San Francisco's Animosity have sure as hell cranked up the grind and death metal on their third release Animal. As if taking a cue from bands like The Red Chord and Between the Buried and Me, the music here on Animal is not only brutally heavy but fairly complex at times, especially the manic drum work from Navene Koperwies and the insane guitar riffery courtesy of Frank Costa & Chase Fraser. Listen to these two players slashing their way through gut-busters like "Tooth Grinder" and "Bombs Over Rome", each ripping through plenty of stop/start passages, wild pinch harmonic squeals, tortured whammy bar excursions, and massive riffs, all the while Koperwies flails away, bassist Evan Brewer (ex-Reflux) lurches into some deep grooves, and vocalist Leo Miller spews no shortage of evil growls. There's practically no letting up here, as each track attempts to be more brutal and technical than the last, leaving the listener dizzy as if trapped inside a runaway tornado. Despite the extreme nature of these songs, there's a nice fat groove underlying each one , as the riffs have some serious meat to them, no doubt thanks for the bubbling bass licks from Brewer that sit behind and support all these intricate and heavy arrangements (check out "Plunder Incorporated" for a perfect example of this). If you want non-stop grind-lunacy, go no further than the manic "You Can't Win", a real intense piece that sees the entire band going full-throttle and ready to bludgeon the listener to death.
Animal most certainly won't be for everyone, but if you can tolerate extreme, I mean REALLY extreme, progressive & technical death/thrash/grind metal, then you've come to the right place. These youngsters have boatloads of talent and it's on full display here on their latest. Oh yeah, and the cover art is by none other than Paul Romano, who is really making a name for himself these days, also working recently on covers for Mastodon, The Red Chord, Trivium, Dead to Fall, and many more.
Track Listing
1. Terrorstorm
2. Tooth Grinder
3. Bombs Over Rome
4. Evangelicult
5. Animal
6. Plunder Incorporated
7. Operating from the Ditch
8. You Can't Win
9. Progression in Defeat
10. Elucidation
11. Passionate Journey