Smile and the World Smiles With You (Self-released)
Gatecreeper isn’t the only Arizona band to unleash nastiness recently: on New Years’ Day, Phoenix trio Fluids dropped
Smile and the World Smiles With You, a three-track EP that cements them as the goregrind band to beat. While Mortician is an influence du jour in the underground now, their early efforts carried a “man discovers fire” energy, stumbling upon primitive brilliance that can’t be replicated by average dudes consciously dumbing themselves down. Fluids carry on what made Mortician enthralling – brickwalled, bass-heavy brutality and throbbing drum machine – and send it all into a smashing overdrive. This isn’t just lacking subtlety, this is beating subtlety into an unrecognizable pulp. Guitars are built thick and somehow get stretched into static, as in the case of “Gagged’s” slower moments. The trash can snares are deliberate, as no taste is worse than bad taste.