Occult 45 - Grind The Lightning
Dullest Records
Grindcore
8 songs (666 seconds )
Release year: 2012
Reviewed by Kyler

Occult 45 does more than just conjure images of hooded Satanists pounding malt liquor and sacrificing live animals, though they could have stopped there and I would have been satisfied. Instead, Occult 45 demonstrates how to squeeze maximum gnar from a minimalist three-piece setup with Grind The Lightning ¸ a six hundred and sixty-six second album that does everything right.

Prepare to be impressed by the band’s songwriting skills alone. Occult 45 makes each song on Grind The Lightning memorable by frequently switching up speeds – I counted more than a dozen changes in tempo and rhythm in Succubi alone, for example, and they were all masterfully placed in such a way to keep the aggression continuously escalating. A somewhat grainy recording quality may alienate Occult 45 from sound snobs, but in my opinion it gives the album a classic throwback vibe of earlier bands like Repulsion.

Frontman John Hauser pours his own special brand of frothing hostility onto every song. He sounds like an irate drunk getting ejected from the Super Bowl and it rules hard. It’s refreshing. In an era of banshee screams and Grover lows, it’s nice to be just plain yelled at. Best of all, unlike most grind bands, Hauser knows when to shut up and let his band take over with a potent mixture of straightforward blasts, chug-free breakdowns and disgruntled drop-D D-beats. Clearly, drummer Jason Dost and guitarist Dean Sykes are well-versed in a variety of metal styles as well, and they do a nice job weaving these different elements of metal in the short time that their songs allow.

Listening to an Occult 45 song is like trying to break into Kevin McCallister’s house on Christmas Day. You know you are going to get fucked up in a creative way, but how? Grind The Lightning is worth a listen for anyone who is into fast music and real aggression, and you don’t even have to take a paint can to the forehead.

Killing Songs :
Every song
Kyler quoted 88 / 100
Other albums by Occult 45 that we have reviewed:
Occult 45 - Human Abhorrence reviewed by Jared and quoted no quote
Occult 45 - Occult 45/Drones For Queens Split reviewed by Kyler and quoted 88 / 100
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