Assuck
Anticapital

The third chapter of the saga "Exploring Forgotten Death Metal" features the American band Assuck, a name that might make some think of some stupid Gore group. Nothing could be further from the truth; Assuck, in the same way that Cancer could be considered the English Obituary, are—well, were—the Floridian Napalm Death. Don't let their provenance fool you; they don't play Death Metal but rather pure, very pure Grindcore. I mentioned Napalm Death for a reason, a band with whom they share not only stylistic choices but especially political ideology. I will say more: Assuck, along with the aforementioned band, are perhaps the only true Grindcore band to have ever existed. Let me be clearer. Proper Grindcore is a violent (even more so) cross between the nastiest Hardcore Punk and even more vicious Thrash Metal: while the latter provides the rocky sound, the former surely lends the political themes. This is Grindcore; from Carcass onwards, it is more appropriate to talk about Grind Gore, a genre that musically resembles Grindcore (even though it shares many points with Death Metal) but completely abandons political themes in favor of exclusively Splatter topics in the most disgusting (and thus almost always ironic) way possible.

Assuck, on the other hand, already with the title "Anticapital," express their political thoughts clearly, just like Napalm Death did in their "Multinational Corporation" (opening track of "Scum"). But why did I choose to focus on Assuck for this third episode? Well, because they are another band that no one ever mentions, maybe because they had the misfortune of emerging a few years after the others (their first demo "Necro Salvation" dates back to '89), but in reality, they represent, as I repeat, the only other great representative of pure, hardcore Grindcore. The work in question is their debut album dated 1992, followed by a single other LP in 1997 ("Misery Index," now the name of another Death Metal band) and a fairly irrelevant EP. The band then split up, leaving behind, as they say, two great discs that no one remembers.

More technical and less cacophonous than the debuting Napalm Death, Assuck were more heavily influenced by the Thrash Metal and Death Metal that was so popular in their homeland (without listing them all, I would mention Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Malevolent Creation, and Deicide... just to give you an idea... ) which can be seen in their venomous slowdowns (something that makes them very enjoyable for me but might annoy true Grinders). However, don't let this mislead you; what you'll hear on this album is Grindcore. There are twenty-seven songs, and the album lasts twenty-two minutes; of these twenty-seven songs, eighteen do not reach a minute, the longest is a minute and twenty-five seconds, and the shortest is three seconds. Still have doubts? If so, just give the whole album a listen (it won't take long); the riffing is chaotic, not at all technical but definitely furious and particularly heavy. Social injustice is palpable, political control is palpable; the guitar, in the hands of the vocalist, gives no respite and is often lost in the rage of steel-hard chords. In this sense, it's much more influenced by the early Napalm Death seconds' sound, meaning the style adopted by the English band when transitioning from Grindcore to Death (for example, in "Harmony Corruption"), they began to favor power over speed.

In this sense, the drums are great, with not only a really excellent sound (I like drums where the low tones can be heard well), but also played very well by our current drummer (the same from Discordance Axis and Nasty Savane), who is undoubtedly the most technical in the group. Continuous rolls, razor-sharp tempo changes, relentless Blast Beat, even some offbeats and a double pedal use that crushes anything in its path. The bass is completely useless; the production, dirty but not amateur, supplements and drowns out this instrument which, therefore, is absolutely inaudible; but for once, I find this not to be a flaw, in fact, I think the sound gains in compactness. And then there's the voice, a fairly sludgy and beastly angry growling: the perfect accompaniment for a proposal of this kind.

Clearly, if you are among those who believe that politics and music should remain two separate things, you might have a hard time approaching "Anticapital," but if you make a small effort, I think you won't regret it; regardless of the content, this CD is musically very good and also a seminal work. Do you know the Panzer Kampf Wagen VI? "Anticapital" is more or less the same thing; a tank, maybe obsolete, but still a tank responsible for a good slice of history...