Drugs of Faith

One interesting by-product of time marching forwards is that old dudes now play grindcore. As this excellent debut full-length from Virginia's Drugs of Faith proves, old dudes now also play power violence, crossover and fastcore. Songs such as "Foreign Climates," which finds guitarist/vocalist Richard Johnson (Agoraphobic Nosebleed/ex-Enemy Soil) screaming about "supporting my family!" over a double-time polka beat that would make Spazz proud, prove that getting old doesn't mean mellowing out. (He also screams about "playing chess!" on "Checkers," but I think it's a metaphor.) On the contrary, the trio lay down abrasive, ugly, grinding core on tunes like the off-kilter, bass-driven "Hidden Costs" and intense sludge on closer "Age of Reason" with more energy than most young pups today. The 14 songs play out in 27 wildly enjoyable minutes and when all is said and done, two things stick out: despite continually referring to them as a grind band in my mental notes they rarely grind, instead spending most of their time in the mid- to fast tempo power violence groove. And two: they cover the mighty His Hero Is Gone's "Hinges," with guest vocals from Pig Destroyer's J.R. Hayes, which makes us squeal and giggle like little grinding schoolgirls in some sort of weird, old-dude, power violence heaven.