Birdflesh goes for a hike.
Formed in Sweden in 1992, the band led by Smattro Ansjovis (drums/vocals, General Surgery, Sickrecy, ex-Entrails), Willy Whiplash (bass/vocals, Skogen, Necrophagous, ex-Entrails) and Count Crocodelis (guitar/vocals, Jordfäst, ex-The Arson Project) continue their adventure with Sickness in the North, their sixth album, which will be released by Everlasting Spew Records in 2023.
Do you have half an hour to give up your ability to think and give in to Grindcore with base humour and aggressive riffs? Great, that’s all Birdflesh is going to ask you.
Known for more than thirty years for playing an energetic Old School Grindcore, the band won’t disappoint us with this album, letting blast cohabit in a chaotic way with raw screams, jerky riffs and even some tortured leads. From nineteen seconds for One Tooth Misery, the shortest track, to two minutes on Amputee Admiration, the three musicians have agreed to let violence reign supreme, while looking for inspiration on the side of puns. We can for example notice Hammer Smashed Japanese Face which takes parts of a famous Cannibal Corpse song with shrill screams, or Welcome To The Jungle Rot, which refers to another American group. The band also places some samples to accompany its riffs, as evidenced by Chainsaw Frenzy, Incest Melodies or Natural Born Filler and its self-mockery, but violence quickly takes over to make us shake our skulls and burn some neurons in the process. Honorable mention to Fat Pigs and its rather… confusing Country influences.
If you are still able to think properly, you haven’t listened to Birdflesh enough. But under cover of spicy imbecilities and other puns with a negative IQ, we still find in Sickness in the North some very efficient riffs!
85/100