To Dust – Nightmare Cycles (Not Necessarily a Sin Grind)
Grind bands rarely take themselves seriously enough. I’ll never forget this one promo I got where dude dropped a fart in the middle of a song cut. Or if grinders take themselves seriously they do it’s in such a short amount of space you’re not entirely convinced they did anything. To Dust falls into the latter category; other than this 4-track wonder, they’ve only released a single EP in like five years and it was actually their side of a split released separately for some reason. Not exactly a solid discography for bragging rights, but that’s not necessarily a sin to remain unforgiven. Nightmare Cycles serves as a retrospective To Dust, but also grind as a whole.
So it’s what you expect. Napalm Death etc. worship down to the covert art. What To Dust gets right though is clean production. Far too many bands of their ilk are want to claim lo-fi aesthetic is king when it merely covers poor musicianship in a veil of political newspaper clippings. For this the duo/trio work well together, maintaining a tight assault for the four tracks they provide. That being said, To Dust also commits the classic error of presenting a retrospective for the seasoned listener without clear purpose. Though occasional touches, such as slight echo to the vocals on one track, stop you from nodding full off, they’re certainly not enough for simply another stinking EP out of an already meager existence. And, ugh, of course we have some anti-GOP or capitalist nonsense making up the cut-and-paste cover. Honestly I’m not entirely sure and I don’t care. Any time a band gets political I just roll my eyes and say okay bro I’ll stream it free once and forget about it okay?
To Dust – Nightmare Cycles
Seeing Red Records
Cover Art: Dima Andreyuk
3.8 / 5
