.::SCRATCHtheSurface Webzine::.

It is my distinct pleasure to present to you another pleasant or better yet unpleasant crust/grindcore surprise. Grind aficionados and admirers of all things raw, rotten and vile please meet Utopium, a young collective from Portugal who play a straight-up, dirty and crusty grindcore. They’re not exactly newcomers to the metal world as the five members of Utopium have all paid their dues in a slew of hardcore, punk and metal bands before getting this new project together. So it’s no wonder that with all the experience gained in those bands you've got one skilful line-up who know exactly what they're doing. Indeed, over slightly 23 minutes Utopium churn out an unrelentingly fast, brutal and chaotic crusty grindcore with the same skill and intensity of heavyweights like Nasum and Rotten Sound. It is violent and threatening music full of chaotic riffs and blastbeats created with the intent to pummel your eardrums until they spurt blood. One of the most positive characteristics of “Vicious Consolation / Virtuous Totality” is the amount of variation the group exhibit throughout these 18 tracks, from the chainsaw riff carnage à la Entombed explored in tracks like "Held Tombstone" and "Owner of a Kept Abidance" to the relentless grind onslaught of tracks like “Jaded Graft” and "Thin-Skinned Skill", there’s never a dull moment to be found here.
This is one of the better grindcore releases to come out in a while, sure it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but then again, when it’s this good does it matter?

Band info: www.facebook.com/utopiumgrind
Label info: www.bleakrecordings.com

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