Mindscraper

Blood Freak are the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist "Maniac" Neil Smith, who recruits bandmembers as needed to play his cranked-up, gore-besotted grindcore songs. On early releases, BF was a one-man show, but on this fourth album, the first for Willowtip, he's got a lead vocalist (simply named Kevin) and a drummer named Travis Ruvo. The music is downtuned, chugging hardcore/death metal/grindcore, a blurry mix of rattling drums, buzzing guitars, and guttural vocals. There's a dash of thrashy melody here and there, and some psychedelic production touches, particularly on the doomy track that closes the album, "Gobble Up Your Guts, Pt. 3." The album intro, "Psychoplasmics," is a fantastic collage of horror and exploitation movie dialogue set to a strange techno-ish backing track; it really does absolutely nothing to prepare the listener for what's to follow, and that's a good thing. Blood Freak may seem like just another gore-obsessed thrash/grind band, but they've got a few more ideas than some of their peers, and Mindscraper is worth a listen.