Organ Dealer/ Nerve Grind/ Invertebrate

Finding a record-sized package in the mail is always a great way to get home from work, especially when it's this three-way split. When I opened this bad boy up, I was greeted with a sick hand-drawn black and white cover, with all of the goodness you'd expect from the artwork on a great grind release. There's a lot to take in here – you've got some rabid looking, lazy-eyed, nasty looking rat creature eating up a decomposing animal (maybe a cow...?) with all of his fly freak friends getting into it as well, with some sort of nuclear waste in the background. In any case – it's perfectly suited to this release. This 7” starts off with Organ Dealer – these guys have really been making a name for themselves lately, and that's for a really great reason. These guys were on Earslaughter Fest as well as the legendary Obscene Extreme, and if you take a look at the rest of the shows they've played recently, it's like the All Star League of grindcore. Now, what's this “good reason” I mentioned a second ago? Well, it's because all of this recognition is extremely well deserved. They start off this split, and they don't start it off by fucking around. Two seconds into the first split you're introduced to the pacing of the rest of their portion with a grinding, chainsaw of a guitar sound and some uber tight blast beats. The riffage, the tightness of the drums, the multi-vocalist sections, and the pace at which they stop, start, and transition between sections is all flawless. It's pretty clear that there's a hardcore influence on these guys, but it's really subtle, and a perfect way to show an influence. It's most apparent on the last track, “Silence”, where the intro to the song kind of sounds like the beginning of a tough-guy hardcore record; but, they remind you very quickly that they're a top-tier grindcore act. Next up is Nerve Grind. Clocking in at 3 songs and 1:34 in total playtime, I'm torn about how I feel about this (in a good way, that is). On one hand, I want more, because their contribution is face smashing, beer chugging grindcore in all of the best ways. On the other hand, I think this 94 seconds is perfect – by the end of it, I found myself saying “what the fuck just happened” because I was so blown away. It's how grindcore should be – raw, unforgiving, and making you want more. They did a hell of a job here, and now it's time to go listen to the rest of their catalog and be on the lookout for their next release. These guys are grind as fuck. I kind of wish I had more to say about this section, but what else is there to say besides “crush a beer and listen to it 14 times”? Lastly – we've got Invertebrate. This powerviolence trio (at time of recording, they're now a two-piece) finishes this split off songs. There's no question these guys are a powerviolence group; their jumps between ball-busting blast beats and knuckle-dragging pissed-off PV are executed perfectly, these guys are tight. They don't let up either – with most of the songs being less than 30 seconds in length, you're constantly jumping between riffs and blasts and a really fucking pissed off vocalist. There's truly something for everyone to love here. If I'm going to be truly honest though, I've got mixed feelings on this last third of the split. One part of me thinks that while this is a really well done and solid release, that it doesn't really do anything new or exciting for the genre. On the other hand, considering the other two sections of this split, I think it's a perfect compliment to the rest of the split. That said, I don't think every release NEEDS to do something new for a genre, so I'll accept the fact that this still made me bang my head. Overall – this is an incredibly solid release from all three bands, and when put together on the same piece of vinyl, it's something that I'll definitely go back to in the future. Rating: Organ Dealer – 8.5/10 Nerve Grind – 9/10 Invertebrate – 7.5/10

(review by Nick Vecellio)