Gridlink – Longhena

February 19, 2014 • Selfmadegod Records

Third albums are always interesting in the average bands' life cycle. You have the brilliant debut, the oft-disappointing and samey second effort, and then the stylistically-different third release that determines whether the band lives or dies. Okay so in this case Gridlink's second album was perfectly fine, and I'm happy to report that with their third effort the band's future is looking good.

Most noticeably, Gridlink seems to be bringing grind to a new level of technicality, if that was even possible for a band already famous for just that. Longhena is all about rapid stop-start riffs, wild lead guitar lines, crazy drum fills. There's less sheer brutality—not to say the album isn't brutal, because it definitely is—but Gridlink seems to have shifted focus a bit to seeing just how far they can push their playing abilities and grindcore's boundaries.

And it's about time, too; not that I ever found the genre to get too stagnant, but it's rare to see any grind band step too far out of line. But here we have string quartets and some clean guitar ("Thirst Watcher"), a couple different vocal styles, layers of tremolo picking, shades of death metal, a few major-key riffs... there's so much going on. For a band that played things relatively straight and simple on their first two releases, this one comes as a bit of a surprise the first time around.

But it's a welcome surprise, for sure; like I said grindcore isn't a genre that we see a lot of experimentation in. Compared to metal in general, Longhena really isn't that experimental at all, but it's very satisfying to hear Gridlink evolving in this way. Even though I've stepped a little bit away from grindcore lately, I'm glad I have Gridlink to come back around and remind me just how fun and exciting it can be.