PHOBIA has been unleashing furious crust grind for decades now, and while most of their peers have either slowed down or thrown in the towel, PHOBIA just keeps the beatings coming with their umpteenth release Unrelenting. On a release perfect for today’s ADD ridden youths, the veterans manage to cram in 17 songs in under 15 minutes, cutting out the fat and layers of throwaway filler. Instead, the band’s focus is on keeping the pace relentless and the delivery punishing. There are very few “breaks” in this exercise of full throttle blasting. Sure, there’s the 30 second mini intro “T.R.O.G.,” a quick musical guitar solo from guest Dorian Rainwater on “Rehashed” and the brief mid-tempo breakdown action on “Nothing Matters,” but for the most part the attacks keep coming, driven by the band’s 10,000th drummer Bryan Fajardo (also of KILL THE CLIENT and NOISEAR) whose blast patterns drive the songs into the listener’s skull. But if those tracks prove to be too “epic,” there’s also “You Get No Remorse,” which gives you a quick 10 second grind fix, perfect for those grinders on the go. Twenty-one years in and no signs of slowing down, Unrelenting is a testament to the band’s integrity, easily showing the pretenders and wannabes how uncompromising grindcore is done. (Relapse Records)
