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THE REVIEW
Pagnacco, first half of January 2005. During a break, my friends and I, all in the third year of middle school, try to make some sensible statements about the tsunami that on Boxing Day shook Southeast Asia and the entire world... probably ending up spouting the usual load of nonsense. At the time we were very young and carefree; we felt these catastrophes as distant, and we just wanted to sound important.
Six years go by; full metalhead period. Driven by pure curiosity, I decide to listen to an album on YouTube called "Shift" by some group called Nasum (who knows...). After being hit by a terrifying sonic agony, I thought: "Damn... these guys know what they're doing!". Judging them worthy of further exploration, I soon discover they had disbanded in 2005. But why the heck? It was soon explained: because the singer and guitarist Mieszko Talarczyk, in that tsunami I mentioned as a kid, had died. Over time I realized that Nasum were perhaps the greatest heirs to Napalm Death, and his passing was a tragedy for extreme music too. An artist who, however, wasn't named Robbie Williams or Britney Spears and who, therefore, as far as I remember, no mainstream newspaper or TV news ever mentioned. Damn it!
"Grind Finale" (the pun obvious) is a sort of testament devised by Anders Jakobson (founding member) in honor of Mieszko; a testament both in print (an actual 80-page commemorative booklet full of lyrics, photos, notes, and information) and in sound (a whopping 152 songs distributed over two CDs totaling over two hours). A sort of documentary that begins with the revelation of the origin of the moniker, taken from the film "Flesh for Frankenstein" - that "manus" was perfect... but now we need a perfect... "nasum" - and goes on to cover and showcase all phases of the Swedish band's career, assembling splits, EPs, remixes, and unreleased tracks. From the first split "Blind World" of '93, when Alriksson did the vocals and they highlighted Death metal influences (after all, the two founders came directly from Necrony) up to the times of "Shift," characterized by evident maturity and complexity compared to their beginnings, passing through the "crust" period and tributes to groups like Napalm Death or Carcass.
Two hours of fucking Grindcore with a capital G.
This compilation is like launching thirteen beehives at a league rally. It's going to a party wearing sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt, smiling like an idiot, and then secretly approaching the computer blasting these records, making the windows tremble and the dogs howl, biting those who dare touch you. It's entering a nightclub perfectly dressed and then suddenly putting on a Donald Duck mask and smashing everything with kicks and headbutts. It's hiding in the women's bathroom and recording the snobbish neighbor's daughter while she's having an affair and then, during a gala dinner, casually pressing Play.
This is the "Grind" component, the one that after a few minutes penetrates your veins and excites you beyond belief, making you a beast! Unfortunately, though, there's also the "Finale" component. And indeed, especially in the first few minutes, I felt a pang in my heart, thinking about how much a band like this could have still given and how a damn wave swept them away.
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Summary by Bot
Grind Finale by Nasum serves as a heartfelt tribute to the late Mieszko Talarczyk, offering over two hours of intense grindcore music. This compilation spans the band's entire career, featuring rare tracks, splits, and unreleased material. It captures the raw energy and evolution of Nasum while evoking the tragedy of their premature end. The review praises the album as a definitive grindcore collection packed with passion and power.Tracklist Lyrics Videos
04 No Time to Waste (00:42)
08 Uneventful Occupation (00:58)
10 Disforest (00:10)
11 Self Vilification (00:35)
12 Red Tape Suckers (00:04)
13 Re-Create the System (00:27)
15 Hurt (00:24)
16 Corpse Flesh Genitals (00:58)
18 A Look at Society (00:44)
19 Fucking Murder! (00:43)
20 Black Visions (Scarecrows II) (01:00)
22 See the Shit (With Your Own Eyes) (00:47)
23 Restrained From the Truth (00:31)
24 No Chance (00:57)
25 My Fear (00:37)
27 A Game Played by Society (00:28)
28 It's All About the Information (00:20)
29 Smile When You're Dead (00:31)
33 No Chance (Extended Noise remix version) (01:51)
40 Bag (00:46)
42 What's "Life"? (00:35)
45 Face Obliteration (00:58)
47 Dom styr våra liv (01:01)
49 Löpandebandsprincipen (00:28)
55 Mer rens (00:17)
56 Ditt öde (00:26)
65 Söndermald (01:35)
66 Revolution II (00:37)
67 World in Turmoil (00:13)
68 The Final Confrontation (Scarecrows III) (00:44)
69 The Dream (00:54)
70 Zombie Society (00:33)
75 As Time Goes By... (00:22)
76 Our Revolution (00:50)
80 Law & Order? (00:30)
83 Silent Sanguinary Soil (01:48)
84 Evacuate the Earth (01:04)
85 The Black Illusions (00:11)
86 Disgrace (00:47)
87 No Paradise for the Damned (00:32)
89 Dreamland (01:00)
Nasum
Nasum were a Swedish grindcore band from Örebro, formed in 1992 by Mieszko Talarczyk and Anders Jakobson. Across four studio albums on Relapse—Inhale/Exhale, Human 2.0, Helvete, and Shift—they modernized and sharpened grindcore. The band ended following Talarczyk’s death in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; the anthology Grind Finale (2005) and the live Doombringer (recorded 2004, released later) closed their discography. They performed tribute/farewell shows in 2012.07 Reviews
Other reviews
By 19Lunghezze
The drums spray bullets and the guitars are chainsaws!
Mieszko Talarczyk would not want an RIP, but a burp on the microphone at the unity party.
