Unitron Nasum-Inhale/Exhale

'Inhale/Exhale' is the debut studio album by Grindcore band Nasum. Previously Grindcore didn't appeal to me, I found some of the album covers and band names kind of disgusting. While I know it isn't fair to judge a band by their album covers or band name, I have to say ugly album art or a disgusting name isn't going to help people give your music a listen. I decided to give Grindcore a chance with a band that had a really cool album cover for their debut, Nasum.

This is fast, and I mean fast. Each very short song is full of relentless barrages of double-bass, crushing guitar riffs, and bursts of death growls and screams from the two members. While most of the time it's really fast, some songs like 'The Masked Face', feature driving guitar grooves at times which I find to be a nice contrast with the fast and aggressive speed of the rest of the songs. Another example of this nice contrast is the only 18-second 'Digging In', which switches from chaotic thrashing to quick groove parts about three times. This speed/groove contrast is actually played out throughout the album, many songs feature this, such as one of my favorites, 'When Science Fails'. The title track is one of my favorites, having slower crunching guitar instead of the speed of most songs. 'Shapeshifter' is another more thrash-based track.

Noise is also an element in the sound of this album, songs like 'I See Lies' have screeching and/or droning playing under the chugging guitar. It almost adds something mechanical to the music. Anders Jakobson's drums also add in this sound, maybe because of the extreme speed. The finale, 'Can De Lach', which happens to be the longest song on the album begins with screeching noise. Soon, the fast guitar and drums come in. While there is a whopping 38 tracks on the album, and it may seem overwhelming, the tracks are short but strong. It's quite amazing how such short songs can seem longer, yet the album finishes quickly. The songs feel like they're set up for a longer song length, yet pack everything in a 1-3 or less minute long song.

Overall, I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to give Grindcore a try, and I think it's an essential release for any Grind fan. Hope you found this review helpful. Feel free to comment!

The Pessimist Well this is the first review of this album, and the first review of the entire band, and I'm going to introduce Nasum to MMA by saying these guys were a cut above the rest of the Grind scene at the time. Definitely one of my favourites - ever - this album gets the top spot in their discography for me. I don't know what it is about it: it could be the unusually phenomenal production for a Grind band's first album (bare in mind the really filthy production of Carcass's pilot album, and likewise with Cattle Decapitation and Napalm Death); it could be the outstanding musicianship; it could also be the really mature approach to songwriting (songs being not too long as to be a bit of a chore to listen to, yet not too short as to actually BE a song of structure and recurring themes); it could EVEN be the fact that they attempted to resurrect the old-school style of Grindcore that they all grew up with (a la Napalm Death, Terrorizer...). I'm going to tell you now, it is a conglomeration of all these glued together. It's so RARE to find an album like this anywhere: late 90s grind, with an old-school approach topped off with great songwriting, musicianship and production? I challenge ANYONE to find another.

Fact of the matter is though, it's all good me telling you how great this album is, but you need proof right?

Well what better proof can I give you than if you actually listen to the album? From the purely explosive opening track "This Is", to the grind classic "Time to Act", to the ultra heavy "Shapeshifter", to the funky "My Philosophy", the amusing count in of "It's Never Too Late" and to the painfully epic closer, this music will leave you feeling like a teenage victim to sodomy, you'll feel like rebelling against absolutely everything due to the lyrical content, and ultimately your ears will feel like they've been inappropriately penetrated by the gigantic iron-spined penis of pure Grind. And let me tell you this: if you are used to really heavy music, you will ABSOLUTELY F*CKING LOVE IT. It shows no mercy, yet never gets repetitive like a lot of Grind is on borderline of doing.

Onto the music itself? Well it's oddly sophisticated. Take the amazing outroductory song. It is a total of three minutes (which is the equivalent of a Mahler Symphony in the Grindcore world), and builds entirely on two themes, the first played quite clearly at the start after the noise effects, the second occuring in the second half of the "chorus" riff (I use the term loosely). They are then sped up to double speed, and to fill out the inevitable gaps they add some rhythmic funkiness on a single note. Sounds a mess at first, but is pretty formulaic:

First theme - slow (w/ build up of instruments) First theme - fast Rhythmic interest - Second theme (repeated) First theme - fast Rhythmic interest - Second theme (repeated) Second theme alternated to finish fast section First theme - slow (faded out)

Now call me pretentious and all, but a Grind song in Binary Form with two recurring themes? This sort of structure is used by the likes of Bach and Iron Maiden, hardly ever in Grind. And that's where the sophistication lies. Most of the tracks have this kind of structured "song" form, and therefore makes the album so concise and listenable. Of course you get the odd exception that are just plain light-hearted humour in the veins of the infamous "You Suffer" by Napalm Death, but that just gives the album more taste. Mor variety. And then the album is brought into the "old-school" bracket by having largely pentatonic and phrygian riffs in tonality that last on average about two bars per phrase. To top it off, you have extremely talented musicians delivering the music - tight as hell.

The lyrics are fantastic as well, covering most political issues and anti-fascist sentiments. Have a read through the song titles to get a decent idea. A few of the songs are in Swedish as well, which gives a nice little national touch.

Overall, it is sophisticated, inventive Grindcore that is also old-school at the same time, smashing the common stereotypes of "hairy men just shouting and hitting things" to a gazillion pieces. And most importantly: it's f*cking BRILLIANT to bang your head to! Great for when you are angry, great for when you want to actually LISTEN to music, what more could anyone possibly ask from a Grind album? Oh yeah, and did I mention plenty of drum solos?