Though Brutal Truth pushed the boundaries in the early days of grind, particularly with the industrial and noise rock tinged Need to Control, it’s not all too often you find a modern grind band that looks back at it for direct inspiration. Now, I have no way of knowing whether that’s the case with Ixias, but amongst the hairpin turns between brooding and manic, the forceful noise and ambience junctions, and, of course, the grind, we have enough evidence to say that these Washington D.C.-based weirdos might be of a similar mind.
Whatever the hell that means.
Compulsive Trance, after all, is a god damn mess. But in this frenzy of mouth noises that might have lyrical poignance (“Expressions of the Spirit”, “Fragments”), Ixias manages to find a careful, if not readily obvious, flow between tension and release. Cutting synth interjections help clear the soundstage at the end of full band freak outs (“Produce”, “Regenerate”) with the penultimate “Untitled” both reprising various noise elements and further lending a hand to the madness of the closer that follows. True to the grind nature, not too many tracks have a lot of meat on them, but the ones that do (“Wings of God”, “Fragments”, “Harbinger of Remorse”) manage to muster some serious off-kilter groove, recalling the grindier, noisier tracks that you encounter on Pyrrhon releases. Compulsive Trance too finds an extra clarity in expression by featuring a wildly organic and well-placed rhythm section, with a low-boost kick and dry, snappy bass pulse that leash movement along the way.
I haven’t a clue what the future holds for this band. But with some hot guest solo work on the closing track by Takafumi Matsubara (Gridlink), and some local shows planned out in their area, Ixias has ambitions. Give their noise a chance.
