| CD REVIEW Mumakil |
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Band: Mumakil Swiss Grind monsters Mumakil finally made a full-length follow-up to their stunning debut album Customized Warfare (which, as I suggested in my review posted 18/02/2007, indeed saw the light of day in France during October 2006), but it hasn’t been the quartet’s only release since then, ohnoh! The hard disc re-release of the band’s 12-track 2005 demo was apparently issued through BlastBeat Productions in late 2006 (or so), and the first release àfter the full-length would be in the form of 3 new songs contributed to a split single with Inhume on Relapse’s Slimewave Series (the last of a collection of 6 limited edition 7-inches whose artwork make up a collage of an alien autopsy created by Mortician’s Mike Hrubovnac), issued in April of 2007. A split 7-inch with Misery Index on the Power It Up imprint followed in January 2007. Again a limited edition affair, each band contributing 4 new songs. Then followed the splits with Obtuse and Third Degree, titled The Sick, The Dead, The Rotten, Part II, issued through The Spew in February 2008 (tracks contributed to this release were merely the first nine of Customized Warfare)…and Blockheads (a 7-inch affair to which Mumakil contributed 3 new tracks). The band then signed a deal with Canadian label Caustic Rhythms for the release of their debut album in North America. As of July 29, the Swiss can call themselves part of the Relapse family! The new album, recorded in the band’s hometown of Geneva,contains 27 tracks for a total time of nearly 36 minutes (which still makes for an higher average per track than on the debut full-length)…but 7 tracks were already released in earlier forms (off the split with Inhume, there’s “Pigs On Fire”; then you get the complete set off the split with Misery Index; and finally also 2 tracks out of the three off the Blockheads split)! Not that this lessens the listening pleasure in any way, as the band grinds its way through the songs at an unhuman pace for which they can only be revered! Well, if you’ve gone to look up that review of mine on the band’s debut, you already know I’m a fan, and in fact I’ve had some discussion with the editor-in-chief about getting to do this review, as Relapse had put the directional words “Metal / Death Metal / Grindcore” on the promo copy of the album, his point being that the album would be something for our Death Metal specialist, mine being that in those directional words the most important would be “Grindcore”, as the label is after all trying to sell their stuff to an as broad public as possible! Not that I’m trying to deter any lovers of either “Death Metal” or just plain “Metal”, but the Grindcore sub-genre IS an acquired taste after all! One which I’ve always been into (proof of which the ample amount of releases in the genre in my personal collection)! Anyways, for those whom I’ve now pushed to doubt whether they would actually like Mumakil, check out what’s available at myspace.com/mumakil (there’s 2 tracks off the new album, plus a song each off the Inhume split, the Misery Index split, and the Blockheads split…all of which are also on the album, hahah!). Those among you eager to witness the band’s fury in live conditions may have to travel some. If you’re living in the Benelux, the closest gig in the near future would be at Tilburg (Holland)’s Neurotic Deathfest (which will also host the likes of Rotten Sound, Repulsion, Aborted, Vital Remains, Fleshrot, Misery Index, Leng Tch’E, Inhume and Entombed to name but a few) at the 013 venue on May 30 (for other possibilities, check out the band’s MySpace page or own website mumakil.ch)! Meanwhile, we’re giving Behold The Failure an honorary place in our year-lists, category Grindcore (…Death Metal, Metal…just joking guys!!!). 98/100 Tony. |