Phobia

The way I see it, when assessing a grindcore album, one shouldn’t be rooting around the record in question in search of an overtly original piece of work that is ultimately destined to eradicate typicality from the face of the genre. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be grindcore, now would it? Listeners should be on the look out for tight, well-played starter gunshots of meaty guitar, blasting drums and vocal chords destined for surgical node removal in five years. California’s Phobia are like so: solid, blazing grind, à la Brutal Truth, Napalm Death, Tragedy and Nausea, with nods to the cleaner cut His Hero Is Gone. Introductory samples, excellent song pacing and "fuck the system” lyrics may not be the stuff that legends are made of anymore, but damn you if this doesn’t rock a little part of your world.