The bands are very good, it’s good that they still promote this line of music, here in my city it’s not very easy to find, but on the internet there’s a lot of good stuff, it’s just a matter of spreading it to the people who enjoy the noise, good work! hello from Brazil