Cripple Bastards

The Italian grind/crust institution known as Cripple Bastards never disappoint, always doing their thing, like the Euro version of Phobia. Here, songs like the excellently titled "Agony of a Reformed Band" and opener "Regime Artificiale" (which could be the blueprint for the perfect grind song) grind and blast capably and ably, this seven-inch EP being eight-and-a-half minutes of few surprises but tons of grind enjoyment. For one of those few surprises, we get the melodic death metal riffing in the title track, which is brief and fun, then back to the grinding. With a nice, clear production, this is a great introduction to this group for the uninitiated, but with a discography longer than Agathocles', this is simply going to be one more addition to most grind fans' already booming Cripple Bastards collection, and, the EP being the perfect format for grindcore that it is, an extremely enjoyable one.