Rotten Sound, Species at War
If I were ever to have a complaint about anything Finland’s Rotten Sound have let loose upon this earth, it would be that the band’s albums go by way too damn fast. EPs? Fucking forget about it. Their latest stopgap EP, Species at War, blows through your lower intestine in just over eight minutes. Long enough to cause a brief Pavlovian response, but not nearly long enough to fully satisfy.
Immediately upon hitting play on your favorite delivery method of aural destruction and you’ll be flattened with awe as Sami Latva blasts through an inconceivable number of beats in record time. The dude literally pummels his equipment to dust in the opening brain bruiser that is “Cause.” The song lasts just shy of one minute and leaves the barbaric bludgeoning echoing in your ears a good long while as “The Game” gets under way with a relatively mellow and distant riff. This song just oozes some serious Entombed worship in the slower portions especially the :26 mark where I have repeatedly caught myself sings the lyrics from the Swedes’ “Wolverine Blues” “I’m a misanthropical breed…”
Any way, any similarities between the two bands is quickly destroyed (beaten to oblivion, actually) as “War” lets loose with a fury of bestial noise, blasts and vicious growls. The guys seem to teeter on complete chaos the entire time, but have enough self-control to keep things organized and flowing violently onward to another relatively slow burner in “The Solution.” It’s a brooding track that is full and powerful, punctuated by a manic blast at the 35 second mark that lasts until the track ends abruptly a minute or so later.
“Peace” and “Salvation” continue the bloodletting with rapid fire rhythms and the trademark Rotten Sound, well, sound. The combination of the two songs wraps up this brief EP with the perfect amount of stop/go eruptions and a performance that threatens to collapse in upon itself any minute. It may not be a required release, but damn it, Species at War rivals many bands’ full-lengths this year.