Fading Trail - "Count The Days" CD Review & Exclusive New Track Stream From EveryDayHate Records

"And they beheld the vicious 

spectacle that loomed before them, 

draped in the finest of carnage, 

twisted in the foulest of horrors. 

Flesh made augur. Atrocities made omen. 

And they knew then that this land 

was barren of all clemencies. 

Another glorious day in God's country."

-Anonymous 

    Much like many European cities, Helsinki is a modern capital founded atop the ashes of war, great fires and the bones of over a thousand victims of the Black Death during the plague of 1710 that decimated some two-thirds of the then population. Today the world finds itself weathering its own modern plague and putting life into an eerie parallel. Finnish death-grinders, Fading Trail, have taken it upon themselves to channel those themes of pestilence, death, abhorrence and ruination into their new debut full-length, Count The Days; set to be released on EveryDayHate Records this November. As fortune would have it, Return To The House Of Grindcore was granted early access to the album for review. 

    In 2019, Fading Trail released a criminally overlooked, absolute scorcher of a demo EP on cassette via Bloody Scythe Records, entitled Ground. The cassette tape consisted of seven minutes of the tried and true Nordic grind traditions: overly ferocious vocals, drilling lead guitars and pummeling fast drum work. A majority of the tracks on that release hovered around the one minute mark and were straight up blasting death-grind lightning; save for the last track, "Chorus Of Vultures." That lengthier song, making up some forty percent of the demo's entirety, had the band slowing things down for a minute and a half outro that incorporated doom drenched riffs as well as the fledglings of experimentation with noise. And it's that song that Fading Trail seems to have extrapolated on when writing Count The Days. 

    In Count The Days, Fading Trail's evolution sees not only a healthier internalization of the harsh noise, but also displays more shades of black metal. The chimera of grindcore, death metal, black metal and noise is a trending concoction that seems to be the budding face of grindcore modernity. Think Full Of Hell meets Rotten Sound. But as Full Of Hell's sound seems to have become bogged down in genre bending mystic incantations and ritual experimentation, Fading Trail have opted for violent malevolence. If there has been some kind of extreme metal magic manifested gateway opened, then Fading Trail is the beast that clawed its way out of it. 

    Count The Days has doubled down on everything the band established in Ground. The vocals have intensified from an even-keeled, throaty scraping to now paint peeling shrieks and howls. Lyrically, a little more intelligible than before, the vocals sound more controlled and are wielded with tactics of precision and command as opposed to just the strumming of another instrument. Definitely a mark of the band's more metal leanings this time around. There's an air of ferality, yet a possession of some sinister awareness. 

    Like the vocals, the guitar work evolved into a more formidable force. The riffing is noticeably sped up and has chords changing and shifting as soon as they land. Layer these with the breakneck speed of the blast beat drumming and it's an absolute melee. We hear more depth in tonality and technique from the guitars. The needling, black metal tremolo leads that were the bulk of Ground are still present and are finely sharpened. We're also witness to some of the crunchiest palm muted riffing and trudging distorted doom knells that you're not likely to hear on just any grindcore record. But the most obvious addition to Count The Days are the searingly fast, micro-short guitar solos that appear as if from nowhere. These sudden boiling scales flash up with an intensity that would have Eddie Van Halen spontaneously combust in his grave. 

    The bass is widely utilized in fast asides that snap open and closed in tandem with the guitars to redirect songs from tempo to tempo. Its mean and distorted growls of negative shine can be heard throughout the album with both boom and bite. Not too dissimilar, the drumming is present in impact and weight. The crack of the snare resounds in the protracted metal segments as it does in the unbridled sections of blasting. You can feel the footfalls of the kick drum as well as hear the mechanical contact. 

    The biggest accomplishment I can give to this release is the songwriting itself. Fading Trail knows exactly what they're doing. The hybridisation of so many elements is done flawlessly. The band never over stays their welcome at any point in the structure. Headbanging, mid-tempo trots are used effectively without dragging down the songs. Same with the doom. Same with the intricately haunting moments of guitar that trickle in from time to time. Same with the newly added harsh noise that eventually crescendos the album with transcendent hideous sprawl. But the mainstay principals of grindcore are always priority. Holding back the guitars as they edge to an almost melodic turn, only to instead, hastily draw in the reins and unleash an onslaught of savage movement. 

    Not mincing words, this album sounds so fucking good. Count The Days rides the fine line between death/black metal and grindcore in a way that pays respects to all genres involved. Each instrument is present and accounted for and given their time in the sun. I was pleasantly surprise to find that Rotten Sound's own Keijo Niinimaa mastered this album at Chaotic Doom Cave Studios in Finland. Adding more clarity to the above mentioned comparisons and collations. The results being a crisp, gloom-torn assault of death-grind devastation. If you're not blowing out your speakers while listening to this, then I don't know what the fuck you're doing. 

    Polish purveyors of notable grindcore megafauna, Everydayhate Records, were kind enough to ask Return To The House Of Grindcore to not only review the new Fading Trail, but to also stream an exclusive track from Count The Days. So on behalf of the label, the band and the House, please enjoy the exclusive track, "The Last One" from Fading Trail's upcoming album Count The Days. Set to be released on November 18th, 2021 on EveryDayHate Records: 

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FFO: Full Of Hell, Bain De Sang, Saintbreaker, Rotten Sound, WVRM

Listen to the album [November 18th]:

https://everydayhate.bandcamp.com/album/count-the-days

A Good Death?: Euthanasia M!ke - Self Titled Demo Review

 

    In the spring of 2010, 24-year-old Shannon Gilbert went missing in the secluded oceanfront neighborhood of Oak Beach, Long Island. A well-to-do Atlantic island expanse in the cold Northeastern coast of the United States. Evidence shows that at 4:51am she made a 911 call to emergency services in which she was frantic and screaming for her life while running hopelessly through the dark streets. Less than an hour later she would vanish. During the police's widely criticized search investigation they would inadvertently uncover the bodies of ten other sex workers buried on Oak Beach and nearby Gilgo Beach. Shannon Gilbert's body would be found the following year in the tangled reeds and marshes over a quarter of a mile away from where she was last seen. Police would go on to publicly say that they thought her death was unrelated to the now obvious body dump developing on the coast. This, despite her occupation, lack of clothing and the proximity of her skeletal remains to the others. Instead they theorized that after some kind of altercation with her client/Oak Beach resident, she ran into the night disoriented and hysterical. Only to accidently drown in the swamp after an exhaustive excursion into the wall of razor sharp reeds and thicket. Her cause of death was undetermined and contested. What later ensued was deep-rooted corruption, scandal, cover-up, social prejudices, family tragedy, more bodies and no definitive answers. A total shit show. 

    That breathless desperation of scrambling for your life through the mud and the mire. That panicked, crushing necessity for violent escape. That nightmarish struggle of slow motion horror. Only to be clawed back down into the bramble to meet a cruel, choked, black end. Whether murder or misfortune, it has nothing to do with music. But that taste that I hopefully put in your mouth was put there in mine by Polish "bramble-grind" outfit, Euthanasia M!ke. The drum and guitar two-piece recorded and mixed a DIY demo and released it this past summer in August on the band's modest Bandcamp page. An eight track, self-titled release that blends chaotic hardcore and screamo tinged grindcore. Euthanasia M!ke join the ranks of their contemporaries such as Cloud Rat and Closet Witch; who have been at the top of this specific fusion of grind for years. So where does Euthanasia M!ke fit in? The eater-swamp or the swamp-eaten? 

    Traveling from the United States' East Coast wetlands to the land of Breech Trees, Polish duo Osker and Greg, who make up Euthanasia M!ke, hail from Szczecin of west Poland. This year gives us the first release from a band that I had previously never heard of before; and upon looking noticed that there are no other releases listed on the band's Bandcamp page. Thus I know little of the band or its members. But judging from the technique on this recording, I doubt that this is the boys' first outing. 

    As guitarist and vocalist, Osker's playing is incessant and dizzying. A collection of grimy, shakily distorted chugs and high dissonant scribbles that bellow and snap over drummer Greg's perpetual locomotion. Greg snare rolls from blast beats to hardcore gallops and back again in machine gun-like stutters. Some how still managing to keep things spastic and interesting during the band's slower "breakdowns." He just can't possibly sit still, and I am here for it. You will find no argument in me concerning the band's musical prowess. Despite existing in a genre saturated with skilled musicians, Euthanasia M!ke nevertheless come off as distinctive in my opinion. 

    Although not wholly original or unique, the band does present an interesting combination of genre, delivery and structure that caught my attention. Markedly, the hardcore punk influence. I'd say the band is just as much a hardcore band as a grindcore band. You can clearly hear the influences ranging from bands like Converge all the way to acts like Modern Life Is War. Maybe not as melodic, but definitely as emotive. Osker's vocal delivery is a screechy, nearly pubescent, distortion that has an almost No Comment youthfulness to it. It carries a breathless angst that ties back to the screamo of Closet Witch and Cloud Rat. Structurally, what came to mind was, of all bands, Guyana Punch Line. Euthanasia M!ke incorporate that Guyana Punch Line/Antischism skipping-record-repetitive-looping guitar and vocal arrangement. Which would probably put their hardcore predilections in the Prank Records camp of hardcore. But I was ultimately reminded of Ultramantis Black, a hardcore/power violence band that had a flash-in-the-pan Relapse Records release that is very similar, albeit sludgier. And after probably totally negating my point of remarkability by name dropping a lot of bands, let's not lose sight of that fact that Euthanasia M!ke is also equivalently a grindcore band. Which means they are blasting over this whole comparative section, for sure. 

    Remembering that this is a self-released demo and over criticizing the production of such would be redundant, if not borderline dickish given how good this release actually is, I'm going to do it anyways. And granted the production here is better than any demo that any of my bands have ever put out. That said, the guitar work comes off as thin and stringy without a bass. The lack of a bottom end leaves things a bit one sided. (There are ways around this for guitar-only bands.) Likewise, the drums sound distanced in the mix, but at the same time remain very clear and accounted for. Just not as ballsy and in-your-face as they should be. It sounds good. It just could be heavier. This band could really explore their depths with a release under the likings of a Kurt Ballou at God City Studios or another engineer of his ilk. His patented slathering of static dirt could be the proper mud hole for Euthanasia M!ke to wallow in. The second half the album features longer songs that venture into distorted, atmospheric, slightly noisier boundaries. Especially in the song "[untitled]." The popularity of acts like Full Of Hell and the previously reviewed Bled To Submission have exploited these tactics to their avail. Indulging in this type of darkness might help fill out what is lacking from the whole. Although the key for Euthanasia M!ke would be the incorporation of said tactics without compromising speed or punk. Or maybe just having the mixing in more experienced hands or access to more equipment could beef up the tracks in the future. Again, all that probably goes without saying and I don't want to disparage anything these men accomplished because I do enjoy this demo and highly recommend it to grindcore fans and fans of all the aforementioned bands and genres. Euthanasia M!ke is a band worth getting tangled up in. 

Postface: Quickly, I want to mention the album artwork. A dismembered anatomical quag of a piece created by Osker. This undoubtedly had major sway over my prologue and themed metaphorical stabbings. It brought to mind not only the L.I.S.K. murders, but also the toxic body pit from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 and some kind of Man-Thing comic carnage.  But I really think that it stands out over many covers, not to mention it being on a mere demo. I could easily see this as an album cover for a number of bigger, name-brand-bands over a spread of genres. It's very apt, adept and haunting. It's a pity that it most likely will not be realized as a 12 inch vinyl sleeve. Good job, man.

  FFO: Ultramantis Black, Jarhead Fertilizer, Closet Witch

Listen to the album:

https://euthanasiamike.bandcamp.com