Technophobia (Phobia/Gadget Split, 2010)

Gadget take hold of the first 7 tracks, and although the first track Torture starts off a tad slow for my liking after about 43 seconds we become reacquainted with the Gadget we last saw back 4 years ago. Now perhaps it is just me or is Slayer the new "thing" for Grindcore bands, on the second track right at the end, and at the beginning of the 5th  I spotted a cheeky Kerry King like interjection, which was nice given my love of Slayer, but was somewhat of a surprise, and have noticed it quite a bit this year amongst the newer releases. Gadget insist to start most songs of slowly, then after an indiscriminate amount of time, they release their grind and then to tone it down, up to the point of a moments silence, although this gives a more mellowed and approachable feel to it, this repetitive stop start approach doesn't please me, and would of greatly preferred if it was a non stop battery of some very progressive and enjoyable Grindcore. The guitar work as prior releases is excellent, and the same can be said with the drumming, giving a desirable technical vibe to it with the technical moments  highlighted more so with the ever present primitive screams and shouts. The Gadget half is some stupendous Grind, with plenty of examples of creativity and professionalism that reflect their dexterous nature, but their constant stalling sadly fails to fully immerse the listener 100% into it, and leaves it closer to 90% mark.

Opening upon with foul mouthed title Dick Head Life, we are greeted with a scream, a rampant drum beat and a punch in the face, and such ferocity carries on until the end of their 10 minute 20 second siege upon the listener. Although I have never claimed to be able to decipher the groans of the punkish vocals of Shane Mclachlan, every so often I would catch a snippet of a string of crude words such as "Human Error", and it seems rewarding to have finally understood something from his Neanderthal grunts and hollers. Drumming and vocals are the defining elements, of this split, and they work together intrinsically to bestow a crustcore charge, whilst the guitaring gives a depth to the release and aside from some occasional somewhat above satisfactory metal injections, has no prominence, nor is it needed.

Phobia's tracks are a rag tag collection of pissed off, hate-fuelled crusty aggression, a perfect accompaniment to thesprightly and clean shaven approach of Gadget's nimble coordinated defilement. A release highly worthy of recognition.