ALBUM REVIEW: Habitual Self-Abuse – Ground

‘False grind’ is clearly quite a gatekeepy term, but New Jersey’s GROUND wear it like a badge of honour. Happy enough to infuriate the purist with the REPULSION patch on their jacket, the four-piece have spent the past decade throwing elements of punk, slam, powerviolence and death metal into tight volleys of grinding violence that usually get their business done in 20 minutes or less. Their fifth full-length Habitual Self-Abuse is no exception, unless you count the fact that they’ve pushed the boat out to a full 21 minutes and 11 seconds this time.

Perhaps the easiest way to explain what all the so-called falseness is about is to sum this album up as grindcore with beatdowns. Most ears probably won’t really care about the difference between this and NAPALM DEATH or TERRORIZER for example, as what we get here still bears plenty of grindcore’s most blistering and blasty hallmarks, but start to split the hairs and you will find a heavy hardcore influence in the mix too. Opener Injustice Collector signals this from this outset, its closing breakdown setting a standard of ugliness that only sixth track Stand Up Guy really comes anywhere near to matching. It’s bruising, brutish stuff, and when done this well we couldn’t care less what the gatekeepers think.

With the uninitiated thrown on board whether they like it or not, it doesn’t take long at all to get to grips with what the band have to offer here. Vocalist Phil Parenti has a proper hardcore shout on him, and someone else often delivers more gutturally in the backing vocals as the band riff, blast, D-beat and chug their way through a run of songs that mostly land somewhere inside the tried and tested two-minute mark. There may be more than one element in the mix in terms of genre, but to be honest you could probably say it is a touch one-note. Dynamics don’t really come into play at all, but at least the general pace of proceedings ensures no-one should have much to yawn about.

Also, just because we get the makings of them pretty quickly doesn’t mean the band can’t inflict some serious damage as the album goes on. They actually save most of their hardest punches for the record’s final third, starting with ninth track Indurated Juvenescence which teeters between frenetic blast beats and deathy riffing before ending on the kind of breakdown most listeners will want hooked straight into their veins. Next, Digital Pacifier throws up a massive galloping chug that should turn the head of every groove metal band in town, while closer Conscious Denial runs its chaotic D-beaty hardcore into one last slab-like breakdown before some final feedback drags this track as close to the three-minute mark as the record gets.

Naturally, GROUND don’t hang about here and that definitely works to their advantage. It shouldn’t really matter whether this is false grind, grindcore, hardcore, or something else entirely, this album does its thing well and in a supremely sensible amount of time, and it’s just a sweet little bonus that it might piss off a few gatekeepers and greebos.

Rating: 7/10

Habitual Self-Abuse is set for release on October 28th via Hibernation Release.

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