Band: Maruta
Title: Forward Into Regression
Label: Willowtip Records / Hammerheart Records
Distribution: Willowtip Records / Hammerheart Records
Release date: March 7th 2011
Review: (M)CD

Maruta is a Japanese word. It means something like ‘wood log’, but it refers to Unit 731 as well. Unit 731 was the code name for human experiments and the development of weapons for, and cures against, biological and / or chemical warfare during the period 1937-1945 (WWII and the second war against China). In spite of the atrocious details, it was a rather interesting and hazardous section of (Japanese) history. For the interested ones: check out the detailed enchiridions about the Kwantung Army or the Kempeitai (some kind of imperial military police), or the many books about the Second Sino-Japanese War or World War II.

Maruta is the name from an American Grind-combo as well. Named after such a medical entity, it can’t promise anything sweet or lovely, can it?!
Two years and a half ago, the band debuted with In Narcosis, which I didn’t hear (yet). Based on stuff I heard / read, the sound quality wasn’t optimum, and the songs didn’t get that ‘waw’-effect. Too bad…
After some line-up changes (new bassist and drummer, respectively Mauro Cordoba and Daniel Morris), this band returns with Forward Into Regression, and when it comes to those two aspects, the sound and the compositions, I think this might be an important progression. The production (Mana Studio –think Vital Remains, Malevolent Creation, The Absence, Cannibal Corpse, Paths Of Possession and others– with engineer Brian Elliot) sounds roughly polished, which accentuates Maruta’s powerful sonic attacks.
I don’t know about the debut, but the misanthropic assaults on Forward Into Regression are all right! Most pieces (sixteen in total, clocking near half an hour) are technical, dissonant and über-violent. The tempo is burning between lightning-speedy and ultra-blasting, yet the riffs get performed with surgical precision. Nevertheless Maruta incorporate slower parts as well from time to time; some tracks come close to the psychedelic yet mostly brutal essence of the old school Doom-Death scene. A few times the sound approaches a so-called Power-Violence one, and the band even isn’t afraid to experiment with sludgy and droning additions.
Forward Into Regression might be one of the most innovative Grind-recordings I’ve heard in years. Since a few years, the Grind-scene is on its return, and a band like Maruta will help to make this fairylike musical style erotically attractive again.

86/100

Ivan Tibos.