The Leviathan's Mandible - Desolate

'Desolate' is an unrelenting four-and-a-half minute demo from a three piece US death grind outfit by the name of The Leviathan's Mandible. At only four minutes and twenty-seven seconds, the demo is completely filler-free and to the point.

Production is clear and sharp, letting all the instruments come out clearly while still retaining a slight sludginess to the riffs. This demo is completely bass-less. I think this is a good move, because I can only see a bass guitar in the mix being completely cumbersome and slow for the furious tempos reached on this demo. Riffing is a vortex of tremolo picking, smashing chugged riffs and squealing guitar licks. The riffs are very prominent and thrashy, and only ever slow down for about 10 seconds throughout the entire demo. As I've mentioned in the beginning of this review, there are no fills, just a furious barrage of riffs, blast beats, screams and growls until the end. Drumming is made up of copious cymbal smashing, fast hi-hat runs, pummeling double bass runs and smashing blast beats. Vocals are semi-distorted screams and unintelligible guttural roars and growls. The parts that stood out for me are are the guitar squeals alternating with vocals and snare hits on 'Constructs of a God Complex' and the slow, pounding section made up double bass runs, chugging riffs and cymbal crashes at the beginning of 'Slither'.

Overall this is a quality piece of modern grindcore, and the demo can be downloaded from their MySpace page, so there's no reason not to give the demo a listen and support a grindcore band that displays a great deal more competence then the countless gore/grind projects floating around out there.