Review:
The Progress In Elimination is the debut EP from New Jersey’s entry into the deathcore world, Grimus. If you like heavy breakdown on top of heavy breakdown then continue to read further.
It’s becoming more frequent that I’m popping in a disc for the latest band to travel down the road of deathcore. Instead of taking the time to write a solid death metal record these groups are opting to throw in a great number of massive breakdowns in order to please the dancefloor warriors of the world. Even though I love chug filled breakdowns every now and then, to make the main focus of your band these monotonous parts is becoming extremely tiresome. Wanting to have breakdowns is fine but why can’t these bands take a cue from someone who can balance the metal and breakdown perfectly like Suffocation. Suffocation is probably the heaviest band to exist and they are not filled with chug. Of if they really want to remain in the realm of deathcore, why not follow in the footsteps of a band like The Red Chord? Stylistically they are much different from Suffocation, but they still are able to beautifully balance the metal and the core (amongst other genres).
This is where Grimus comes in. Instead of taking the time to write something original they opt to go the route that many have gone before. Taking notes from some of the genre’s heavyweights like All Shall Perish and White Chapel they focus each one of their songs on the buildup and subsequent unleashing of the massive breakdowns. I’ve said it before, it’s almost as if they write the breakdowns first and then figure out what will lead up to them. What is sad for Grimus is that the material between the breakdowns isn’t half bad. I think if they wanted to they could construct something in vain of the The Red Chord if they wanted to but opt to cut themselves short.
The band does have one major standout feature going for them, singer Bryan Martinez. His voice is gargantuas. He’s a big man and his voice sounds every bit as big. For the genre I don’t recall hearing anyone that rivals him. He just may be the Frank Mullen for deathcore. The only thing that he lacks is the ability to formulate anything memorable as far as lyrics are concerned. The album is 6 tracks long and each song seems to jump all over with topics. There are lines throughout the album that made me scratch my head and question if they were a Christian band. Then not but one song later, or sometimes a few lines later, there would be a line that made me go “Nope. Definitely not Christian”. The contradictions don’t end there either. Some songs read like bad hardcore lyrics and others read like good nu-metal ones. There are only a few portions of the material that actually scream death at me.
This band is nothing new by any means but I’d prefer to listen to these guys over a great number of the garbage acts that are flooding the music world and trying to pass themselves off as death metal. If these guys would take it easy on the chug a little and come up with a more creative way to incorporate breakdowns, if they must keep them, they’d fair better winning over the death metal community. Winning over the death metal community will prove to be a far greater achievement since that scene is much more loyal to their acts. The deathcore genre will turn their back on you without a second thought once the next flavor of the week appears.
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