Converge/Dropdead Split Ain't That Awesome...

     It pains me to say that. Honestly. I had HUGE expectations for this split when it was first announced. Two titans of hardcore, coming together, on one slab of wax. It sounded fucking awesome! Slowly but surely, more and more details about the split were announced, and I think the point where I started to have some doubts was when I heard that there would only be one song from each band. "Huh..." I thought, "only one Dropdead song? That's only gonna be like a minute of material." But I still had high hopes, and when it was made available on Deathwish.Inc I bought it immediately. I spun it on my turntable, and was ultimately incredibly disappointed. 

     First off, the production on the Converge side is incredibly rough and fuzzy. THe bass is high in the mix, the guitars are barely audible, everything just sounds messy. I think that they were trying to go for an old-school powerviolence style production job. But that combined with the vinyl pressing makes it a pretty harsh listening experience, and not in a good way. The song itself is nothing special either; pretty typical Converge, but with more blast beats than usual. Good bass tone though. Again, I think they were just trying to capture the old-school sound. 

     Dropdead's side is also nothing special, it just sounds like ordinary Dropdead. This song wouldn't sound out of place on any of their other releases, it's just Dropdead being Dropdead. You could argue that this is a testament to their integrity and that over the years they've still managed to keep the same sound, but it just leaves me wanting more. Like, 3 songs more. It's not horrible, it's just underwhelming. 

     In the end, I guess I was just expecting a more "epic" release, for lack of a better word. This split 7" just fell flat on a lot of levels for me; poor production, underwhelming songs, and poor vinyl pressing. Maybe if there were more songs and it was a 12" I might have been more thrilled, but it's not, and I'm still left unsatisfied. 

Dorian Rainwater (Noisear) Interview

     Noisear are gonna be hot shit in the American grindcore scene real soon, I'm calling it right now! Hailing from New Mexico, their technical, discordancy, mind-fuck grind is both heavy and cerebral. In a nutshell, they make good grind. So good that Relapse Records snatched them up and released their latest full-length "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm", and it sounds like we'll be getting another one real soon. This interview was conducted over email with guitarist Dorian Rainwater.


Built to Blast: First off, congratulations on Noisear's signing to Relapse Records! How has that relationship been going?


Dorian: Thank you! Relapse is a great label. They help us with promotion, merch and even some booking. They have a large crew of hard working individuals who are also very friendly and down to earth. They back all their bands 100% and are like family.

BTB: Noisear have been grinding since the late 90's, how do you think the band has changed over the years?

Dorian: Like any band over ten years old we have had ups and downs through the years, but one thing we have always maintained is our mutual obsession for creating grind!

BTB: Noisear are definitely not your standard sounding grindcore band, where do your influences come from when it comes to writing music?

Dorian: Too many to name, haha. Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Assuck, Discordance Axis, Human Remains, Lethargy, 324 and many others.

BTB: Getting to your latest album, "Subvert The Dominant Paradigm". How do you think this album differs from your previous releases, if at all?

Dorian: "Subvert" is a multitude of different styles for us being that we mixed alot of different styles,speeds and arrangements we have not done on prior releases.

BTB: I read somewhere that all the songs on "Subvert..." were written in a day. Is that true? 

Dorian: Yes its true. We had 4 songs written and wrote 25 in the studio. Technically it was 2 days because the vocals were layed down the next day.

BTB: Now that stuttering/staccato break in the song "Global Warming", that's total Human Remains worship, right?

Dorian: Those are volume swells, and yeah we love Human Remains to no end.

BTB: I also heard that you guys are already writing songs for another full length?

Dorian: We recorded 20 songs with our original guitarist Thomas Romero last weekend. We also added Dalton Tuerck on vocals. Dalton also wrote guitars on a few songs. We are very stoked about the album and can't wait for everyone to hear it! 

BTB: Your drummer Bryan Fajardo has become a powerhouse in the American grindcore scene, playing with everyone from Kill the Client to Phobia. With all the bands he's involved with is it sometimes difficult to get together and concentrate on Noisear?

Dorian: No not at all. We live in the same city, KTC jams in the same room at the rehearsal studio and I do studio guitars with Phobia so its all pretty relative.

BTB: I haven't heard much about the New Mexico scene. Is there a grind scene where you're from?

Dorian: Bryan and I live in Dallas (Texas) now. From what I hear there is a lot more death metal than grind in NM now.

BTB: What bands/albums are you currently enjoying?

Dorian: Gride, Libertarian, Psudoku, Dislike(Croatia), Lycanthropy, Hatred Surge, Mindless, Lie Still, Antigama, The Kill, Sulaco, Rotten Sound, Shitstorm, Lack of Interest, Weekend Nachos, Magrudergrind, Shit Life, Cogs and Sprockets and a ton of others that would probably fill this whole page ha!

BTB: Any final words?

Dorian: Thanks for the interview! Less fa$cion more thrashin!!!