Ottawa’s Fuck The Facts have always been polymaths of the grind scene – so much so that they often get lumped into the vague and not-well-populated sub-subgenre of ‘bastardised grindcore’, and when they were signed to Relapse the label seemed to have difficulty knowing how to push them.
Now free of all contractual obligations, the band have turned inward – where they thrive best – for the scholastic chaos of full-length number 10.
Powerhouse blasting and cannonball intensity (La Mort I) are chiselled at by measured shred (La Mort II), excursions down paths of ear-catching melody (Storm Of Silence, Prey, False Hope) and the sounds of post-apocalyptic sweatshops constructing Mars-bound escape pods that dominate the album’s closing third. The approach may be scattershot, but the gelled vocal trade-offs of Mel Mongeon and Marc Bourgon, and the manner with which they keep to a focused path in light of their blurred lines writing style, exhibits a further sense of growth, which isn’t bad for a band 18 years into the game.
