Ian Dury this ain't. Blockheads have, for a long time now, taken a page out of the chapter of Scum in the gospel of Napalm Death, and This World Is Dead, the band's sixth long-player, is no exception. It's a furious, unbelievably fast offering that stands up next to the best modern Napalm-worship produced by bands like Rotten Sound or Phobia.
And that would be that; another unremarkable story from the extreme metal underground where a good band keeps putting out good music and no one really notices, but it's not. After being relegated to the sidelines of the grind community, Blockheads finally have their shot at making a decent-sized splash in the extreme metal pool – having partnered with French micro-label Bones Brigade for much of the last decade, Blockheads have headed Stateside and aligned with Relapse Records. The sad reality of the extreme metal scene is that as much as niche labels like Bones Brigade have rosters that showcase a wealth of underground talent – and they really do – that talent is liable to remain underground unless a bigger label picks them up. As their first record for (comparatively) big dog Relapse, This World Is Dead represents a huge opportunity for the five-piece, and they don't waste it.
The riffs on this monster have a noticeable heft to them, even when the band is blasting through numbers like Pro-Lifers and Be A Thorn To Power there's a mosh-ability at play. There's also the sinewy production that doesn't eschew the band's underground origins. Blockheads' grind has always been noteworthy; now with the right label behind them there's no limit to what they're capable of achieving.
