Review by Krys on February 22, 2002.

Contrary to many opinions, “Czech Assault” didn’t come to me as a big surprise, geographically speaking. Over the last two years I’ve heard a number of rumors and whispers about a fast growing underground scene in this small European country. So, it was just a matter of time until someone like Relapse took a deeper look into the Prague sewers to discover some mighty death grinders that could easily be labeled “Swedish Assauly” and you wouldn’t notice the difference.

A very impressive level of technical death presented by Imperial Foeticide opens the assault. Out of 6 tracks, 4 are mind-raping attacks powered by the inhuman supersonic speed of the drums, wall of guitars and low guttural vocals of Michal Kusak which are diversified by some convulsed screams. This is intense, it has extreme written all over it.

The next band, Negligent Collateral Collapse, has to be my favorite here. As extreme as their predecessor but with a lot more groove to it. With very low tuned guitars some of the riffs are so heavy that for a moment I was worried about my speakers. But the best part are the vocals, whatever those guys do with them, they sound hilarious (No, it’s not a typo). There are moments when they sound like an old dying frog annihilated by a tank or a heavily breathing bull after heaving sex with a horde of cows. Love it!

Contrastic has to be the most original out of this pack. Their version of hardcore is based on some serious house music and while I’m not a big fan of a bunch of guys spinning LPs, I have to admit that some of the tracks sounded very interesting and without the electronic enhancement they would probably never differ from any other HC outfit. Very much worth checking out.

With Intervalle Bizarre we go back to the grind/death roots... that is, to intense instrument molestation. As the name suggests, some seriously insane music can be found here. An ever-changing rhythm section, broken beats, shredded guitar riffs and a cover of Terrorizer’s always badass ‘After World Obliteration’ increased my yearning for more music from these guys.

Fleshless rounds this disc up with good phalanx of solid death/grind courtesy of Obscene Productions. Those guys are not a bit worse than some of the leaders in this genre and fans of early Napalm Death or Extreme Noise Terror should already know them. A cover of Mortician’s ‘Slaughterhouse’ is the weakest track from their set, enough said.

Bottom Line: Due to each band’s differences and quality of production, rating compilations is almost impossible but do you know a better way of discovering new bands? I don’t, and unless you can’t stand death/grind this CD should definitely find its way to your player.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: N/A
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8
Originality: N/A
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.3 out of 10