This masterwork of offbeat scatological grindcore from Japan's Bathtub Shitter is back in print, re-mastered and re-issued in a nice six-panel digipack edition by Rip Roaring Shit Storm Records out of the UK, with two bonus tracks (including one from their split with Misery Index), limited to five hundred copies.
More Japanese scat-obsessed grind weirdness from Bathtub Shitter! Yep, Dancehall Grind is another installment in the ongoing series of limited-edition CD releases of Bathtub Shitter material that's been released through the band's own (S)hit Jam Records imprint. There's a freaking cult that's formed around these guys, as they are one of the weirdest, heaviest Japanese grind bands in action, and I freaked when we got this disc in. Dancehall Grind is the latest full length from the Shitter, recorded throughout 2004-2005, and rocks 13 songs of brand new material from these pot-hoovering, shit-philosophizing, grinding groove gods as well as a cover of D.R.I.'s "Time Out". The disc opens with a short, goofy, Nintendo-type 8 bit melody, but immediately launches into the Shitter's unique hybrid of crushing, rocking thrash metal and crusty grindcore, like a mutant mishmash of old school Japanese grinders S.O.B. and Boredoms, Brutal Truth and Mr. Bungle, stoner rock and pulverizing Celtic Frost sludge and awesome Exodus thrash. You'd better believe that this thrashes...blazing thrash metal mega-riffs smash into weird yet massive grooves that could almost be described as "funky", jackhammer grind blasts get entangled in bursts of super catchy metallic pop-punk, garage rock licks and slap-funk bass appear over slow sludge metal breakdowns and insane blast beats. There's the airy fingerpickin' acoustic interlude titled "Shit Drop", and the fucked up closer "Stihs Latem" that has them playing backwards. The 7 minute-plus "Rest In Piss" is a total deathgrind/prog mindmelt, it's convoluted riffs and tempo shifts stretching out far beyond the duration of a typical grind jam, becoming trancelike as the slow, off time funk-sludge riff alternates with supersonic blast beats. It's all over the fucking place. And Bathtub Shitter's vocalist Masato Henmarer Morimoto vomits up some of the most insane, ridiculous throat performances possible over the band's chaotic musical arrangements, effortlessly changing up between super-guttural, lung-busting gorebeast growling, snotty hardcore hollerin', and a freaked-out, impossibly high-pitched shriek that sounds like a hysterical, coked-up anime cheerleader. And it all works so perfectly, the vocals and schizoid grind shifts make this an awesome, comical, ridiculous, rumbling shitstorm of gnarly grind weirdness.