So Agathocles are back!! Who could write an objective review about any release of these grindcore masters? Their discography could fill a single shelf of anyone’s discotheque. Their splits, compilations and EPs are innumerable. Since 1985, the year of their foundation, they terrorize the metal world with their raw, minimalistic and socially and politically involved mincecore, as their leader classifies their music.
Jan Frederickx, the leader of the band all through these years, and his companions are back with a full length album. The name of their 12th full album is “Kanpai!!”. Kanpai is the word Japanese use for drinking toasts. Also I think there is an anime with the same title. Anyway I believe if you are going to buy this CD you don’t expect any well polished heavy, death or any type of metal. There are no surprises in grindcore or crust. The grindcore music is a simple music more or less like punk or hardcore. Of course we love it and the raw attitude of these kinds of albums. As an older album of Agathocles and a title in this CD proclaims “Grind is protest”.
There are no words that can describe a grindcore release. If you are not a fan of this music already you better step back. The total running time of the CD does not exceed a half of an hour and the tracklist stops just before the number 40. The era of their firsts albums, where the songs were exceeding the barrier of a minute or two, is long gone past history. The songs are on average of thirty seconds to one minute.
There are some of the fans of these Belgians that recollect the early era of the group and they believe that the inspiration is gone. And that the mediocrity is obvious. I could agree, but any grindcore CD is always a refreshing listening for me. In this album you can find the typical vocals, the typical riffs and the typical political and social attitude of a grind band. So I would never say no to these.
For those about to grind, we “Kanpai!!” you!!!