Antigama

Poland's wackiest grinders are back on their old home, Selfmadegod, after a couple of albums on Relapse, and they start off this 15-minute EP with a raging declaration of intent, "E Conspectu," one of the most straightahead grinders this group's laid down in a while, sounding more like Terrorizer than anything in the band's oft-quirky back catalogue. The EP does feature plenty of strange riffing and spastic start-stop action ("The Law"), weirdo, "where are they going with this?" parts (the title track) and, of course, those crazy mini-toms coming into play often and hysterically. Seriously, we love those mini-toms! For a band that manage to throw curveballs at us every release ― even when we expect them, somehow ― this EP does a great job of just laying everything Antigama are capable of on the table in a concise manner: the ball's in the listener's court now. This is, of course, confusing, but Antigama are a band built on confusion, so that makes sense. We won't even get into the line-up changes, but it's safe to say the band have become their own entity and anyone coming and going through these hallowed, grinding halls remains anonymous, in the best of ways. Okay, except for new drummer/ex-Vader skinbasher Pawel Jaroszewicz, who does an amazing job here.