If there was ever an instrument that most people would assume grindcore could do without, it would probably be the saxophone. But here comes Chepang with all the hot, steamy sax appeal of an Albert Ayler album. What I hope will dawn on you if you decide to give either “Pahilo Bhet” or “Antim Bhet” off of Chepang’s second LP
Chatta a listen, is how unsuperfluous the sax contributed by Danish musician Mette Rasmussen is to the structure of these songs. In fact, there is very little about
Chatta that feels unwarranted or wasteful. The Nepalese American grindcore outfit describes themselves as “immigrind,” combining the disorienting, gnashing angst of Discordance Axis, with the tightly monitored experimental trouble-making of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and the alienated death-crust-crush of Napalm Death, in a two vocalist, double percussionist gambit for total creative liberation. They move with a boundless appetite for excess that transcends all borders. Tracks like “Hantakari” conjures up a hypnotizing, zombie-making groove, while “Pakhandi” takes the groove-smithing to a monstrous new level of man-mangling malice. “Adhunikata” will light your scalp ablaze with Napalm Death infused interplays that rain down like a caustic curse from angry skies. “Barood” indulges in odium-caked, thrashy metallic-hardcore guitars, that pull the straightforward hell-diving Slayer riffs of “Murkha,” the Voivody infernal squall of “Sano Dhukur” and the bad-moon Biohazard cross-over of “Kalilo,” into a family tree of proud thrash hooligan influences that will have the neighbors instinctively clutching their pearls every time you smash play- even while they're out of earshot. In an era where our government seems to spend most of its time trying to conceive of underhanded ways to put up barriers to entering this country, there may not be a better soundtrack for reducing these walls (real and metaphorical) to rubble.
Get a copy of
Chatta from Nerve Altar / Holy Goat
here.
