Camphora Monobromata from Russia play mincecore, a strain of grindcore which adherents stress has its own unique identity. The lay listener can conveniently dispose of such distinctions and consider this grindcore for all intents and purposes, but for what it’s worth, mincecore appears a little more organized than its cousin in grind; the nature of the riff remains as simple and monochromatic as that found in other punk variants, but mincecore as a whole appears to be more mindful of mood and the way song premises are introduced and developed. Guitars are perhaps downtuned further, the slam riff of crust forms an integral part of the song’s internal lexicon, and strumming technique itself fluctuates between a rapid down-pick across power chords and a more precise tremolo motion. Themes are almost always politically-driven, either emanating from the individual’s egoistical center (Minor Threat), or from a vaguely articulated far-left position (sub-genre progenitors Agathocles).

Camphora Monobromata, however, may just have put out the seminal mincecore recording. Suffering Amongst The Hostile Walls is asphyxiatingly intense like all good grind, but it is also focused and atmospheric enough to work as an album. While genre templates dictate that textural variety is limited, by deliberating on the duration of the individual phrase, however intense the underlying rhythm might be, Camphora Monobromata elongate and embellish the restricted narrative heft at their disposal. Influences from Napalm Death‘s crossover into death metal on Harmony Corruption make themselves heard occasionally, reinforcing the impression that this band is less about shapeless, gratuitous release, but rather cares about crafting short yet relatively memorable explosions in noise.