Baby Basher is a two man brutal death/pornogrind band from Jacksonville, Florida. This is their first full length, Bound For Torture, Beaten Into Submission.
The riffs for this album are mostly fast and grinding, at an up-tempo pace, comparable to Insect Warfare. Frantically strummed power chords and tremelo picked riffs, coupled with open-stringed breakdowns are what most of the songs are made of, the guitar tone is rough and gritty, yet audiable, you can hear every riff. This is not your average death/grind though. I can definitly hear a shitload of old school death metal influences in half of the riffs, which is kind of expected considering they're from Tampa. I was reminded of Scream Bloody Gore so many times throughout this album, which is definitly a good thing, you do not see much old-school influence in most of today's grind, and these guys can integrate it into their music with great effect. They keep things interesting and brutal, succeeding in creating an intense wall of sound, again similar to Insect Warfare. They have frequent little bass solos, which I always am a sucker for. Wonderful bass tone as well, by the way.
Vocals on this album consist mostly of pitchshifted growls and squeals. They do their job, and are not at all bad, they're quite good in fact. My only complaint about them is the lack of diversity, not just in vocal style, but in patterns as well. I'd like it if they mixed in some natural vocals in there, maybe some regular growls, screams, whatever. But, it'd be even better if they had more intricite vocal patterns. They mostly just sing at a flat rate over the music, while it'd sound so much better if they mixed it up and sang with rythem, like Dyscrasia or something. The vocals are good, they do their job and add to the brutallity, it's just that they could do with a bit more diversity.
Baby Basher uses a drum machine as well. Normally, drum machines are alright and are just there to do their job and blast. However, these guys are one of the few that can utilize a drum machine in a great way. The drums are very good on this album. They do blast a lot, but they also go into a lot of other intriciate little rythems and patterns, quite easy to hear and they sound great. Even a few drumsolos here and there, which is quite a nice touch. These guys do a wonderful job with this, you will not mind the fact that they use a drum machine at all.
Another thing I'd like to say is about the groovy parts. Seeing as though this is brutal death/grind, it's kind of expected that there's gonna be a few grooves and slams here and there. And there are. But, the problem is, I can tell they're going for a groovy slam, but the groove parts are not ryhthemic enough to bang your head to. They're brutal, and sound good, but I don't think they're acheiving the effect that they're aiming for.
Oh, and I'd really like to commend Baby Basher on their samples. They make wonderful use of samples. Most bands like Torsofuck or Mortician have like three minute long samples that are annoying as hell, and have some bitch screaming and a chainsaw. Booring. Baby Basher on the other hand, has five to ten second samples that are actually good and at times absolutly hilarious. These guys make fucking great use of samples, something I've yet to see in a lot of other bands, and I really appreciate that Baby Basher know's how to do em right.
To conclude this review, I'm going to say Baby Basher is a very good band of modern gore-soaked death/grind, keeping it fucking brutal and interesting, gory, and hilarious. They have their flaws, but overall, kickass band. Reccomended for fans of Death, Insect Warfare, Nasum, Devourment and Cannibal Corpse.
Check their myspace at www.myspace.com/baybeebasher666
