With a history dating back to 1989, French grindcore act Blockheads are certainly among the country's longest running and most well-respected grind outfits. It's been roughly seven years since the band released their fourth full-length album, 2006's Shapes of Misery, but the band has returned in 2013 with a lethal palette of political frustration, unrelenting aggression, and unsaturated anger for their Relapse Records debut, This World Is Dead.
In the spirit of acts like Napalm Death, Nasum, and Rotten Sound, the music of Blockheads is primarily fast-paced, aggressive grindcore music with a few hints of death metal and sludge metal. The sludge influence primarily appears in the slow, doomy closing track "Trail of the Dead", but the entire album has a somewhat sludgy and hopeless atmosphere to my ears. This World Is Dead evokes a feeling of despair in its listener, and while the music is quite energetic, something about it is rather unsettling to my ears - I need to be in a special mood for This World Is Dead's miserable atmosphere to connect with me.
When I'm in that mood, though, Blockheads' music really satisfies my craving for hopeless, fast-paced, and aggressive grindcore music. Its abrasive production and general lack of rhythmic variation means that This World Is Dead probably isn't for everybody, but fans of grindcore will find plenty to enjoy here. Although Blockheads may not be doing anything tremendously groundbreaking with the genre, their music is solid enough to find plenty of appeal among its followers.
Track Listing:
1. Deindividualized
2. Already Slaves
3. Born Among Bastards
4. Final Arise
5. Bastards
6. Awaken
7. This World Is Dead
8. Hidden Terrors
9. All These Dreams...
10. Media Warfare
11. Be a Thorn to Power
12. Human Oil
13. Poisoned Yields
14. To the Dogs
15. Buenos Aires S.C.
16. Crisis Is Killing the Weak
17. Famine
18. Sell Your Flesh
19. Look Down
20. Take Your Pills
21. Digging Graves
22. Pro-Lifers
23. Follow the Bombs
24. Doctrine of Assured Mutual Destruction
25. Trail of the Dead
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