Title kinda says it all with this one, but whatever.
Torontonian jawbreakers Absolut kick this off with some ferocious D-beat that’s thick with muscle and packed with fury. There’s a sense of chaos and imminent implosion to things, but the neat, crazy solos act like wire that just about binds it all together. The band’re ex-Rammer, which might just help explain away the classy sense of musicality that rips through the feral rage.
Feel it takes Paranoid a little while to get going here. The first songs is solid, and while I wouldn’t suggest they’re just phoning it in, things’re definitely a few notches below what we’d usually expect. After that one’s out the way it’s pretty much business as usual: noisy, red-raw punk with grinding bass lines, guttural snarls and odd moments of dynamic intrigue that you mightn’t necessarily expect from a genre that can often be stuck in its ways.
As well as this 12″ edition there’s also a 2×7″ version out via Phobia and Crucificados Pelo Sistema – possibly the most annoying punk format since the flexi disc. As some band once said: Why?
//Collective Zine, Alex Deller, 05/03/2017
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Damn, the ABSOLUT side of this alone would have been a top ten of the year EP. Paired with the monster PARANOID material, this is unbeatable! Both sides effortlessly fold metal influences inte their raw punk attack, with ABSOLUT leaning a bit ’80s thrash and PARANOID incorporating elements of early black metal. ABSOLUT just kill on this split, offering up four (I wish there were more!) tracks of heavy hardcore which betray a serious DEATH SIDE influence that goes for the throat from the first note and doesn’t let up for a second. Catchy riffs, fantastic melodic solos and raw-throated vocals heavy with reverb lead the way, while the thick bass and straight-forward D-beats keep the material well grounded in punk. ABSOLUT may not adopt the label, but metal punks everywhere could learn a thing or two from the riffing and soloing (on “Peace System” in particular), while the fist-pumping chorus of “Mental Problem” immediately creates a mental image of studded punx running wild. PARANOID’s side is the more conceptually ambitious of the two; they work hard to create interesting MAYHEM-ish atmospheres before crashing into some straight-up Swedish mangel, with a touch of ’00s hardcore influence in the frequent riff/tempo changes. Sweet Sugi art on a heavyweight gatefold only adds quality to a record that would still be one of the best of the year if it came in a plain black DJ sleeve.
//Maximum Rocknroll #392, Andrew Underwood, 01/2016
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Phew, just got out of the hospital and my entire face is in a cast… the last thing I can remember, I was sitting in my room and I had just started listening to this split 12″. If you are daring enough to give this record a try, you might find pleasure in the pain as well! Absolut are a Canadian group who meld Swedish and Japanese strains of d-beat with ’80s thrash metal and the results are quite powerful. Only four songs on their side, with wonderfully generic titles (“Peace System” and “Mental Problem” are beautiful in their utter lack of poetry), and they use them to rage forward through perfectly-executed solos, downhill riffing and a cohesiveness that can be elusive within this genre. Flip it over for Japan’s Paranoid, who are a worthy partner, if not quite as sonically explosive. Their songs are a bit more rudimentary (and without any tricky thrash transitions), but just as gnarly, as you can practically smell the smoke and flames coming off Paranoid’s amplifiers. So many punk records brandish maces or other medieval weaponry within their art these days, but Jawbreaking Mangel Devastation really means it.
//Yellow Green Red, 01/12/2015