Rating: 8.0

Genre: Grindcore

Country: Czech Republic

Release Date: 2009

Record Label: Khaaranus Productions

Track list:
1. H Na Drahu Nepatri
2. Striktni Protokol
3. Impresario
4. Spalit, Ututlat
5. Manifestace Syncopy
6. Vulgo
7. Pan V Nejhorsich Letech
8. Soon To Be Dead (DISMEMBER)
9. Chyba Je V Nich, Rozdil Je V Nas
10. Geronti Jsou Proti
11. New Hippie

Total playing time 19:10

Band Website: Opitz

Opitz - Globalni Orgie - Striktni Protokol

Vit'a - Bici
Putti - Rev
Polu - Basa
Ubine - Kytara, Rev

Second release from Opitz, and as Kunal mentioned in his review of their split with Rubufaso Mufuko (<click now!), bands such as this are facilitating the recovery of the Czech scene after its unfortunate Korntamination.

If you're a DC regular and read any of the shite that I type, you might be aware that my ears are often extremely entrenched into the works of the bands from this scene, as well as being a keen visitor to the land, so you know I'll be slobbering that Czech-cock right down my throat from the very first second of the recording, regardless of whether or not the content is actually any good. Seriously though, this is very good indeed! You've got the huge, head removing riffs and blastbeats in abundance, you know, the kind of thing you'd've come to expect from a Czechgrind band, but rather than loading the thing up with daft grooves and exaggerated vokill theatrics like Jig Ai, DEAG et al (although I love all that stuff too), Opitz take a much more severe approach, aiming for your jugular instead of your funny bone. They take more traditional slabs of grindcore flesh, and stitch 'em back together with several old-skool death metal stitches, then embalm the thing well with a fresh jar of formaldehyde to give a bit of a more modern day grind sort of feel to it. If we were to play a fun guessing-game, I'd guess that Opitz were from Scandinavia, Sweden in particular, 'cos it sounds more raucous and much colder than the warm, bouncy silliness I'd usually expect from the Czech-scene.

The guitar riffs ought to scrape your face off rather well, whilst your skull gets deftly bashed in by heavy-duty blast hammers, with a smattering of slower sections to let you get a breath... well, not really, 'cos the less fast bits serve only to steamroll your across your cranium, in order to iron it out, flatten it down and smooth it over ready for another bout of blast-heavy bashment. There are a few genuine breathing spaces slotted in very sparsely indeed though; these usually come in the form of fleeting passages of indistinct wistfulness. Or something. Whilst all the other stuff's happening, your ear canals will get a nice clearout, administered by a multi-needle vocal syringe, which'll squirt all kinds of colourful laryngeal liquid right the way into your stirred grey matter. Some of the grindings have a sort of hardcore (oof, loose term that) tint to them, but doesn't have an unpleasant result by any means, because they combine well with the death/grind inclined bits of the thing. As is the case with thousands of short grindcore releases (those that are around the 15-20 minute playing surface), it seems to flash past your lugs in no time at all, and this one certainly needed one or two more quick listens before I could disentangle the tunes, but that doesn't take long, and I think anyone reading this who likes a bit o' grind will certainly derive listening pleasure from Opitz.

Some bands who, if you like some or all of , then you might like Opitz as well: Contrastic, that's an obvious one though 'cos if you acquire this album you'll be listening to musicians from out of Contrastic again already anyway (Opitz are probably a bit more streamlined than Contrastic though I'd say), Ingrowing, Pigsty, but Kunal said that in his review of the Opitz/Rubufaso Mukufo split, so that might make me look like I don't really know what I'm talking about, so I'll move onto that thing I mentioned earlier about the Scandinavian sound, so I'll say Rotten Sound, but less tedious, Nasum (the latter releases [but with a bit of their early stuff too!], Splitter, but not quite as shrill and strident, Afgrund? Oh yeh, and I said something about old grind, so I'll say something like Brutal Truth, but Kunal said that as well, so I'll look shit again, so how I expand upon the bit where I mentioned death metal. I want to say Dismember, but that's no good 'cos they've done a cover version of 'Soon to Be Dead' on track eight, so I'll just leave it at that and say that although Opitz tunes are built on grindcore foundations, there are many death metal phrases and motifs carefully arranged upon it, and they work together nicely to form a robust death/grind structure. Ah, but I also said something about hardcore didn't I? Fuck off.

The artwork/design/layout is a superb package and serves as an item that you can enjoy by itself, excellent concept, lovely composition and innovative execution, wrapped up in a deluxe gatefold inlay booklet ...I don't want to give any more than that away...go get.

Overall then, this is a winner from Khaaranus Productions that you ought to look into very soon! Anyone who may have been more than a bit upset when the Czechscene seemed to undergo a shift towards the masked and dreadlocked, tuned-down and pierced-up area of Mallcore will be more than pleased to see bands such as Opitz plowing through the dry old earth with tunes like these. Cheers!

November 28, 2009