Balatonizer

It’s always nice to see some humour in grindcore and Italy’s Balatonizer clearly have tongues planted in cheeks with an album title like that (and wait until you see the song titles). The booklet for this CD contains a hilarious comic featuring the guys, furthering the light-hearted atmosphere here. The disc contains 32 songs that fly by in 25 minutes, an equation that most serious grind fans will be drooling over. And despite the inclusion of a drum machine, which usually isn’t really a good thing, it still sounds great. I’ve said it before, but when drum machines sound more human than a drummer playing with triggers, we’re in trouble. Those growling vocals are so low it’s entertaining again, and the guitarists manage to come up with some good punk-ish riffs amongst the blasting, grinding, and death squealing. Despite a complete lack of hooks or memorable songs, this is still a raging album, one delivered with surprising attention to quality and an ability to play grind with the best of the biggies.