The artwork for the CD is pretty simplistic - like it's namesake Tatanka (meaning buffalo in the Sioux language), the cover is graced with a rotting buffalo. I think it's kind of funny that these guys are from Buffalo and named the release "buffalo" in another language, but other than that, I'm not really seeing the relevance to the rest of the piece. Since there's not much to explore as far as the art or packaging goes, let's get right into the music.
Anthropic claims in their profile to be influced by 80's grindcore, crust punk, and death metal. This is pretty apparent right from the start - there's definitely a lot of influence from some of the old school bands like Repulsion, as well as influence from old school death metal bands in terms of song structure. I'm kind of failing to find the crust punk influence, however. In any case, it definitely sounds like a grind band, though the production could have used a little work in my opinion. The bass is completely lost, the guitars are pretty muddy, and the only the snare and cymbals are really present in the drum mix. The vocals are a little loud for my taste too. When I think of old school grind, I REALLY want to hear that grinding bass tone, but unfortunately it's lacking here. As far as the songs themselves go, most of them are extremely similar to one another (even for grind) and because of that, this record can get stale really quickly. There's definitely a few times where these songs can get a little sloppy, with some tempo drifting and the guitar and drums kind of losing sync. For my tastes, this kind of music needs to be tight, and I'm not so sure that was well executed.
If we're going to be honest, this is a pretty bog standard release that doesn't do a whole lot for me. I found myself pretty bored towards the end, and I'm not sure I'd give this another spin. It's not that it's bad, it's just a bit uninspired and generic.
Rating: 5/10 Anthropic bc Anthropic fb
Review by Nick Vecellio
