Gendo Ikari – Rokubungi (Review)

This is the debut album from Scottish grindcore band Gendo Ikari.

Featuring a member of Ashenspire, Gendo Ikari play scathing grindcore that should appeal to fans of bands such as Discordance Axis, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Antigama, and Pig Destroyer. It’s fast, it’s nasty, and in 25 minutes it will leave you a bloody puddle on the floor.

This is intense stuff. The songs are angular and chaotic, yet also tightly controlled and precise in their devastating impact. Gendo Ikari crush, maim, destroy, and rend through merciless blasting, atypical riffs, and brutal withering aggression.

There’s an unpredictability to the songwriting that’s somehow infectious. The tracks move from one to the next with utter disregard for anything other than carnage and mayhem, and yet…Rokubungi doesn’t sound a mess. Of course, despite my description, Gendo Ikari know very well that they’re doing. This is a controlled chaos and each track has a specific purpose. Sometimes this is sheer brutality, but at others there’s a jagged soundscape to be crafted, a particular atmosphere to be spread, or a mid-paced juggernaut to be moved.

Gendo Ikari’s ability to fuse elements of mathcore, deathgrind, noise rock, powerviolence, and hardcore into a grinding monster of a thousand riffs is impressive. Importantly, it also makes for an album that’s unexpectedly varied and has a surprising amount of character and personality. This is not faceless grind-by-numbers, this is something way better than that, something that stands out like the aforementioned bands do above.

Rokubungi reminds me of the early 2000s, of listening to releases from bands like Labrat, Association Area, Total Fucking Destruction, Luddite Clone, thekevorkiansolution, Atomsmasher, Uphill Battle, and many others – Gendo Ikari have the same air of quality, charisma, unconventional charisma, and gripping intensity about them.

If you’re a fan of any of the sort of extremity I’ve mentioned above, then Rokubungi is an essential listen for you. Don’t miss out.