I left my first splotch on this fair site with Concrete Winds in 2021. The regrettably-titled Nerve Butcherer was an archetypal 3.0. Concrete Winds’ brand of war metal was fierce, concise, and exciting, but I haven’t returned to it due to its shameless recycling of ideas. Their new self-titled record seems to promise a similar experience, even in its minutiae. Much like its predecessors, Concrete Winds sports amorphous cover art and unfolds over nine tracks with silly faux-death-metal two-word titles.1 I approached the album expecting Concrete Winds to deliver a satisfactory but indistinguishable rehash of their past assaults.
I was half right. Concrete Winds’ sound is instantly recognizable, but it isn’t a photocopy of Nerve Butcherer. As before, Concrete Winds’ blackened riffs sound razor-sharp despite their simplicity. The album unfolds at a frantic pace, spanning nine tracks that treat your ears like a relay race baton. While Concrete Winds’ single-minded barrage feels familiar, it comes with some tweaks. The rhythmic experimentation that both helped and hurt Nerve Butcherer takes a back seat, with occasional exceptions like “Demented Gospels.” If anything, Concrete Winds leans further into their grindcore influences, cutting even straighter to the point (“Daylight Amputations”). Conversely, shrill guitar leads expand the band’s style while fitting snugly within it, augmenting Concrete Winds’ air raid with a siren. Other digressions include industrial percussion (“Subterranean Persuasion”) and Sodom-esque first-wave black metal (“Pounding Devotion”). Concrete Winds steps out of their comfort zone on their self-titled, even if only by an inch.
Concrete Winds by Concrete Winds
Concrete Winds’ old habits and new flourishes merge into an explosive 25 minutes. Every riff shines through its uncontainable energy, making any ten-second snippet of the record a pleasure in its own right. Occasional forays into other styles add novelty without skimping on power, like the industrial segments and traditional death metal influences of “Subterranean Persuasion.” Concrete Winds hits hardest when these pieces come together. For instance, the aggression of highlight “Infernal Repeater” fits the band’s mold, while the track’s flailing guitar melodies both stand out and heighten its intensity. Consistently smooth transitions between different songs and styles help the album’s new experiments feel at home throughout. Concrete Winds continues to play to their strengths, maintaining their violence-first approach while taking new steps.
Still, Concrete Winds struggles to stay fresh as a complete record. Despite diverging from its predecessors, it wears out through repetition. Concrete Winds’ trademark lowbrow war metal is the album’s core, and variations like the air raid siren guitars show up so often that they become forgettable. Once you settle into Concrete Winds’ style, even its most extreme cuts feel cookie-cutter, especially after several listens (“Virulent Glow”). Luckily, the album doesn’t brazenly self-plagiarize riffs as Nerve Butcherer did, but both its shortest songs (“Permanent Dissonance”) and its longest (“Demented Gospels”) pull from the same bag of tricks. Every idea here works in isolation, but different sections step on each other’s toes, making the final product less exciting to revisit.
Concrete Winds hit me hard on my first spin, but it dulls as the weeks go by. A first glance reveals marked improvements over Nerve Butcherer and Primitive Force. Concrete Winds has added new tools to their arsenal and reduced their raw repetition of riffs, all while sounding just as sharp. But even over just half an hour, this abrasive brand of grindy blackened death loses its edge through overuse. Your mileage may vary. Devotees of bands like Angelcorpse should pay heed, and Dolph’s enthusiasm suggests that the album may be a hit with no-good cetaceans. While Concrete Winds won’t threaten my year-end list, it’s a thrilling listen with enough innovation to get me excited for its follow-up.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Sepulchral Voice Records
Websites: concretewinds.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/aggressivenoisetorment
Releases Worldwide: August 30th, 2024
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