The Awkward Moment When You Realize Grindcore Has Become Fashion

Y'all know I am always hungry to add to my Sete Star Sept vinyl collection. One of the best and coolest bands going right now in my opinion. A total inspiration and joy to witness grow musically, and watch their expansive discography continue to get larger. So huge thanks to Pompeo from xKATExMOSHx for graciously sending me a copy of their new split with SSS, all the way from Italy. This is the gorgeous and brutal split 7" between Japanese noisegrind and Italian fastcore. Red vinyl, 33 RPM.

Sete Star Sept bring their long standing and perfected style of spastic improvised noise with brutal results yet again. Fantastic riffage from Kae on this one. Not a whole lot of fretboard traveling here, but a lot of weird chords. Both her and Kiyasu really go in on the brutal grind assault, as always. While letting some passages breath a little bit more though, it's not a total blast fest through out. The centerpiece if you will, is the final track, "Life of Mr. B". A longer, jamming song that almost reaches the three and a half minute mark. It's curiously way more lo-fi and compressed then the rest of the 30 second rippers on their side, but I dig the contrast.
xKATExMOSHx seems like a pretty unusual pairing for SSS. Their incredibly tight and very well recorded 8 song offering is definitely a night and day difference from Sete's chaotic bursts. This being my first proper introduction to KxM, I'm definitely in favor of their style. Sticking very closely to the traditional sounds of Crossed Out and Spazz, with a more modern upgrade. It's super solid stuff, with a ton of excellent and varied vocals and powerful drumming. I'm not a huge fan of the breakdowns they write, honestly. They're just to average and pretty ordinary sounding. Like something I could hear from any powerviolence band going today. They pop up a lot, which is a shame, but the when they go fast, it definitely makes up for it.

The packaging on this is awesome. A full color, thick, fold over sleeve with a high gloss finish. Very similar to the Get Destroyed 7" released a couple years ago. Every copy it on red vinyl I'm pretty sure. Also, do not be fooled by the 45 RPM on the center label. This baby definitely is supposed to be played at 33.

~VII