Our take: After a heap of cassettes, here's the debut vinyl from this Canadian hardcore band. On this release I think they really come into their own, not so much by being harder or faster or more intense than your average hardcore band, but instead by being weirder. Mostly that weirdness is concentrated in the guitar sound, which is bathed in an absurd level of chorus and kind of dances around the rhythms in a way that is very atypical and unexpected for a hardcore band. At first listen to you want to compare it to something like Urban Waste which is interesting mostly because of the weirdness of its sound / production, but after a couple of listens I realize that it's not just the way the knobs are turned on the guitarist's pedals, but rather the entire approach that is innovative. For my money the real gems are on the b-side, where Grump allow themselves to be a little slower and a little weirder, and I'm hoping that future Grump material continues to explore the bizarre and unique combination of post-punk, hardcore, prog, and hard rock that they put forth on those tracks. Highly recommended if you like your hardcore well off the beaten path, both geographically and aesthetically.
Our take: After a heap of cassettes, here's the debut vinyl from this Canadian hardcore band. On this release I think they really come into their own, not so much by being harder or faster or more intense than your average hardcore band, but instead by being weirder. Mostly that weirdness is concentrated in the guitar sound, which is bathed in an absurd level of chorus and kind of dances around the rhythms in a way that is very atypical and unexpected for a hardcore band. At first listen to you want to compare it to something like Urban Waste which is interesting mostly because of the weirdness of its sound / production, but after a couple of listens I realize that it's not just the way the knobs are turned on the guitarist's pedals, but rather the entire approach that is innovative. For my money the real gems are on the b-side, where Grump allow themselves to be a little slower and a little weirder, and I'm hoping that future Grump material continues to explore the bizarre and unique combination of post-punk, hardcore, prog, and hard rock that they put forth on those tracks. Highly recommended if you like your hardcore well off the beaten path, both geographically and aesthetically.