Do I need to even say at this point that Dendritic Arbor, to me at least, is one of the most exciting bands out there right now? Their experimentation, their fusion of avant-garde black and grind, their perfect placement of jarring ambience...it's all utter perfection. That out of the way, I am both excited and saddened by this new split release. On the one hand it is more amazing music we have come to know and love, but on the other it represents the last recording with two key members. But I'll mourn later. As of now, the band is still active and searching for replacements; so let's just enjoy two bands worth of killer new songs.
Dendritic Arbor gets first dibs with "Ishi." This may very well be my new favorite song from the band. The opening bass line followed by the typical onslaught of dissonant distortion and shin-snapping drumming is an utter delight to my masochistic ears. This song also strikes me as their most accessible one to date... if you can call any form of grindcore "accessible." "Untitled" follows as a purely instrumental/ambient track featuring what sounds like rusty gates and the band's omnipresent extrasensory ear for the unsettling. Finally, "Snake Oil" is another huge victory leaning heavily on the more mathematical side of things. It is a challenging track, but one that still manages to engage me intensely at all levels.
By comparison, Infinite Waste comes off as sounding a bit tamer of a group. But make no mistake, this is purely due to their placement on side B. Even Frankenstein looks less threatening when standing next to today's typical movie monster. Taken in isolation, this is still more impressively extreme grindcore with some further black and death metal overtones. Of the two solid tracks, "Suicide Room" is probably my favorite. It sounds like a gauntlet through all three of these genre's filled with razorblade tremolos, crunch and squeal of distortion, and alternating of deep growls and maniacal shrieks. Being less familiar with this band, I can safely say that it left me wanting to hear more. There's always room for more jello.
All in all, this is a damn fine Split. Dendritic Arbor have outdone themselves with tracks that I argue are even stronger than their last release and continue to play with an amazing level of ordered chaos. Infinite Waste also come out of this one having earned a new fan with their intense aggression and death metal fusions. More and more I find myself appreciating split releases as the life's blood of metal music. It's a great way to keep new content flowing to your listeners and expose them to other bands in similar styles. I dare say that this is one of the best splits of the year, and I look forward to see where both bands go from here.