Well, this is intriguing stuff indeed. Very rarely do I venture into the world of experimental grind, but if this is what it has to offer, I am likely to be coming back for more. For a start, this two-piece outfit fromCorkmake an unholy racket. This, their second full-length release sounds massive! I can only imagine that it is ferocious live.

For some people the term `instrumental grind’ is akin to sticking barbed wire into your ear drums – filthy, badly produced blasting without even the enraged snarling, similar to turning a hairdryer on and off in quick succession; I’ll Eat Your Face’s music sounds nothing like this. Instead it manages to be crushing, enormous, hypnotic, unpredictable and quite beautiful in places. This is no one-dimensional sonic attack, but a diverse and highly creative aural pummelling, which punches you in the face with one riff and then gently wipes the blood off with another (I assume before eating your face completely).

Hypnotic, muted single note riffs, unusual time signatures, laid back, progressive drums are juxtaposed suddenly with violent black-metal style riff frenzies, to be followed by gentle arpeggios, and so it goes on; always surprising, often crushing, sometimes trippy and dream-like.  There are sudden, aggressive sections of nasty jarring noise, gentle jazz-like clean sections, monster metal riffing, hypnotic, single-note riffs and whole load more besides. At times it reminds me of Voivod, at others Maudlin of the Well, and on occasion it makes me think of feverish childhood nightmares…

Each tune is a small, complete musical adventure through the sick minds of these two musicians – none of the tunes are very long, most seem to be an average time of two minutes. It is surprising how much they pack into a short length of time, without ever seeming forced or contrived. The music doesn’t strike me as being made complex for the sake of it, or to show off – this is just pure creativity, played by excellent musicians with a warped sense of humour.

It could be coincidence, but all the song titles have some kind of animal in them, like `Weasel Tank Slime’ – whether I would leave a family pet in the hands of these two is a matter for some thought, leave them with a guitar and a drum kit however and the results are pretty amazing.

(8/10 Jon Butlin)

http://www.ill-eat-your-face.com