INFANTICIDE

With the release of INFANTICIDE's new full-length, "From Our Cold Dead Hands", on the mighty Willowtip Records it is time for the rest of the world to find out what the diehards already knew about the Swedish act; the guys produce grindcore of the finest quality that'll sheer your face off. That is exactly what they've achieved with this album, all 21 tracks in 26 minutes of it.

Well oiled and pulled tighter than a trampoline, "From Our Cold Dead Hands" is the kind of album that has given Sweden its exemplary grindcore track record. It overwhelms with waves of terror, it maims without remorse, and it kills with precision in much the same way on albums from countrymen NASUM and American compatriots INSECT WARFARE, the genre definitiveness of the former and the maximum violence of the latter both evident on the album. But it is those crust beats of D that always sees to be coursing through INFANTICIDE's veins, sometimes subtle, sometimes more pronounced and always godlike. Whereas an album like PHOBIA's "22 Random Acts of Violence" (absolutely mandatory, by the way) features overt sections of d-beat hardcore, "From Our Cold Dead Hands" usually either incorporates it into the classic blast-or-bust grindcore approach or reveals it in sections (arrangement shifts, etc),although three consecutive rounds fired ("Under Dumhet Digna Hed", "A World of Opportunities", and "It Ends Here") do bring it up close and personal with some monster buzz-grooves to boot! Topping it all off is cover art that smacks of crust punk nihilism and is most appropriate in the context of INFANTICIDE's militant sociopolitical lyrics. Perhaps even more appropriate is that the artwork is credited simply to "some overpaid asshole".

"Yeah, but what is 'From Our Cold Dead Hands' really all about?" you ask. It is about 26 minutes of blissful pain, just under a half hour of arousing aural torture, or nearly 30 minutes of teeth gritting, vein bulging, clenched fist brutality. Take your pick; you can't lose.