Leng Tch'e
Marasmus

With the artwork of the latest effort by the Belgians Leng Tch'e, Orion Landau once again proves to be one of the best graphic designers of the moment (at least in the field of music graphics): the booklet, with its unique overlay of semi-transparent images and the sharp contrast between their strength and the coldness of the white of the central fold (easier to see than to describe, to be honest) is a pleasure for the eyes, one of those things that tempt you to get the albums in their original version.

Unfortunately, however, to make a good album, a beautiful booklet is not enough: you also need quality music, something that in the work in question, alas, seems to be lacking. Which is somewhat surprising, given the previous work of the quintet (particularly the excellent "The Process of Elimination" from 2005) that had presented a band above the genre's average and that seemed to have become something more than just a promise of modern grindcore.

Let's examine "Marasmus" in detail: rather than repeating what was done previously, the group tries to innovate their musical proposal, not so much in the purely sonic aspect, but in the compositional one. Just a quick glance at the average length of the individual tracks is enough to notice how it has practically doubled compared to previous albums: something that necessarily reflects in the structure of the pieces themselves, with greater heterogeneity in rhythms and melodies within them. All of this, in itself, would be worthy of praise because there are indeed too many bands (not only in grind) that rest on what has been done before rather than experimenting with new forms of expression.

The problem with the album in question, however, lies in riffs that sound too slow, monotonous, and, even worse, fail to engage the listener, making the sixteen tracks of this album decidedly repetitive, so much so that at times it becomes difficult to distinguish the individual pieces, which even aspire to appear more elaborate and complex than they actually are: to be frank, often it feels like listening to one single, very tedious track.

Furthermore, Leng Tch'e had made the energy of their tracks one of their major strengths, but here they sound tired, lackluster, decidedly underwhelming (and it's not surprising that shortly after the release of this album, the second guitarist, Geert, left the band, soon followed by drummer and founding member Sven), as if they had simply lost the inspiration that had characterized them in the past.

To be honest, some good tracks can be found, such as "Abstained" or "Submissive Manifesto" (not coincidentally, those closest to the "old" Leng Tch'e), and even the production, cold, precise, and clear to the right point, is definitely good, but it's too little to give a passing grade to a banal, uninspired album and, unfortunately, boring like this. Definitely a real shame considering what the five Belgians have been capable of during their career.