By Rob Hughes
The seven-inch seems an ideal format for grindcore. Five to ten minutes is the perfect time span for a band to make a statement and keep the listener enthused, even wanting more. The format also has a ton of punk rock history and DIY credibility behind it.
Ottawa’s Fuck the Facts have gone the DIY 7-inch route with the Unnamed EP. It’s inspiring to see a band throwing themselves into their art like this, taking control of how their music is presented and promoted. Each of the 500 copies (available on clear and black vinyl) is handmade and numbered by the band, with art and design by vocalist Mélanie Mongeon. The result is beautiful, to state it unbrutally. Check out that vellum—it ain’t just for wedding invitations. The last time I came across a record packaged with vellum was Monoliths and Dimensions by SUNN O))), and that didn’t rock as hard as this does. For those who don’t cling to the idea of recorded music on physical formats, ordering the EP gets you a download code for the tracks in 320k MP3 format (it’s also available as a download only).
The music crushes. The EP’s six tracks showcase Fuck the Facts’s brutal approach, incorporating a spectrum of everything grinding, deadly, and black. The songs are shockingly tight, and surprising at every turn. Side one is relentless, from the “unnamed” title track’s feedback and blast beat opening to centrepiece “Loss Upon Loss” to “Wake” and its cluster-bomb attack. Side two changes the pace with the “Time is a Dictator,” a haunting piece with spoken vocals and chiming guitars, followed by the record’s “epic” (three and a half minutes!) “La Tete Hors De L’eau,” which injects some dissonant elements into the death/grind. The gut-churning “Doghead” finishes the EP in a 36-second torrent of bile. The whole thing is ruthless, vicious, and extremely impressive. The fact is, less than 12 minutes is ample time for Fuck the Facts to fuck you right up.
http://www.myspace.com/fuckthefacts
Rating: 9.0
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