About a year and a half ago I got in touch with Vordak from France. This guy… no, search for yourself; I did have quite some deeply interesting discussions with him, and he introduced me to some forums he was involved with, but you must find it out yourself.
Anyway, this guy acts under several monikers, such as Pagan Assault or Anthropophobe. This review does not deal with any of them, but I’d like to invite you to read the reviews I did for some of his releases: Requiem For Illusions, Révolte Contre La Destinée and the split with Hippie Nazi, concerning Pagan Assault and being posted on December 12th 2014, September 9th 2014 and February 9th 2015 respectively, or the Anthropophobe releases Le Royaume Des Morts or When Darkness Returns… / Déceptions Et Trahisons, uploaded on October 12th and 26th 2014. And soon, and that’s a promise, I will post a review on a new Anthropophobe-release as well – but first things first…
Extinct Species has been compiled under the K.F.D.-moniker, for conceptually it has not much to do with Anthropophobe or Pagan Assault. Actually, this digital mini-release by K.F.D. (an abbreviation for Kill.Fuck.Die) deals with the extinction of the dinosaur race, and I do not think there won’t be a wishful link to the total annihilation of the human kind – therefor I do love this guy that much, but that’s another story; let’s focus on the four (short) tracks (they clock in between two and a half and three minutes, bringing this EP to twelve minutes in length) – yet still, the extinction of certain earthly species, and then I am not referring to the animal sort – is not such a bad idea (yet once again, that isn’t but a personal opinion, which has nothing – or at least not that much – to do with this recording; though…).
The digital EP opens with the instrumental track Big Bang, which actually starts with quite an intriguing and extremely hypnotic yet slow, even sludgy guitar riff / melody, which soon gets joined by, at first, repetitive yet supportive drums and then a little hint of psychedelic guitars. A short intermezzo, which stands in contrast with the first two minutes, gives a down-to-earth feeling, but the track ends the way it started: mesmerizing and slowed-down. Fossilized is quite another story, for being faster (yet not always), and including morbid grunts. It’s a thrashing, lo-fi and primitive expression of Punk-Black-Crust-Thrash nastiness, yet once again it does include some uniqueness, this time being the acoustic, somewhat progressive guitar intermezzo (and hey, isn’t that a banjo that I hear?). Reptile Ghost is a faster piece too, being quite primal yet, at the same time, dissonant, and truly energetic and pounding. Pluie De Météorites (‘rain of meteorites’) finally, opens the Ambient-Noise way, but soon transforms into another hypnotic sound-collage, with weird riffs and very distant, almost whispered screams at the background, before fading away in aural minimalism.
The Extinct Species EP might sound quite unusual, especially sound-wise, yet also seen from the point of the compositions and performance. I think it needs a couple of tries before you get ‘through’ this stuff, despite the nihilistic approach. But you must give it a try for sure, unless you’re the average Cradle Of Fifi-fan.