Sayyadina - The Great Northern Revisited

Recap The Swedish Grind.

Sayyadina was a grindcore trio from Sweden. The band split when bassist Jon Lindqvist joined Nasum. This is essentially a compilation of songs from splits, EPs, demos, and other odds and ends material put together and released on Relapse Records.
The drumming on this record is absolutely frantic and insane sounding. The use of both death metal blast-beats to hardcore punk spazz-outs on the kit, this guy was having a spazz attack on the kit. Each track introduces something different from his playing, hear the blasting in The Awakening or the slower, groovier playing in the beginning of All This Fear.
For good reason Lindqvist was recruited to Nasum, his playing is great. His tone on here is very fuzzy and distorted, but groovy and fast. His bass is heard prominently throughout every song, and sometimes will come out and do a few bass lines to pound your head along with, hear Min Onva Vän for a prominent example.
The guitars feature great fret-work on here, not that one could call this thing technical metal, but the riffs range from groovy and more mid-paced to bang your head into a wall fast, and both prove to be super catchy. Tracks like From Ashes and Med Livet Som Insats feature some of the catchiest grind riffing out there right now, or back then.
Vocals actually prove to be quite ranged. On these tracks you'll hear everything from Sikth type of yells, Napalm Death growls, and Tomas Lindberg screams, sometimes all in one track. If you don't like one style, you can probably skip to the next track and you'll have another style on that, so don't fret if one style isn't your cup of tea.
Like all good grind, the songs on here are short and concise, the longest track on here is about 2:30. This allows this album to feature 30 songs in just over 30 minutes of time. You're basically getting what you pay for, a lot of grind for whatever you happen to spend on it.
Overall, what you get on here is 35 minutes of absolute grind. If you like fast, short, and catchy songs with a very punk-like aesthetic, this is an album you should very much consider checking out. While this is only a compilation album, it is still worth your time.
Overall Score: 7.5
Highlights: The Revenge, Someday I Will Kill, From Ashes, Retaliation, Compulsion, Stagnation