2 out of 5

Label: Decibel Flexi Series

Produced by: Andrew Schneider

Already a band I struggle with their repetitive nature – accepting their influence, and that their early albums really struck a desired chord for me of straight forward fury and compositional clarity – I cannot but be amused that a song I would say just kind of “sounds like Unsane” has a doppelganger of a similar name (The Grind, on Sterilize); like even the band recognized their single track nature at some point.

Of course, calling it “single” track is way too dismissive, as there’s nuance within these things, but Chris Spencer, during this era (and beyond) tended to stick to one vocal shout / distorted style, and the pace rarely varied from a kind of standard punky pummel. When you combine that with producer Andrew Schneider – who is another classic name, but whose mushy style lends itself best to groups with some in-built dynamics – it narrows the range of the Unsane sound even further.

“Grind” is nonetheless a pretty good track for about halfway through, keeping up a good pace and carving out a good climax of guitars and bass attacks… but then it goes for another round of the same and gets pretty tired.

It’s just not really a standout track, either for Unsane or in general, though would probably rate higher if it was the first of a few Unsane songs you heard.