Amoclen - Grindcorization

It has been about 3 years, but Czechia’s five piece Grindcore effort Amoclen are continuing their lengthy ‘medically focused’ music by releasing another album prescribed for the masses. While some of the tracks were featured in their split back in 2021, “Grindcorization” is a socially charged piece that continues with tracks that continue to focus on various drugs given to people for whatever reason. While the tracks are short, their main homage is to Napalm Death, though less ‘fuzz laden,’ though they use the x-ed out music symbol to demonstrate their tribute with no wavering. This album is fast, much like their fellow bands out there like Pig Destroyer or Rotten Sound. Most of the tracks like ‘Levamisol’ are fast chuggers that have some of that thrashy groove to it like Pig Destroyer does with a mix of growls and shouts and shrieks. Others like ‘Inzulin’ feature more spoken samples rather than music and are somewhat less engaging.

It is tracks like ‘Kevadon’ that really stand out as Amoclen slow down a bit and even throw in some tribal drumming style similar to early Soulfly before speeding things up a bit, but this experimentation helps draw in especially new listeners who might not be into this kind of music, and old fans will enjoy the stylistically change. Rather than rely on band styles like Rotten Sound who purposefully go fast no matter what and just intend to hit listeners with as much blast beasts and vocal and drum power possible all the time (though there are tracks like that here for sure like ‘Sudafed’), the slower tracks feel like they have more power behind them. Death Metal fans of bands like Earthburner will also find Amoclen appealing to them for tracks like ‘Remedesivir’ which has that foreboding tone to it and plenty of groove mixed in as it chugs along or the bouncy playfulness that is almost Punk driven like ‘Dogmatil.’

Like most Grindcore albums, the track shortness might turn off a lot of people who are used to the usual 3 minutes or more of music. Many of them blitz right by or feel like they blend into one another, making “Grindcorization” feel like a big long 20 minute opus that rants and raves in various vocal styles among the riffs, and when put on random jumps all over the place. Still, looking at the album overall puts Amoclen up there as one of the more unique acts in Grindcore even if just for their medical jargon. While one might not really be able to understand it as piece by piece, when listened to as a whole album, this tooth and nail attack is certainly an interesting commentary indeed that deserves some attention from the Metal community.  

3 / 5 STARS