I recently missed the Looking For An Answer UK tour which really bummed me the fuck out, but it made me realize that I literally owned next to nothing that the band has put out! I wanted to listen to a couple of 7"s to ease the pain of missing the gigs, but I found out that I only had the one...I could have sworn I had one or two more. What an idiot! Anyway, at the time of writing, this split with Catheter is the only LFAA release that I have, and this is the well overdue review for it!
LFAA have an enormous grindcore sound, not dissimilar in production and riffing style to Brain Corrosion-era Dead Infection, but with a variation from the endless low end growl vocal, often battering the senses with screeches and screams as well. The drumming is tight as fuck, the bass lower than a thousand fathoms, and the guitars are razor sharp, but not "thin" enough in the mix to lose any punch. Here, LFAA play through 5 songs at 45rpm, only one of which consists of any fair amount of length, and with the 5th acting as an outro more than anything, the LFAA side is over in what seems like a blink of an eye.
Catheter are just so fucking awesome! I'm sure if you're clued up on modern grind shits you'll know all about these guys, but fuck, they are so good. They are a touch slower here than the all-out blasting of LFAA; preferring the more technical approach with only 2 songs of technical drumming and more complex guitar playing mixed with dirgy, doomy riffs. Just like the flipside however, this is spinning at 45 so it is still fairly short, but Catheter are much more experimental with their grindcore template, almost falling into other "metal" territory yet retaining that chaotic edge. Good listening all round!
Out on Barcelona's Parade Records.
