Tower Of Rome World War I

When looking over a release with song titles such as "2 Dead Deer + 1 Dead Asian = Lung Cancer" and eight tracks that span under twelve minutes, one thought enters my mind: Aren't there enough of these bands already Acts such as the Locust and Daughters certainly popularized spastic grindcore laden with obscure, tongue-in-cheek song titles. World War I is typical of the genre as it features a collection of nonstop blastbeats, whacky tempo changes, and frenzied, indecipherable screams. Heavily distorted guitar riffs do little besides alternate between furious discordance and ten second open chord breakdowns. Although the drumming is impressive in its speed, it offers nothing in terms of diversity as there is little that separates blastbeat from blastbeat. With similarities in vocals and guitar tones, comparisons could easily be made to a more grind-influenced From A Second Story Window. Since Tower of Rome is a relatively young band, I deemed it necessary to check out their debut EP to measure how they've progressed since the 2004 release of All Is Lost... To their credit, Tower of Rome displays a measurable amount of improvement from their debut release. World War I features more thoughtful riffs, smoother transitions, and proof that they can write a cohesive song over one minute in length ("Does Your Friend Have A Name." clocks in at an impressive two minutes and fifteen seconds!). Bottom Line: If you're familiar with the whole "noisecore" genre, you pretty much know what to expect from a band like Tower Of Rome. While World War I isn't treading any new ground, it serves as a noteworthy progression from Tower Of Rome's last effort and intimates that this band might have the ability to do good things in the future if they fine-tune their songwriting ability and decide to break the mold.