Antigama - Warning

The title of the new work of progressive Polish grinders Antigama is clearly alerting all potential listeners against the dangers and sonic chaos that will be set in motion the minute the play button is pressed. There’re indeed some motifs for us to be apprehensive when approaching “Warning” since it is a truly weird and fierce record capable of frying our gray matter and tearing our limbs apart from our torsos.
Considering this is my first encounter with this Relapse act, I can’t really pronounce about the differences between their fifth new work and their previous ones, but some reading up have informed me that this is their most varied and inspiring release to date. Surely “Warning” is anything but predictable. Don’t expect the usual grindcore sound blasting relentlessly at 300rpm since Polish grinders are to some extent rewriting the rules of engagement dictated by leader bands like Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Nasum. Throughout 35 minutes they constantly vary pace and direction, throwing in various styles of music like jazz, sludge and some electronic into their brutal grindcore equation, as if you could lock all sorts of people from John Zorn, Entombed, Napalm Death, Venetian Snares and Dillinger Escape Plan in a basement and torture them until they come up with something fairly impressive and cohesive. There’re all sorts of things occurring in “Warning”, jazzy dissonant chords and sludgy grooves juxtaposed along a full-on brutal and complex riffing, weird electronic sounds, an inhuman drumming that could only be replicated with loads of Red Bull and enraged, primal grunts.
Looks like after all, grindcore can also be a creative style of music and “Warning” is an essential purchase for fans of extreme sonorities who aren’t scared of trying something more than a little out of ordinary. (7/10)

Band info: www.myspace.com/antigama
Label info: www.relapse.com
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