Hey, do you folks remember Indian grindcore noise terrorists, Tetragrammacide? When we last heard from the then-duo, they dropped an EP back in 2015, Typhonian Wormholes: Indecipherable Anti-Structural Formulæ, which broke ground by having a matching set of ratings and dynamic range scores due to such a bad production and songwriting that could best be described as “free-flowing.” So needless to say, when word got out that the now-trio are back with their debut full-length, Primal Incinerators of Moral Matrix, well… let’s just say excitement wasn’t the first emotion that flooded my poor, jaded heart. But when you are given a follow-up to one of the most ear-destroying EPs of all time, you take one for the team and hope that your eardrums survive another onslaught of grindcore/doom with word-salad song titles.
And the difference is night and day. Once “The Prognosticators of Trans-Yuggothian Meta-Reasoning” launches the album proper, you can hear things that Typhonian Wormhole’s production didn’t touch upon before. Things like riffs, melodies, and actual song structure. While it still sounds absolutely punishing, it doesn’t hurt like the jackhammer production of the last EP did. New guitarist S(d)S(t) pulls from both Napalm Death and Morbid Angel in heaping amounts, with no shortage of intriguing tremolo melodies and mammoth riffs. And good fucking god, does U. Eliminator slaughter his snare drum when he blasts like a man possessed! Already, we’re off to a much better start than Typhonian Wormholes launched off with.
Thankfully, the riffs keep coming. “Intra-Dimensional Vessel of Were-Robotics, N-Logics and Assorted Lattice Intelligences”1 slaughters with reckless abandon, ignoring the differences of friends, enemies, or anything remotely resembling a living creature. Elsewhere, “Meontological Marga of Misanthropic Computation & Extensive Backwards Physics,” the shortest song at just over three-and-a-half minutes, barrels forth like a runaway tank of hatred and misanthropy, piloted by a sentient being made up entirely of rabid bees. In fact, Tetragrammacide work best when they condense their patented brand of “doom grind” to under-four-minute bursts, just enough to grab your attention and slaughter you before moving to the next chapter.
Which is why, improved as it is, Primal Incinerators stumbles a bit. While none of the songs are bad per se, they do run much longer than they should. “The Prognosticators…” is over six minutes, with riffs and motifs repeated until their impact becomes dulled. Likewise, follow-up “Radicalized Matrikavyeda Operation: Militarized Cosmogrids Destabilization (Heralding Absolute Contraction)” stretches too far out at over seven. One thing Nasum (among others) taught us is that short and concise works best, and if you’re just repeating ideas within songs, it pulls the whole affair down. And despite the 39-minute run time, it does feel a bit long at parts, especially when three of those songs are just interludes with TV soundbites and white noise. But hey, as punishing as the production gets at times (especially with the drums), at least this time I can actually hear what the fuck it is these guys are trying to create, and so far it’s looking promising.
I didn’t expect to enjoy parts of Primal Incinerators as much as I did. In fact, truth be told, I was dreading the very thought of having to listen to another album by Tetragrammacide after nearly going deaf two years ago with their EP. I came away impressed at the growth of songwriting on display, without any sacrifices made to their vitriolic attack. While I may not be making many returns to the album, I am curious to see where they’re heading from here. Color me cautiously impressed.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Websites: tetragrammacide.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/tetragrammacide
Releases Worldwide: November 3rd, 2017
