Grindcore is one of those genres that’s quite hard to get right without all your songs sounding the same, and it’s unfortunate that Goresoerd fall victim to this somewhat. Asülum is a great album and it features some awesome songs, but there are also a fair few songs that aren’t too different from one another and it’s a real shame.
On the one hand, there are tracks like Masin, which is hugely catchy with great vocals atop of a fantastic and memorable wall of guitars. It features a great lead guitar line with screeching notes that work perfectly before leading into a riff that quickly gets stuck in your head and it’s just a fantastic cacophony of noise. It’s a similar case with Surnud Siber, which has quite a groove metal feel to the guitars and it stands out from the crowd as a result. You can’t help but want to move in time to the beat and the synth elements work great as well.
But on the other hand, you have tracks like Kurjajuur, Soerd and Poomine, which don’t stray too far from the same format and result in sounding quite similar to one another. It makes for quite a repetitive listen and it’s quite frustrating when some of the other songs are so promising and have such unique touches to them.
Asülum is a good album but it’s let down somewhat by the lack of variety between certain songs. It’s definitely more of an acquired listen, but if you love your grindcore than I can guarantee it will be right up your street.
6/10
