ALBUM REVIEW: Friendship - "I&II"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 10/02/2017

Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories

“I & II” is a devastating slab of high octane noise-riddled evil that makes most heavy bands sound weak and feeble in comparison.  The band’s brief outbursts of messy, feedback riddled punk mayhem are as exhilarating as they are terrifying.

“I & II”CS//DD//LP track listing:

1). Jerusalem

2). T.R.Ø.Y

3). Bill Evans

4). €ompton

5). Represent

6). Bottomless Pit

7). Abuse

8). SB

9). Hype

10). Slaughterhouse

11). Law

12). El Chapo

The Review:

Japan’s Friendship have delivered the nastiest listening experience of 2017 in the form of their “I & II”LP. This release brings together their first two self-released EPs to form one concentrated blast of aural terror. Incendiary opener “Jerusalem” packs more carnage into thirty three seconds than most bands manage in a whole album. It’s a punishing onslaught of frantic, ugly grindcore that sets the tone for horror to come.

Friendship take the sludge-coated powerviolence of Iron Lung and Weekend Nachosand ramp up the intensity and aggression way into the red and beyond. The band’s brief outbursts of messy, feedback riddled punk mayhem are as exhilarating as they are terrifying but they are at their most effective when they explore the extremes of the tempo spectrum within the space of a single track.

“T.R.Ø.Y”begins at a snail’s pace as the bass and drums carve out a torturous minimal riff that creates an air of bleak foreboding. This makes the eruption of furious crust that follows all the more potent. There are hints of off-kilter noise rock weirdness in amongst the wreckage too, best exemplified by the insane opening riff to “€ompton”. Somehow Friendship manage to take this construction of pummelling chords, bizarre string bends and ringing discord and make it the basis of a straight ahead grind assault. As the track progresses it slows and degenerates into a pit of barely-mobile doom torment reminiscent of Primitive Manat their most oppressive.

“I & II”is a devastating slab of high octane noise-riddled evil that makes most heavy bands sound weak and feeble in comparison.  If these two EP’s are a hint of Friendship’s fearsome power I suggest taking cover now in preparation for a full-length offering.      

“I & II”is available here