The Soufflet Of The Samurai: UNSU - "K.I.A.I (Kill Icons And Idiots)" Review

UNSU is a grinding four piece from France and their 2014 album K.I.A.I (Kill Icons And  Idiots) is a ripper. I didn't realize this album was released in 2014 until I stumbled on to the band's website and saw that they were hyping up the album's release in December. (I didn't even know bands still had websites.) Had I known this, K.I.A.I. would've been high on my "2014 best of list." Like top 5 at least. UNSU slays the majority of that list.  

UNSU drummer, Adrien, is a blast metronome behind the kit. I'm hearing little in the way of tom work during the speedier passages, which makes up almost the entirety of the album; instead, relying on mostly snare and cymbal work. I love the snare sound in the mix. It's right up front and has that poppy, solid, wood block sound that sticks out. The snare sound makes his blast beats and the pulsing drag rolls he has a penchant for utilizing resonate that much more.

The guitar is nice and hefty with distortion. Bassist Micky and guitarist Manu do their jobs quite nicely driving the songs forward, fleshing out the bones laid down by the equally propelling drumming. I appreciate the fullness of the strong use of power chords. No wankery here, as they say. The bare meat and bones approach is usually the best. These songs are great. 

Vocalist Dam is right in line with the rest of the band. I'm not sure if he's doing all the vocals here, but he's the only one listed as such in the liner notes. Either way, we hear your standard grind vocals here: low gutterals, raspy highs and even higher pig squeals. 

K.I.A.I. is a well rounded album from a great band. Production sounds good but not overly polished; just slightly fuzzed over enough to even everything out without tredding into the "raw" territory. Again, the snare sound is the nicely jaggged edge of this smooth pebble. Popping out in the mix just the way I like it. I've always believed in the emphasis of the snare drum in grind over the more metal mix of counting on the double bass kick. There is double kick presence here, mainly in the hardcore, mosh heavy breakdowns of the longer songs. (Longer songs being about a minute and a half, so we're not talking epic here.) The breakdowns and the songs that open with slower dirges that eventually fall away to sweet sweet blasting seem to be the formula here. If I had to nitpick, that use formula would be the only downside. UNSU use three types of songs on this release: open-dirge-fast, fast-breakdown-fast and all fast. But I don't mind at all. I love the grind formula. I love this album. This thing owns. It's French, bitch! 

FFO: Human Cull, Nolentia, Rotten Sound, Mumakil