Beaten to Death

A very odd bunch, Norway's Beaten to Death threaten to come across like circus freak show grind. However, they throw in raw, sincere emotive screaming, clean guitar that's very non-grindcore, and — screw it, it's a circus freak-show. I enjoyed their take on emo-violence last time around, but things are wearing a bit thin. If you caught the group's first album a couple years back, then you have an idea of what to expect musically: technical but raw, skilful yet sloppy, genre-pushing and quite incomparable, but not nearing Antigama, Fuck the Facts or Scrawl levels of insanity. Instead, they forge their own sonic space. However, the guitar with little distortion on it sounds absurd pinned against grindcore (in a non-grind framework, the guitar work on tunes like "Døv, Døvere, Død" would be a great Christie Front Drive homage), while those emotive, basement show, rolling-around-on-the-floor screaming vocals are an earful. They're elements I enjoyed for one album, but here the welcome has worn off and it just grates. Luckily, this one's over in 19 minutes.