Grindcore's greatest strength -- and greatest weakness -- is that it is what it is: extreme, uncompromising, and nearly impenetrable to most human ears. The interesting thing is that these antisocial characteristics have gradually incited a tightly knit international grind culture which almost seems to encourage anonymity; with bands like Germany's
Wojczech focusing their creative energies on mini-releases such as split EPs and 7" singles (often available exclusively on vinyl, no less) and thereby excluding most consumers from even discovering what the genre has to offer. So it is that 2005's
Sedimente is, amazingly, the quartet's first true album, following almost a dozen individual mini-releases strung out over the course of the previous decade, and, ironically, there's a catch! This being that
Sedimente's tracks are streaked with musical ingredients extraneous to grindcore's often immovable parameters, opening the door for fans of other, less radical musical genres (especially thrash and straight-up hardcore), even as it threatens to alienate the limited core audience which has supported the Germans to this point. One would hope that, in the end, those foreign elements will be deemed discreet enough to satisfy both camps, because there's no question that standout cuts like "Krebskult," "Holzklasse" and "Redesschleife," are all rendered far more immediate, palatable, and distinctive by their fearless forays into unusually complex harmonics, recognizable choruses, and varied tempos. Plus, most all of them still abide by trademarked grindcore conventions such as frenetic blastbeats, mindlessly repetitive bouts of simian screaming, and all around brilliant musicianship, belying their brutal delivery (all the while averaging two-minutes per outburst). In the end, let's hope that this album manages to convert more listeners to grindcore's publicity starved cause -- and of course
Wojczech's talents -- than it loses preexisting but narrow-minded followers.