Lock Up

Necropolis Transparent

BY Greg PrattPublished Jul 12, 2011

Never mind the fact that Lock Up are a grindcore super-group ― Lock Up are a great grindcore group, period. That they only record and release material sporadically adds to the excitement surrounding a new release. Necropolis Transparent, their third album, is the band's first since 2002's Hate Breeds Suffering and despite starting off with a bit of a black metal blazer ("Brethren of the Pentagram"), the rest of the album falls in line with the band's previous output: no-frills, death-infused grindcore. Guitarist Anton Reisenegger (of Pentagram ― the Chilean one, not the suddenly ubiquitous doom legends of the same name) replaces the late Jesse Pintado, providing excellent riff after excellent riff, throwing horns to death metal's heyday ("Accelerated Mutation"), mid-to-late era Napalm Death ("Parasite Drama") and classic grindcore (the awesomely titled "Stygian Reverberations"). No melody, no groove, no pandering to anything or anyone, just another open love letter to extreme grindcore. The only thing that separates this from a crusty underground release is the pristine production that always follows these dudes around, be it in this gig or their day jobs.
(Nuclear Blast)

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