www.needleinthegroove.co.uk: Pound

Monday 9 July 2018

Pound - 'S/T' Album Review

"Instrumental grind duo Pound play a super groovy, mathy form of the genre... The mathy chaos shares as many similarities with The Dillinger Escape Plan and Meshuggah as it does with other grindcore bands." – Decibel Magazine

Seattle duo Pound will release its debut, self-titled album, July 13th 2018 on Silent Pendulum Records. The duo of Ryan Schutte and David Stickney – takes influence from across the spectrum of grind and doom, from Nasum to Sleep, then chops up these influences and delivers its own brand of hyper-shred-math that twists and turns relentlessly, dropping occasionally into monstrous grooves. This is instrumental irreverence capable of dazzling tech-heads and Neanderthals equally.

Pound's unique setup consists of a baritone 9-string guitar and two drum kits positioned at a 90-degree angle. The sounds extracted from these unorthodox instruments adds up to an entirely new vibe that belongs only to Pound.

The music's machine-like nature is reflected in the song titles – each title is a symbolic representation of a rhythm contained in the song.

Oh My God I am in LOVE!!!! This album is just unbelievable!! For what I’m sure will be noise to a lot of people, to me, this is just pure aggressive, pin point thrash played in such a way I have never heard before.

If you’re not going to appreciate the music, you HAVE to appreciate the playing style here. It’s tight, accurate, nasty, deep, mean. There are no vocals so how do these guys remember everything at such speed?!?!? Phenomenal stuff!!!

I’ve never heard playing like this in my life. I can honestly say that these guys are unbelievable at what they do, and deserve all the success that I hope they get. Do NOT not listen to this.

Score 10/10

Reviewed by Sty

Track Listing

1) x..x..x..x..x..x..x

2) x.---.x.---.x.---.x.---

3) x.x-.x-x.-x.x

4) --.x-x.--

5) -..-..-.x-..-..-..-..-..x..-..-..-..-....

6) -xx.-.xxxx-xx.-.xxxx-xx.-.xx

7) -.x-.x-x-.x-.x-.x-.x-x

8) -x--x--x--x--x.x-x.x-x.x-x.x

Line-Up

Ryan Schutte - baritone 9-string guitar

David Stickney - drums

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ABOUT ME

I was brought up on my dad's record collection of rock 'n' roll greats. He was a Teddy Boy and had all the gear (and hair) - drain pipe trousers, jacket, crepe shoes. We listened to Elvis, Bill Hailey, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, Fats Domino, Tommy Steel, and the big names from the sixties such as Dave Clark Five, Wayne Fontana, Dave Dee (etc.,). This music was the kind that you would listen to to rebel against and annoy your parents; it was rough, wild, and the Ted's had a reputation.

So, fast forward to the end of the 70's. I was about 12 when it was the thing to choose your musical stance. It had to be a good choice as there was no going back. You had to be a mod, or a rocker back around 1980. I had a mate (still do, just the one mind) and he was an influence with regards to my musical tastes (and we still go gigging together to this day), and what with my dad's influence I chose the rocker route. I've never looked back. We (me and dad) both started a musical journey where our parents hated what we listened to! In fact, being a teenager in the mid 50s, it wasn't any different to being a teenager in the late 70's/early 80's with regards to rebellion. Although in my era, you couldnt get rickets.

I was fed strictly on a cassette diet of Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Rush and Rainbow. From there it expanded into melodic rock and hair metal - Journey, Foreigner, Stryper, Ratt, Motley Crue, and Dokken. And Prog!

I absorbed all I could. I was a human sponge. The internet was eons away, so I got my fix via a wonderful weekly paper called 'Sounds.' It covered a lot of genres, but they specialised in Rock! I read it every week without fail for about three years. I loved the way their reporters wrote articles. It was like they were talking directly to me. It's how I try to do the same today. When it stopped, I moved with the crowd and subscribed to 'Kerrang!' A lot of the 'Sounds' crew moved across, and it felt like home. I wanted to know more about what was happening over in the U.S. So I subscribed to 'Hit Parader' - it was shite really, the articles weren't great, but the pictures were good. Plus I could follow the Dokken feud between Don and George. Thirty odd years later, they still hate each other! Today, its a diet of 'Classic Rock' Mag, sometimes 'Prog Mag', 'Fireworks' and 'Planet Rock' mag.

My enjoyment of this music has never waned. I see the same people time and again and its a great community. I try to get to as many gigs as I can still as its much better than sitting on your arse reviewing. I hope you enjoy the blog!

Paul Chesworth