For their latest release, US-Japanese grindcore legends Gridlink double down on the formula of their very (rightfully) well-received predecessor Longhena, blending surprisingly technical and ambitious guitar work and rhythmic nuance with the hyperdrive brutality naturally demanded by the genre, albeit this time in a more overtly victorious register in contrast to the previous album’s more melancholic tone.
The band once again manages to strike the difficult balance between singleminded high-octane dissipation and the more exploratory tendencies of guitarist Takafumi Matsubara (who has also explored similar terrain in a couple of successful solo efforts). No song here lacks the maniac energy that the average fan expects from an album in this style, and yet all of them contain perfectly clear and often meticulous and intriguing melodic ideas, fleshed out by Matsubara’s intricate guitar work more reminiscent of a compacted take on technical death than hardcore or punk, but lacking nothing of the latter’s directness, concision and forceful power. Epic and oddly emotive, even euphoric themes co-exist with the blast-beat fueled quest of breaking through all limits of intensity, infusing these tracks with an unusual sense of drama; for songs that rarely trespass the 2-minute mark, it’s admirable how the band manages to pack these fully-realized ideas, integrated into satisfyingly complete structures that include different sections and transitions that flow with all the integrity and coherence that one would expect from genuinely well-composed “conventional” music.
At a runtime of less than 20 minutes, “Coronet Juniper” is a treat of impressively concise and expertly composed grindcore of a quality level that is only not surprising due to the unusual standards that the band has accustomed us to. Gridlink present a more mature and nuanced approach to the genre that very few bands seem to be able to match in terms of creativity and invention, with their latest being a more than worthy representative of this tendency that further cements their status as the genre’s most unique practitioners and current guiding light.
