Jig-Ai

Artist: 
Album Title: 
Rising Sun Carnage
Release Date: 
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

The Czech Republic for sure is one of the most notorious countries when it comes to Grindcore Music and relatives, but it also houses one of the most important labels -and then I am honestly referring to the worldwide scene- within the Brutal Death / Grind / Goregrind scene: Bizarre Leprous Productions, home to bands like Pigsty, Ingrowing, Tu Carne, Destructive Explosion Of Anal Garland (I will review their newest collection of elegies in a very near future too), Bowelfuck and many more. Jig-Ai too are on Bizarre Leprous’ roster for quite some time, which they do work with for all their releases up till now, if I am not mistaken. The sick trio (with members that are also involved with the likes of Ahumado Granujo, Negligent Collateral Collapse / Eardelete, Destructive Explosion Of Anal Garland and Brutally Deceased [on July 13th 2014, by the way, Concreteweb posted the review I did for their Black Infernal Vortex-album], for your info)) never hided their passion for the land of the Rising Sun aka japan, and a specific export product, called guro, which is an even more perverse and gore variant on hentai. That sweet influence comes back in the band’s total concept, i.e. their moniker (jigai was the name for a suicide-ritual for Japanese women), their lyrics, and even their artwork. And to be honest, isn’t their sonic expression the incarnation for such macabre?...

With Rising Sun Carnage, Jig-Ai (with a new drummer) bring their third album for Bizarre Leprous, consisting of twenty two songs that have a total running time of thirty nine minutes. This perverted sonic orgy blasts as from the very first seconds. The technical precision of the performance is highly qualitative, with every aspect being as important as any other. I mean that vocals, drums, bass lines and guitars are equally prominent. On top of it this whole aural massacre comes with an overwhelming grooviness, and with a sublime feeling of timelessness. With the latter I mean that Jig-Ai are capable to combine the essential basics from the Old School with a modernistic angle, which forces me to call it something like next-generative Grind. Another important distinctive element (distinctive from the grey masses) is the overall variation. Most tracks, or large parts of them, are, eh, I would like to mention the description ‘traditional’, but I do not think that truly fits. But there’s no other definition usable, so you’ll have to do with this one. That’s not bad, for using these initial elements does create recognition. And at the same time, Jig-Ai come up with some creative ideas here and there, uplifting the whole experience. Some pieces of sonic terror come with something that tells this trio apart from the global scene, and that isn’t but a surplus. I think about unusual breaks, a handful of decelerations, or the injection of animal sounds (Animal Revenge, which is a ‘long’ track with its four minutes of duration, includes sounds of cows, chicken, gulls, frogs, singing birds etc., and on top of it the second half of the track comes with such an interesting melodious (!) groove). But as said before, also their song writing and performance of typifying Grindcore is done with persuasion and craftsmanship. Also the vocals are top-notch. Mainly based on what fits to this kind of elegies, these ones are completely incomprehensible, whether it be so-called high-pitched pig-squeals or deep-grunted guttural growls, yet a couple of times the throat explores other levels of malignancy too. And on top of it I need to mention the production, which is simply fantastic. The sound is so intense (read: brain-splattering, hehe), and the power results in majesty.

Highly recommendable if you’re a Grind-freak, with notation of the band members’ other projects especially, yet with hints of Nasum, Dead Infection, and evidently the Czech scene in general, and Bizarre Leprous roster more specifically.

83/100