Walking Corpse impress with a tight batch of songs, mostly eschewing sub one-to-two-minute jams, for more fully fleshed, yet still compact timeframes. Our Hands, Your Throat will have your head spinning once Walking Corpse are finished putting the boot into your battered body after the 34-minute explosion has expired. The sleeker sonic profile, shreds of melody and white-knuckle tension recalls fellow Swedes Nasum and Gadget, amidst shades of Nails and Antigama for good measure. Gritty undertones of sludgy hardcore, noise, and death are leveraged into the curb-stomping assault. It’s intense, unrelenting stuff, with the noisy chaotic grinding enough to scare off the less seasoned listener, though will no doubt please grind aficionados up for the challenge.
“Dreamflesh Navigator” hits like a hammer blow to the back of the head, setting a rabidly aggressive tone of face-melting grind. The frenetic attack and noisy dissonance offering a blood-pumping good time. After the blistering beginning across the first couple of tracks, the punky, d-beaten charge and groovier stomp of “Our Hands, Your Throat” offers a modicum of respite and accessibility to latch onto, showcasing Walking Corpse’s ability to shift between varied modes of destruction. Similarly, “The Wheel” stretches across nearly five minutes, deftly shifting tempos between speed-riddled blasts, crunchy slower moments, and swaggering, sludge-infected passages of grimy dread. It’s a killer, ambitious slab of forward-thinking grind. There is much to enjoy on the longer songs, allowing Walking Corpse to flex their creative muscles. However, shorter throat-stabbing grind cuts will keep the traditionalists happy (“Brainworm,” Malediction,” ‘Forever Sleep”). Walking Corpse are perhaps at their most intriguing when they wrap their razor-sharp, abrasive grind with other genre elements. “Nothing Grows Here” deftly ping pongs from savage grind blasts to violent bursts of sludge, hardcore, and technical, unhinged grooves to unsettle the nerves.
Closer “Eye of an Angry God” possesses a bonkers edge, its measured opening giving way to zippy riffs and skronky axe battery, wrapping the album in an intense, brain-scrambling manner. Our Hands, Your Throat backs its nasty, serrated riffs and tornado-like percussive battery with a tight technical bent, meshing nicely with the band’s varied execution and slight experimental inclinations. Fredrik Rojas (guitars, bass) covers impressive ground, his fleet-fingered fretboard abuse and warped dissonance encompassing elements of grind, sludge, noise and death with aplomb, firing off catchy riff-driven nuggets amidst the technically proficient chaos. Magnus Dahlin (drums, bass) smashes his kit with manic energy and finesse, while vocalist Henrik Blomqvist ties together the trio’s tight package with a solid array of hardcore-tinged barks, growls and higher-pitched screams.
There are no major faults, only nitpicks to level at Our Hands, Your Throat. It is perhaps not the most instantly gratifying grind album, taking a few listens to fully appreciate the band’s unique quirks and make sense of the more subtle hooks. The whole album can seem impenetrable on occasion, but it is worth sticking with. Sleek, though gritty production features jagged, impactful instrumental tones. However, despite a reasonably dynamic master, the solid length and noisy, relentless nature can bring on some ear fatigue. Our Hands, Your Throat catapults Walking Corpse towards the upper tier of the grind pack in 2023. Though perhaps not the best place to start for entry-level listeners testing the grind waters, Walking Corpse smashed out a varied, in-your-face slice of top-shelf grind, scalpel-sharp yet delivered with the burly force of a ten-ton hammer.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: walkingcorpse.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Walkingcorpse/Gbg
Releases Worldwide: December 1st, 2023
