4 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Produced by: Chris Pierce (recorded by)

Loud, thrashy Slayer stuff played with grindcore speed and intensity. …Uh, also kind of poppy and accessible?

Hayaino Daisuki includes members from around the grindcore world – including Gridlink and Discordance Axis – and plays at that speed and in that style, but then removes some of the doom and gloom in favor of 80s metal glam. The vocals are screamo screechy and not shouty, but the chugga chugga and soloing, while played about warp speeds, are pure early Slayer, and I swear to Christmas that some of these more extended songs, breaking the three minute mark, have hooks in them that are actually catchy, and not just loud? I’m pretty sure this style of music isn’t supposed to work – certainly the idea from Eva05’s art direction, presented in the liner notes / zine which is cluttered up with Japanese kanji and varying font-sized English and blinding color direction and fire flame backgrounds and is so busy as to be illegible – which is why it kind of takes a second to not just set your ears to “grind” and realize that Hayaino have written full tracks here.

The drumming, always proudly not using and “triggers,” has the Discordance Axis slips at some points – playing so fast for so long is tuff! – and tracks do tend to start in relatively the same way before breaking out on their own, but man, whatever this project is, it’s an insanely fun spin on grind, making the genre somehow more open to the curious without sacrificing any of its power or fury.

(And I would like to note that the zine is legit – articles, interviews, comics – eye-bleeding art direction aside.)