Another solid hit from our Croatian friends Bolesno Grinje. From what i understand this album is dedicated to a community of people and bands that live in an ex-barracks building in the city of Pula. It is kinda strange for me to hear because I probably have some distant parents in that city, since my grandfather is from Koper and my Grandmother from Piran. They are not in Croatia but all these cities belonged to Italy before the last war. I also hardly heard any good grindcore bands from Croatia other than Bolesno Grinje that I can remember of, but this band definitely has definitely made some good stuff in their albums: their songs are strong and their chemistry tight and convincing.

Powerful metallic grind with an edge is the formula they have stuck on, and so far it’s the 4th release I hear from them and they never slowed down nor wimped out an inch. Their style is personal and not particularly easy to pigeonhole. Fast paced rhytms are abundant as in any grind band but their sound is thick and powerful in the best Agathocles/Cripple Bastards way. The vocals are still that kind of gruff barf typical of old English grindcore bands, but they fit real good here. No special tricks but each and all of the guitar riffs save a very bad song in the end of their side (“Nervoza”…. completely useless experiment IMHO) are arranged with taste. This is a good album for people into Mince Core and grind with a lot of muscle. Good shit even if not strictly my favorite thing.

One doubt still bothers me… what the fuck is the thing on the cover? My best bet so far is a close up of a white chocolate bar with nuts. Your guess?

I am not 100% sure about the release date of this album, but it says it was recorded in April 2002, hence I guess it was released the same year. That makes it three years older than “Od Nesvijesti Do Grinda”. The music is however not extremely different. We still have fairly political oriented grindcore with rough, drunk vocals a la Extreme Noise Terror/Concrete Sox/Nausea etc., groovy riffs, and a couple of close up pictures of fleas on the booklet. This time the cover looks even more deluxe with the use of this gold pantone color, I like the way it turned out. The lyrics are not extremely readable but that’s part of the design that wants them on the same line. I can just repeat my appreciation like I did for the other album: this music has the constant crusty swing which is fundamental for fun-enjoying grind, this must be excellent to see on stage. There are some attempts at using dissonant vibes which have been dropped on the newer stuff, but they were really not fundamental. The overall sound seems even a bit fatter here, with some added bass distortion and a strong metallic bass backbone. We’re far from minimalist though, the sound is clear and the guitar riffs diverse, more oriented towards the pure mosh. Hmm. Not much to add, get this if you liked the other one, can’t say much more. This is good honest groovy grind.

I know I sound irritating when I repeat myself, and I know there is surely a load of grammatical errors in my reviews as well, since I never double check them and my English is surely not transcendent, but why, exactly, don’t labels supervise the layout work and act on correcting the lyrics before they go to the printer? Why I do have to read lines like “I am must fuck”? Sarcofago were justified by the time and place they were born, but a band can’t make thus kind of mistakes in 2006. The lyrics are not hugely advanced, half about fun things like fuck frenzy, holidays in Paraguay and drinking oneself out at the local pub, while the other half is about fucking the police, daily routine (“Walking Corpse”, anyone?), fucking the national radio broadcast etc. The layout and artwork are both nice, on super glossy paper, with a microscope caption of a flea on the cover which must be Bolesno Grinje’s lucky charm (looks like the same flea that resides in the logo). Bolesno Grinje play forceful grind/crust with a huge groove, not much dissimilar to Neuropathia in the approach, but with a rough, bleary sound that would make the Dark Throne of “Transylvanian Hunger” envious. The energy level is constant, even during the slam dance riffs chock full of sing along choruses. The guitar riffs are razor sharp and full of punkish vigour, the vocals sounds a bit like old Extreme Noise Terror, coarse and drunk as fuck, a mix or orc blood and nicotine, the drums pounding unerringly from start to finish, again this is a band which is surely a big fun to watch on stage or to play at full volume on a beer festival. All the attention here is pointed at the fun element, even if I probably prefer Birdflesh if we talk about purely crusty mosh-grind. I especially like the double vocals, they add much breadth to the mix. I am not much into fun grind, but this is a band which is a must have for those into powerful rocking and rolling groovy grindcore. Let’s crack on!

Ah! So Blythe was serious when she was talking about her Deathbag records and this Bolesno Grinje release! This means I am the only cunt who’s not able to release a Cd on his own, dammit! Anyway the Claudia fuckin’ Schiffer of Grind Core started out with a grand debut for her label with this Cd, quite different from the previous material. For once, I can tell there’s real progression here, from every angle you eye it. Dropped the fleas, the packaging is real top level, the lyrics are finally understandable (if contorted) and what’s even better, the music has bloomed into a schizoid and thoroughly original pulp of Grind, Death and general extreme music elements. First off the production is sharp and well balanced, the sound has a bit more emphasis on the metal side, with some intreesting turns which even reminded me of some Neurosis stuff and the songs really difficult to pigeonhole. There is just a track which I cannot swallow easily and that’s “Uvdek Problemi” which sounds a bit too emo-progressive post-something at first yet even this one branches out quickly into a plethora of different styles, all at the same time. It is interesting how this band manages to explore and define a sound of their own yet paying homage to a lot of distinct genres. It’s one of those concoctions which just amalgam finely and without sharp contrasts. Surely there is a huge English/Swedish crust vein, expecially in the vocals, but heaviness and complexisty are definitely borrowed from metal. Yet I wonder: to this day, after hearing bands like Nasum and Rotten Sound does it really mean something to talk about labels? Whatever, even if I am still all for teenage gore bands, my critical sense admits there is something big developing here, this band is developing fast, with a lot of logic and inner consitency. Simply put, for being one of the very few bands I can think of from Croatia, this is absoutely the best I know from that country. Were I in you I’d buy it, eh.