J-Man With a history dating back to 1989, French grindcore act Blockheads are certainly among the country's longest running and most well-respected grind outfits. It's been roughly seven years since the band released their fourth full-length album, 2006's Shapes of Misery, but the band has returned in 2013 with a lethal palette of political frustration, unrelenting aggression, and unsaturated anger for their Relapse Records debut, This World Is Dead.

In the spirit of acts like Napalm Death, Nasum, and Rotten Sound, the music of Blockheads is primarily fast-paced, aggressive grindcore music with a few hints of death metal and sludge metal. The sludge influence primarily appears in the slow, doomy closing track "Trail of the Dead", but the entire album has a somewhat sludgy and hopeless atmosphere to my ears. This World Is Dead evokes a feeling of despair in its listener, and while the music is quite energetic, something about it is rather unsettling to my ears - I need to be in a special mood for This World Is Dead's miserable atmosphere to connect with me.

When I'm in that mood, though, Blockheads' music really satisfies my craving for hopeless, fast-paced, and aggressive grindcore music. Its abrasive production and general lack of rhythmic variation means that This World Is Dead probably isn't for everybody, but fans of grindcore will find plenty to enjoy here. Although Blockheads may not be doing anything tremendously groundbreaking with the genre, their music is solid enough to find plenty of appeal among its followers.

UMUR "This World is Dead" is the 5th full-length studio album by French grindcore act Blockheads. The album was released through Relapse Records in January 2013. Blockheads were formed as far back as 1989 and they are widely considered one of the most prolific French grindcore acts.

The music on "This World is Dead" is relentlessly aggressive grindcore. It´s predominantly played at a furious pace (with shouting aggressive vocals) although the band release the gas pedal a few times during the albums playing time (most notably in the slow and sludgy closing track "Trail of the Dead"). The atmosphere is bleak and despair and hopelessness reek from the music. The sound production is raw and loud, which can make the listening experience a bit hard on the ears, but on the other hand that´s to be expected from a grindcore release right?

"This World is Dead" is both well played, well produced (if you like productions raw, distorted and loud) and relatively well written too. The songwriting could have been more varied and it´s safe to say Blockheads don´t invent the wheel here either, but all in all "This World is Dead" is an enjoyable grindcore release and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.