My first introduction to Italy's TSUBO was a blind purchase of the band's 2012 release, ...Con Cognizione Di Causa, through Give Praise Records' old distro. I didn't have any real expectations other than the promise of some form of a grindcore experience. With its stringent vocals and wailing guitars, the twenty track death-grind release made for a sufficient entry to both the band's then fledgling discography and to the T-section of my alphabetized CD media shelf. It would be another five years before the band released a follow up seven inch and another six years after that before they released their second full-length album, Capitale Umano. In all honesty, I hadn't paid much attention to TSUBO after that initial 2012 CD, up until last year's submission of Capitale Umano.
So, these reviews tend to be formulaic in how I breakdown albums and instrumentation. That is half intentional and half unintentional. Having a methodology is helpful, yet I will often try and change things up if I happen to notice that a review is running too much of a familiar path. Still, occasionally while listening to a certain type of album I'm tempted to throw out the usual recipe and just write about the things that specifically caught my attention. Such is a release like TSUBO's Capitale Umano. At the risk of being non-linear, this is the kind of record I would much rather review with a corkboard, thumbtacks and a spool of red yarn.
TSUBO's latest outing is not exactly what I expected. It has been a few years since I listened to ...Con Cognizione Di Causa and I vaguely remember that era of TSUBO having a Mumakil style of grindcore—a relentless and pummeling breed of grind (Mumakil of course being my personal favorite litmus test for straight down the middle, exhaustive grindcore.) But Capitale Umano presents us with a TSUBO featuring a new lineup that are flagrantly wearing their influences on their sleeves.
Capitale Umano is a thick and dense thirty-five and a half minute album that is tightly packed with almost every type of extreme and heavy subgenre that could be shoved into grindcore. The first quarter of the album is what you would typically expect from your archetypal grindcore record—again, my Mumakil-esque yardstick shtick.
TSUBO offer no introductory fanfare, no pithy sound clip, not even a count off; just everything all in, all at once. And within that, depending on what kind of listener you are, there are a few things that might immediately grab your attention—either the tone of the vocals, the tone of the snare or the competency of the guitar.
The band's vocals are a choir of gruff, scorching flays of crusty roars and deep guttural barks. They are aggressive and have a memorable cadence. I much prefer these vocals compared to the vocals on ...Con Cognizione Di Causa. Not that the vocals on the two albums are that dissimilar, but something about this latest recording goes down a little smoother and pairs better with the music.
A more atypical characteristic to the band's vocals is the frequent occurrence of spoken word. Songs like "Rivolta," "Arma Ideologica," "Cosa Sei Disposto a Perdere" all have a spoken word portion that is so frequent that it's obviously a preferred choice. It reminded me a lot of spoken word passages common with anarcho and peace punk bands. I can't be certain if those were influences on the band, but it wouldn't surprise me given the close history of the multiple genres, like Napalm Death's association with Crass Records. An oversimplification of this aspect in Capitale Umano could be if the 2002 split release between Resist And Exist and Phobia bled into one cohesion of music. (A triggering example, I know.) It's not exactly a one-to-one comparison and it doesn't quite capture the depths of Capitale Umano, but more on my opinions about that later.
The drumming on Capitale Umano is as fast and hard hitting as you would expect or would want in any grindcore band. Emphasizing that sentiment the most is the snare drum. It's something that I immediately noticed upon first listen and is something I had heard previously in regards to this album. The snare tone is loud and upfront in the mix and, more importantly, the tone is extremely impactful. Whether it's from crafty studio engineering or drum triggers, I'm not for certain. But whatever the method, the snare is certainly potent and dominating. Surprisingly, the striking power of the snare isn't felt so much in the blast beats as one might initially assume, but are in fact more prominent in the fast punk beats. The snare also emphasizes the band's slower and rather unconventional time signatures that much more. Match this with the push of the kick drum and I feel like the snare really resonates and entrenches the tempo within the listener.
Lastly, TSUBO's guitar is doing a lot of heavy lifting. When not implementing heavy grindcore plowing, the guitar is a teetering flurry of nimbleness and technicality. The guitarwork is a bumper car of death metal pinch harmonics, thrash riff ripping, classic metal solos and melodic crust punk symphonies. The attitude of the song can change on a dime depending on the guitar. Songs like "Vili Bastardi" can start out as thrashing grindcore and pivot into spider walking fretwork before rounding out into some circular metal riffing that skips like a broken record. It's a frequent combination that the band employs throughout the album. Although, a song like "Antropocene" goes full Iron Maiden and finishes in an almost symphonic black metal dirge.
Unconventionally and almost a rarity in grindcore is TSUBO's addition of the use of synthesizers in the form of an electric organ. Before you clutch your powerviolence pearls in trepidation, I can assure you that the use of the organ is a master stroke. It is used pretty sparingly only on a total of four tracks, I believe. The organ is used as a tool to create a somber melodic melancholy atmosphere to great effect. We are first introduced to it in track four, "Rivolta," as a hypnotic and serpentine outro that is vaguely reminiscent of the theatrical score to that orgy scene in Conan the Barbarian. The synthesizer is a good way of injecting melody, catchiness and musicianship into a song. It's a big part of the cathedral black metal serenades, the midtempo crust excursions and the smoothness within the transitioning of those organ heavy songs.
Following the metaphoric red thread back up to the initial push pin—TSUBO are indeed that layered brutishness that we established. The band's multiple influences and analogies are plainly sewn throughout the album and its songwriting. The band is a brackish mix of crust and metal; like England's Napalm Death and Pacific Coast's Resistant Culture. The aforementioned peace punk spoken word diatribes gives TSUBO the impression of being as much punk rock as they are death metal, yet still totally grind. And the band's melodic crust punk juants are indicative of the crust and D-beat bands of the early aughts, specifically bands like Australia's Schifosi come to mind. The album's title track, "Capitale Umano," is most representative of that. Whereas the previously stated black metal influences can be found in songs like the six minute "Antropocene" and the sirening "Guerre." To that end, each song on Capitale Umano is approached with a sense of epicness and grandeur that I think is very much achieved.
Capitale Umano could rashly and unjustly be regulated to yet another run-of-the-mill grindcore album, but I can honestly guarantee you that it's much more than that. Capitale Umano is one of those albums that you will want to give repeated spins because you will most likely find something new each time. TSUBO are offering a high level of musicianship with a mature sense of song structuring.
Capitale Umano, as a record, is a fierce combination of heavy bombing and sophistication. I, like many others, am overly fastidious about the purity of my grindcore. TSUBO perceptively toe the line between proper grindcore blasting and progressive musical boundaries. They never tip too far into the melodic or too far into the more traditional classic metal riffs, keeping the main focus on the band's hammering grindcore. The band's introduction of the synthesized organ might seem at odds with that sentiment, yet it only amplifies the entirety of the album. TSUBO are at their best here and now.
FFO: Looking For An Answer, Cripple Bastards, Blockheads
Listen to the album: https://tsubo.bandcamp.com/album/capitale-umano
