hunch

Poland's Suffering Mind are a band that I've taken a heavy interest in over the course of the last six weeks or so, thanks largely due to VII's posts about the band on his blog Built To Blast. Put it down to the saturation of shitty grindcore bands on the market maybe, but they're a band that I'd just never given the time of day to until more recently. These guys are anything but shitty. Relatively speaking, they play a pretty modern style of grindcore most akin to the mighty Insect Warfare. Brutal grind free of goofy humour and dumb gimmicks. Hard metallic guitars underpinned by precise grind percussion and vocals mostly characterised by guttural groans offset with raspy high's. This is their split 7" with Wisconsin's Neon Hole. Clear vinyl pressed by something ridiculous like nine different record labels, most recognisable of the lot I suppose would be Bovine, Halo Of FLies, Crucificados and Give Praise.


Judging by their two offerings here, Neon Hole play a pretty cool, rough brand of grindcore influenced by the obvious picks. They employ what would probably be interpreted as some more basic power violence stop start tendencies as well. Knowing next to nothing about the band other than what information is presented here, and having heard nothing else of theirs either I can't really get a proper feel for them. I like these two songs though and will certainly make the effort to track down any other material of theirs.



The four songs Suffering Mind present would have to be some of their best recorded stuff. During my research of this band I've found that quality ebbs and flows quite a bit throughout their relatively lengthy discography. Count something like 10+ records that span various formats and sizes before this split, and another three afterwards, and to me it's obvious that as they've progressed noticeably since their inception. Over this time they've also certainly developed a more interesting writing style and Ula's vocals improve obviously. Every new record manages to present a far superior recording quality also, which is always an important factor with this style of music. In recent times the band have recruited a new vocalist in a fellow by the name of Radek, but in terms of 'Ula era' Suffering Mind this split along with two lathe cut records they did last year (a 2"and 3", very limited, no i'm not bullshitting) would easily be the best stuff of that period. I won't lie when I say that I prefer the new guy pipes, but that's a story for another time.



I almost feel like one of those dick head kids that fills out both of his arms with sleeve tattoos in less than a year when it come to this band. I've only been into them for a short while but I've already managed to amass a large chunk (ie the majority) of their releases, of which I hope to post about in the coming weeks. They've also got something like ten or more planned releases due in the coming months, most of which are on stupid formats and sizes. If all goes to plan, I'll be able to add a 4", and 8" to my collection to create an almost prefect sequence from 4" up to 12". All I'll need is an 11". It wouldn't surprise me if they decide to press that too. Someone hook me up with those previously mentioned 2" and 3" records please.