Grip Inc.
Solidify

Premise A: I hate duplicates.

Premise B: Sorry for the duplicate.

Premise C: The other review of the album in question gave me quite the lump in my throat.

Premise D: Okay, here we go.

Let's face it, thrash is perhaps the genre that has shown the most striking signs of decline in recent years. Speaking from one metalhead to another (or not), the death metal of the '90s had great exponents, it was blended in a thousand ways with astounding results. Prog was carried forward by Dream Theatre, Pain of Salvation, Fates Warning, etc. Yes, maybe black metal, despite the "symphonic" shift, has lagged a bit behind. And what about "batting" metal? What’s left? Metallica are mere shadows of themselves, Slayer have been playing the same notes for twenty years... Maybe Nevermore, if we can still call it thrash, or the now-buried Pantera, and the earliest/latest Machine Head, plus a bit of the evergreen Testament. So much uncertainty today... Do you want a sure answer? Grip Inc.

Grip Inc. are the only ones who have managed to experiment with the said genre, while still perpetuating the tradition that defines thrash as a genre with a strong impact. "Isolation" opens the third release of this band, "Solidify". From the initial riff, you can immediately notice a certain difference from previous releases, both in production and the Grip style. The sounds are more compact, tight, if we want "Solidified", and the guitar displays stop-and-go that at first listening surprise our ear, especially if accustomed to the raw continuum of "Nemesis" (the band’s second work). And here’s the first break: the bass is at the forefront, Lombardo (yes, That Lombardo) displays his incredible versatility with a tribal rhythm, while the guitar creates a sharp and electrifying background. As for me, I’ve never heard anything like this in a thrash album. But the surprises don't end there. The break in "Amped" projects you directly into a cybernetic future: filtered vocals, slow rhythms, that lead to an epic acceleration, where Gus Chambers (vocalist) enchants like few others. The solo in "Amped" is unusual, but precise and fast. I say unusual because in metal it's hard to find solos without a rhythmic guitar accompaniment; this technique not only achieves a particular nuance, but also allows the piece to be performed live without the support of a second axe.

In "Lockdown" we find a great interpretative performance by Gus Chambers, while "Griefless" offers a liquefied sound, on the verge of fusion, interspersed with the classic metallic advance. The opening of "Foresight" is pure headbanging, followed by the “futuristic” atmosphere that predominates the album: sampled and superimposed voices, cadenced but not too slow rhythms, very present bass and sharp, screechy guitars. "Verrater (Betrayer)", pure sonic dynamism, is supported by Lombardo's changing power, so much that one often wonders if his set could actually be composed of simple skins, and not something more resistant. "Human?" is beautiful, a slow, melodic but at the same time feverish and unsettling song that spills into a liberating chorus, almost a desperate question:
"Am I human? Answer meTake me as I am And feel how I feel"

The instrumental "Bug Juice" is a duet between Lombardo and Sorychta who for the first time ventures with the acoustic guitar, with Spanish tones. A sonic storm full of solos and technicalities, still never self-serving. High tension indeed, a perfect backdrop for a hypothetical space-time leap into the ages to come. Luckily, Grip Inc. didn’t lose themselves in the meanders of the past, fearing that "perhaps experimental doesn’t sell."

Fortunately, too, that their sound of the future is here, in the present. In short, it is a Fortune that they exist.