2024 went out in a pathetic and woeful whimper that waned into a death rattle right before 2025 inevitably took a complete shit. As bleak as 2025 is and as strained as foreign relations are, around this time last year the half Scandinavian, half Asian, cross-continental four-way split CD entitled, No Blessing, released on Esagoya and EveryDayHate Records in late January of 2024. Bands Fading Trail, Järnbörd, Horornisdisphonevalley and Abanglupa collaborated on a multinational record that coalesced different cultures under the single banner of stocky grindcore. They say music is one of the true international languages. Let's see if noise not music also applies to that adage.
Fading Trail (Finland)
Finland's Fading Trail and their winning combination of death metal, sludge, groove metal and grindcore once again grace the pages of Return to the House of Grindcore. We last saw Fading Trail with their Everydayhate Records sponsored review of Count The Days in 2021. The band's evolution from blasting dungeonous death-grind to a more sophisticated blended and blackened death metal is still the standard on No Blessing. Fading Trail aren't all about speed anymore and instead focus on craftsmanship and brutal plowing.
Their six contributive tracks are quick tempoed songs of venomous vocals and rich timbred guitar distortion. The guitar riffs writh and contort like a beheaded snake; flashing the dorsal and ventral scales of rhythm and lead guitar. Like the serpentine-esque carcass that swirls through the dirt, the throes of their guitarwork change directions wildly and evasively. That lead guitar trumpets in with sirening cries that add a sense of metallic melody throughout the background of the songs.
The songs are masterfully crafted and switch from up-tempo trucking to slow brooding trudges by the use of keenly placed noise interludes or hiccuping drum collapses. This is showcased most blatantly in the track, "The Inevitable." The blast beats are used conservatively and more as embellished flourishes and crescendos.
Fading Trail have taken their grindcore roots and forged them into exceptionally heavy versions of the metal subgenres. I usually find that bands within said subgenres tend to be tedious and bloated. However, Fading Trail are overly skilled and motivated, making for a thoroughly enjoyable and textured listening experience.
Järnbörd (Sweden)
It's not that often, or ever, that you hear of a fresh or interesting take on grindcore these days. However, multifaceted Swedish crust-grinders, Järnbörd, are sure going out of their way to make you think otherwise. 2024's No Blessings was my first introduction to the band's quirky concoction of grindcore, crust punk, metal, hardcore and sort of an alternative pop rock. An unorthodox mix that is currently getting their latest 2025 full-length, Filmer För Blinda, plenty of accolades.
Right from the start of Järnbörd's first entry, "Skarpt Läge," I could tell that this wasn't your average grindcore band. There was a melodic shallow undertone of what I could only classify as 90's era alternative rock trampled over by an avalanche of thick blasts beats. There's as much catchiness as there is brutality. It sounds like Sex Prisoner blaring over Sonic Youth.
Like their split mates, Fading Trail before them, Järnbörd are utilizing diversity and melody to deepen and enrich their songs. The band's eclecticism is its super power. The genres run the gamut from track to track. For instance, track "Succélunch Med Tjejerna" plays like a heavy guitared hardcore/grind song that concludes with a Twisted Sister-esque, "Burn In Hell," outro. (I am assuming it's unintentional, but I couldn't help but think of Dee Snider riding the hood of that Cadillac in Pee-wee's Big Adventure.) Additionally, "Vi Har Fakta Och Röstar Nej" reminds me of early 2000's Profane Existence Records melodic crust bands like Ballast or Another Oppressive System.
Hopefully I didn't make any of that sound remotely unappetizing, because it is anything but. Järnbörd is all grind and with a healthy dose of punk rock catchiness. Think of bands like Travølta. The guitar and bass are heavy and thick. The vocals are hardcore barks, not too dissimilar to that of Code 13's Felix Havoc. The drumming is fast and tight and the blasts are unremitting once they start. Järnbörd's protean style is a fun and fresh take on the genre.
Horornisdisphonevalley (Japan)
Horornisdisphonevalley are yet again another returning blog alum, previously seen on the review of Tystnadsallergi—the band's split with SlothPhantomMoth in 2021. As you may recall, Horornisdisphonevalley's noisy and discordant take on melodic grindcore is a manic and multifarious musical tapestry. Parallels between this Japanese, outside-of-the-box, one-man grind project and bands like Gridlink, Mortalized and Psudoku are not uncommon.
Horornisdisphonevalley's influences and amalgamated styles aren't so much toggled amongst as they are tangled and trampled. Tracks are scrambles of guitar and drums with seemingly no preconceived framing, just the composer's whim. Songs dip in tempo from blasting grindcore to whirring lulls that leave the listener wondering where things will go next. The drums are breathless tumbles of calamitous snare rolls and blast beats. As you can imagine, the band's guitarwork is a dynamic display of talent and aggression. There is a balance of traditional metal licks, driving grindcore and the melodic undertones. Horornisdisphonevalley are known for their penchant for audio samples and synthesized instrumentations. Track, "無頼男(Bremen)," starts with the former and ends with a zig-zagging electronic noodling that reminds me of some sort of Capcom arcade game or a Castlevania eight-bit digitized tune. The vocals are just as schizophrenic as the rest of the instruments. Long screams and demonic barks ebb and flow over collapsing tempos and virtuoso riffs.
Horornisdisphonevalley are less of their harsh noise on No Blessing, but are keeping things lively and unpredictable. The band's speeding aggression and heavy metal technical guitar are generally the orthodoxic norms within the genre, but Horornisdisphonevalley are just weird enough to keep you on your toes.
Abanglupa (Philippines)
Bookending this four-way quite nicely is Filipino hardcore/grindcore band, Abanglupa. Not unlike their split counterparts, Fading Trail, Abanglupa are a heavy, trodding, sludging juggernaut. The band's back catalog—most recently the Perpetual Grip On Power split with Swineslaughter—is keeping more in-line with that hardcore/grindcore dual genre. On that release the band exercises a liberal amount of blast beats and hardcore swings that border on beatdown. Abanglupa's hardcore mid-tempo cudgeling does devolve into sludgy, almost doom style tracks. In regards to No Blessing, that more sludgy hardcore angle seems to be the band's focal on this split.
Abanglupa have a rhythmic, highly repetitive style of songwriting. They have a circular pulsing course to them. A maggoty undulation that pushes through the songs. Initial track, "Habitual Fabricator," mixed a quick hardcore tempo with an almost tribal style of drumming. While the general tempo is usually plodding, blast beats are fleeting tags at the end of riffs and aren't as prevalent as in their other releases. The guitar and bass are crushing and crisp. The lead guitar often assumes this sound of an alarm or siren. Again, it's a repetitious groove that creates a sort of revolving syncopation. Vocally, Abanglupa have a raspy, Scandinavian grindcore styled yell. In fact, a lot about Abanglupa's sound has that Northern European polish: the vocals, the sharpness of the distortion, the creaking guitar leads, the high quality of the mix and master, et cetera.
Abanglupa's four tracks are almost tailored for this release. The band dish out their looped hardcore with its inflections of grindcore, while also taking their time to keep tempos more subdued. Despite that, Abanglupa have the shortest songs on the split with a majority of them clocking in under a minute.
Generally, in keeping with my experiences with split records with more than two bands, they usually have a multitude of bands that I have never heard of; or feature one band that I do recognize paired with others that don't seem to measure up. Yet, either way, lately it seems that I'm being proven wrong, or maybe it's only of late that I'm looking in the right places. Splits like the one between Sidetracked, Fed Ash, Shrivel Up and Ixias in 2022 really started turning my head.
Nevertheless, I haven't come across a collective split as well balanced as No Blessing. The split has a nice cohesive through-line of sludge and grind that is refracted differently and distinctively through the prism of each separate band. It's an international effort of entities speaking different languages, yet saying the same thing, if you will. While No Blessing isn't a blast-a-thon styled album, it will definitely sustain the grindcore enthusiasts.
FFO: Rotten Sound, Mortalized, Travølta
Listen to the album: https://esagoya.bandcamp.com/album/no-blessing-4way-split
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