Caustic Wound faced the sophomore slump phenomenon many bands encounter after releasing a stellar debut. Their answer? Five years of silence following the superb Death Posture. That waiting strategy paid off handsomely with their newest album, Grinding Mechanism of Torment.
This record delivers a perfect mix right from the start. Sickly vocals tear through the soundscape, a nice splashy drum sound provides the kinetic energy, a rumbling bass anchors the low end, and sharp guitars carve through the chaos. Across sixteen tracks, Caustic Wound unleash potentially the nastiest deathgrind you will hear this year. The band moves with relentless speed, injecting very quick and very short solos that add to the fun, almost derailed atmosphere of death they create; nothing stands in the way of Caustic Wound‘s grinding machine when it gets going.
While they often operate at breakneck pace, tracks like “Drone Terror” demonstrate that deathgrind does not need to function solely as a mindless speed inferno. But when they do go fast, they commit entirely. The drumming is superb throughout, commanding the band and driving them forward at incredible speeds. Caustic Wound excel at both playing fast and crafting very clever mid-tempo parts that inject much-needed heaviness into their sound. Many deathgrind acts rely solely on super-fast songwriting, but Caustic Wound manage to create layered tracks, a significant feat considering their canvas usually measures under two minutes.
Three members of the band also perform in the crushing death metal band Mortiferum, and you can sense a shared commitment to sonic devastation, though filtered through deathgrind’s manic lens here. “The Bleed Rail” stands out as a particular highlight on the album; it contains everything – heavy sections, fast bursts, fun stompy rhythms, a guitar solo, and a nasty atmosphere, all crammed into one minute and thirty-four seconds. The band successfully avoids the trap of simply repeating the same track sixteen times; each song feels distinct, yet they all forge a cohesive, brutal structure. Vocally, the switching between low gutturals and high shrieks works perfectly, ensuring listeners avoid fatigue from the constant barrage of sickness hitting their ears. Caustic Wound definitely upped their game since their debut; Grinding Mechanism of Torment feels more varied, more mature in its execution, yet remains breathtakingly aggressive and undeniably brutal.
