Band: Noisear
Title: Subvert The Dominant Paradigm
Label: Relapse Records
Distribution: Rough Trade
Release date: February 1st 2011
Review: CD

A sweet combo from New Mexico, now debuting on Relapse, quite a long time after Pyroclastic Annihilation, the highly anticipated / appreciated debut. Noisear have never pretend to be the most renewing band on Mater Terra; but they do combine their heroes’ musick’ with own in(ter)ventions.
Subvert … continues in the vein of the former album, which means that this album combines d-beated Grind with details from Blast-Death and Punk-Thrash. The thirty (!) tracks last for forty six minutes and in spite of the ‘common’ approach, there is a certain level of originality. No, the band does not renew the scene completely – on the contrary, the protagonists from the earliest years get honoured whole the time – but in Noisear’s case, when talking about the addition of interesting extras, this album cannot be described as ‘just another Grind-effort’. Yes, most sonic attacks are rather archetypical War-Speed assaults in the vein of Discordance Axis, Napalm Death, Brutal Truth or Phobia (Noisear share the same drummer, Bryan Fajardo, who’s involved with Gridlink and Kill The Client as well – both blasting-filthy comparable combos too, by the way) – which isn’t a bad thing, is it – yet performed with craftsmanship and conviction, and without betraying the ‘roots’ of true Grind. Worth mentioning are the extremely well-written technical riffs, which sound pretty modern, and which contrast well with the eighties / early nineties attitude. In these cases, monikers as Botch, Magrudergrind or Psyopus come to mind as well.
Another surplus: the vocals, rather varying and, in any case, deep, powerful and convincing, no matter if it’s about so-called pig squeals, deep death-grunts, bestial growls, or guttural screams.
So if you can appreciate intelligent Grind-Noise in the vein of higher mentioned bands, or if you did appreciate last year’s Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire’s Songs Of Ill Hope And Desperation (nicely written by all-round colleague Tony and posted on October 20th), then Noisear’s Subvert The Dominant Paradigm is highly recommendable!

85/100

Ivan Tibos.