ALBUM REVIEW: Cease To Exist – Noisem

Grindcore often gets a bad wrap amongst those who don’t fully understand the genre. Everyone can gawk at the sheer abrasiveness of NAPALM DEATH, but below the surface there lies level of intricacy that most miss entirely. There does still need to be a certain panache for things, but mostly, if the riffs are there and they’re played at a frantic enough pace, then you’re golden. NOISEM do just this, and have been kicking around in the dirty underground for the past few years now. Despite being eerily quiet over recent times, the three piece are clawing their way back into the thick of it with their new record, Cease To Exist.

Going back to the thing we mentioned about riffs; Cease To Exist is full of them. The guitar work from Sebastien Phillips shows his time in EXHUMED coming across into this grind project. The opening moments of Constricted Cognition shows this perfectly, as the guitar punches through the blanket of blast beats to provide moments of clarity amongst the carnage. The structure is copied almost routinely throughout the record, but it works a treat and provides an easy anchor for listeners to hold onto. Penance For the Solipsist, Putrid Decadence, and Eyes Pried Open all offer perfect examples of this, and when you minus the skin tearing speed, each of these songs would work as half decent death metal tracks.

Given how deeply rooted the NOISEM sound is in death metal, the overall sound does seem to lack something. There feels to be too much control. Sensory Overload proves this, as the opening bares it teeth in a snarl but quickly devolves into far more death metal friendly sounds, something that weirdly detracts from the intensity of everything. Grindcore should make you want to cower in fear whilst you listen to it, and Cease To Exist just feels to lack that ‘killer’ edge somewhat. This isn’t to say that the record doesn’t feature some truly blinding moments, but when compared to genre overlords like WORMROT and FULL OF HELL, NOISEM just don’t quite hold up.

With all of this in mind, the combination of sounds is by and far one of the best aspects of Cease To Exist. Thanks to the somewhat predictable pacing, Cease To Exist offers an accessible entry point for a genre that most would find utterly impenetrable. Downer Hound is a freakish amalgamation of death metal, thrash metal, and punk rock energy and it works an absolute treat at giving people a taste of what to expect should they dig deeper. The power found within the genre is present, but It’s not so much the lack of content that makes Cease To Exist feel a bit lacking: it’s the general void of a palpable reaction from their music. Cease To Exist is genuinely the closest thing you can come to accessible grindcore.

Regardless of these comments, it’s undeniable that NOISEM have done a good job with Cease To Exist. For anyone hungry for a 25 minute burst of solid riffs played at an unfathomable speed, then this has your name written all over it. For anyone also looking for an in into one of the most abusive and abrasive genres ever, then again, this is for you. Cease To Exist is an album that won’t get complaints from anyone who hears it, but it also won’t be the first thing that comes to mind when you want to recommend some truly horrifying music to your mates.  

Rating: 6/10

Cease To Exist is set for release March 15th via 20 Buck Spin. 

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