I don't know how Switzerland is perceived to the rest of the world, but to paint a racist but idyllic picture it is pretty much: Mountains, Lakes, Banks and Mumakil. To my knowledge (which is very limited) nothing happened for a long time on the Swiss Grindcore scene, well not anything to my knowledge that got International recognition. This was up until a bunch of Tolkein fans let loose the beast we call
Mumakil.
I first heard Mumakil way back in 2008, with their split with
Misery Index, nicely named
Ruling Class Cancelled. I then bought myself their
Customised Warfare Album and thus established myself as a "fan". Then in 2009 sitting in our comfy armchairs/desks/beds we were unbraced for a Grinding Explosion of this magnitude
and terror of the release of
Behold the Failure.
Before we even touch on the music, I love the title of the release, it has that deep anti-something witty vibe to it. To reference
Grind and Punishment the jokes really would of written themselves had the release been terrible, just as well it wasn't. The elephant thing in the album art is a metaphor as to how this album will pave its way to success, by pure animalistic force, stampeding, impaling and crushing all those in its path.
The song writing compared to other albums has become more fluid, than previous releases, influences in this new found creativity definatley has
Nasum written all over it. However I also reckon that
Misery Index have taught them a thing or two, in all respects from drumming, guitaring and vocals, although having said that I am the only person who thinks so out of the people I have asked so maybe I am going insane, and if I am insane I blame it on this album, too much moshing and head banging.
Mumakil still maintain that high level of the tainted word "brutality", but have gone a better way about implementing it. in their previous releases a unwanted presence of deathcore, however I do forgive them for this, I believe they have always striven for a noise that was unruly and malicious sound, and sometimes you walk the wrong path before getting on the right path. So the shift from Deathcore to Grindcore is what I think has spelled Mumakil's success in this album, and something I hope they will keep to heart in future releases. This audio terrorism lasts a total of 35 minutes across 27 songs, which satisfies my over 30 minutes of grind madness before I call it a good album(many exceptions to the rule). Everything is top rate in this release, all instruments and vocals are what I would call Grinding Perfect, although criticized for having a lack of creativity and the same sort of sound throughout the whole of the album, I am not holding that against them, probably against my better judgement, I like what I hear and I don't want it to stop, screw experimentation and releasing the inner creative spirits keep it as it is: savagely rampaging on your ear drums in such a way you crave more and scream "Mumakil release another!"
Rating: 90/100
