Band:	No One Knows What The Dead Think
Album:	No One Knows What The Dead Think
Style:	Grindcore
Release date:	September 2019

01. Yorha
02. Autumn Flower
03. Dagger Before Me
04. Rakuyo
05. Stars Hide Your Fires
06. Cinder
07. Sayaka
08. Kaine
09. Red Echoes
10. Dominion
11. Yorha [karaoke version]
12. Autumn Flower [karaoke version]
13. Dagger Before Me [karaoke version]
14. Rakuyo [karaoke version]
15. Stars Hide Your Fires [karaoke version]
16. Cinder [karaoke version]
17. Sayaka [karaoke version]
18. Kaine [karaoke version]
19. Dominion [karaoke version]

A grind trio where 2/3 members are from Discordance Axis? Count me in.

I may not be the biggest grind affectionado around here, but I'm fairly sure Discordance Axis is a really well respected name in the genre, judging how often I saw The Inalienable Dreamless reference whenever the genre came into discussion, and by how absolutely floored I was by the album. They did break up in 2001, but Jon Chang has held the bar high with Gridlink, now he and former Discordance Axis guitarist Rob Marton are joined by drummer Kyosuke Nakano to provide "The definitive ending to the piloted bullet hell grind album series started in 1992".

It goes without saying that the music here is damn chaotic, it's grind for fucks sake. But it's not chaos with no character, there's clear punk, hardcore and metal ethos to it, filling the chaos with some damn catchy and muscular riffs along with the technical drumming and the agonizingly vicious vocals. There are very few moments to catch your breath, and in between them, the album is completely pummeling even at its most melodic. And by melodic I mean least chaotic. Or most groovy. You get it.

It's short even by grind standards, being barely over 15 minutes in runtime, unless you count the entire album being doubled by instrumental versions, nicely dubbed as "Karaoke" so feel free to scream over them yourself if you listen to the entire package. I have neighbors who wouldn't take kindly to that so I'll pass. Though I find it very unlikely that I would want anyone else's screams on this album other than Chang's unhinged combination of anguished screams and gnarly growls.

Like chaos rampant in an age of distrust, the selftitled debut (and apparently finale too) by No One Knows What The Dead Think brings a veteran grind sound full circle, by updating the olden with the fresh, an album that feels simultaneously 1999 and 2019.