2024's No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is an ambitious and collaborative album that was the brainchild of grindcore/powerviolence Italian stalwart, Pompeo "Badfilingo" Pontone, and released on Jungle Noise Records. Like past reviewed titles such as the 2024 split, Asymmetrics, between See You Next Tuesday and meth., No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is a cooperative, yet removed, musical experimentation that was conceived from the Covid pandemic global lockdown in 2020. Pompeo, alongside drummer Valerio Primo, wrote and recorded eighteen songs and enlisted the talents of a consortium of some seventeen international vocal talents. Badfeeling's cast of rotating vocalists are no strangers to the genre. The project's vocalists are borrowed from heavy-hitting grindcore, powerviolence, hardcore, and metal bands—including Whoresnation, Trigger, Reproach, Endless Swarm, ANF, Double Me, Disrotted, and L.UL.U. These artists hail from Scotland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, France, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, and the United States. The album's initial concept was an exercise in unity and solidarity among the global grindcore community during the tense and uncertain lockdowns when live shows and touring were impossible.
Pompeo might perhaps be more well known for his other many bands including Plague Bomb, Taste The Floor, and xKatexMoshx. His catchy hardcore riffs have been an Italian institution for over a dozen years in almost as many projects. His guitarwork in No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is a revved up hardcore/metalcore dozering that barrels through the album and its various genre dabblings. The riffs are pretty straight forward, yet occasionally have a metallic flare that has a sense of mainstream professionalism. The starch and crunchy guitar tone and stout bass give a rich and textured foundation to the throughline of the release. Most songs play as an arrangement of crusty sludge riffs sped up into a slurry of distortion and blast beats, broken up by hardcore jaunts—shuffle, scramble, repeat. Pompeo's palm muted chugs and fast cycling riffs paired with Primo's beatdown and blast beats steer songs in and out of genres and tempos. There are more than a couple of 808 bass drops throughout the mix that further leans into the release's modern metal styling.
While the majority of the songwriting is mostly that of fastcore and grindcore blend, Pompeo is not wasting the opportunity to include as many influences as he can. Songs and vocals run the genre gamut. The tracks "I Have To Feel Something" (featuring Crippled Fox's Attila Gagyi) and "Love Essential" (featuring Kiras of Will Cope) both exemplify the heavy melodic songwriting presence on the album. "I Have To Feel Something" is more of a melodic punk feel, whereas "Love Essential" has a haunting, black metal swagger. Alternatively, songs like "Campari, Borghetti" (featuring MooM's Sima, Gad and Ezra) and "Modern Life Warfare" (featuring Mirco Desolei of Double Me) favor a trudging sludge tempo. "Black Iceberg" (featuring Terror Firmer's Gabri Rossi) and "Contrazione" (featuring Dadde of CxIxB) are just good old fashion blasting grindcore.
Overall, Pompeo's Badfeeling and No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is a strong, great sounding release. The talent it takes to play through the subtleties of all these closely related subgenres and to still have them all sound so distinct and identifiable cannot be denied.
The release isn't without its criticisms. The final track, "The Arm's Dance" is an instrumental doom track featuring a saxophone and borders on gratuitous. Additionally, vocals work better on some songs more than others; their lamination slightly begins to peel around the edges.
No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is essentially a love letter to grindcore and thrashcore by a guitarist and songwriter who has dedicated his life to his local scene, harnessing it as a tool to build worldwide bridges. The collaboration among his international peers was accomplished in an innovative and productive way, against a bleak backdrop of recent history.
FFO: xKatexMoshx, Reproach, Extortion
Listen to the album: https://junglenoiserecords.bandcamp.com/album/no-sleep-bad-dreams-endorphines
