By: Charlie Butler
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 10/02/2017
Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories
“I & II” is a devastating slab of high octane noise-riddled evil
that makes most heavy bands sound weak and feeble in comparison. The band’s brief outbursts of messy, feedback
riddled punk mayhem are as exhilarating as they are terrifying.
“I & II”CS//DD//LP track listing:
1).
Jerusalem
2).
T.R.Ø.Y
3).
Bill Evans
4).
€ompton
5).
Represent
6).
Bottomless Pit
7).
Abuse
8).
SB
9).
Hype
10).
Slaughterhouse
11).
Law
12).
El Chapo
The Review:
Japan’s
Friendship have delivered the nastiest listening experience
of 2017 in the form of their “I & II”
LP. This release brings together their first two self-released EPs to form one
concentrated blast of aural terror. Incendiary opener “Jerusalem” packs more carnage into thirty three seconds than most
bands manage in a whole album. It’s a punishing onslaught of frantic, ugly grindcore
that sets the tone for horror to come.
Friendship take the sludge-coated
powerviolence of Iron Lung and Weekend Nachos
and ramp up the intensity and aggression way into the red and beyond. The
band’s brief outbursts of messy, feedback riddled punk mayhem are as
exhilarating as they are terrifying but they are at their most effective when
they explore the extremes of the tempo spectrum within the space of a single
track.
“T.R.Ø.Y”
begins at a snail’s pace as the bass and drums carve out a torturous minimal
riff that creates an air of bleak foreboding. This makes the eruption of furious
crust that follows all the more potent. There are hints of off-kilter noise
rock weirdness in amongst the wreckage too, best exemplified by the insane
opening riff to “€ompton”. Somehow Friendship manage to take this construction of pummelling
chords, bizarre string bends and ringing discord and make it the basis of a straight
ahead grind assault. As the track progresses it slows and degenerates into a
pit of barely-mobile doom torment reminiscent of Primitive Man
at their most oppressive.
“I & II”
is a devastating slab of high octane noise-riddled evil that makes most heavy bands sound weak and feeble in comparison. If these two EP’s are a hint of Friendship’s fearsome power I suggest taking cover now in
preparation for a full-length offering.
“I & II”
is available here
