Band:	Thedowngoing
Album:	I Am Become
Style:	Grindcore
Release date:	May 25, 2010
A review by:	jupitreas

01. iambecome
02. thedenial
03. utterrepulsion
04. WWMJD?
05. cutinhalf
06. sunkendeep
07. dripping
08. 29:23
09. emptycircuit
10. thusspoke
11. part II
12. motionless
13. stonebaby

The Australian scene is gaining some proper cred amongst fans of experimentation in metal with bands like Portal, Alchemist and Impetuous Ritual paving the way. Unfortunately, Thedowngoing is not going to contribute much. In fact, their contribution is poorly executed noise-grindcore. All 15 minutes of it.

Thedowngoing is a two-piece and the amount of racket they make with this tiny lineup is the band's main gimmick. Sadly, neither of the two members seem to posses the skill of songwriting as the sub-minute slabs of noise making up I Am Become are at the very best poorly drawn sketches, templates for riffs and randomly yelled ditties.

The thing is, I am actually pretty open to this kind of cavalier noise-making - the Tzadik crowd always come up with some weird improvisational/magical piece of genius, WHOURKR creates some nicely mind-boggling electronic mayhem, while many other bands get by simply on their sense of humor (say Anal Cunt). Sadly Thedowngoing simply brings nothing new to the table. There is no point looking for some hidden, clever underlying sense of purpose behind the wall of random noise here - there is none and if you think otherwise, I'm afraid the band fooled you.

If you really want to hear 15 minutes of two people banging on instruments and yelling in agony, go ahead and buy this waste of plastic of an album. Its sole worth might well be the intriguing album art. As for the music - if Thedowngoing spend some actual time writing songs and let them run for a little longer than a quarter of an hour, then, and only then, will their output become even moderately impressive or interesting. As it is now - Thedowngoing, you're going down!