Vinyl Review



Vinyl Review: Greber/Anthesis - Split EP

Being Canadian, I am always interested in new Canadian metal I've never heard of before. Greber crossed my path online and the descriptor of a two piece band of drums and bass playing grindcore certainly intrigued me, them being from Cambridge, ON just sealed the deal when I saw this split EP at my local record store. Greber and Anthesis are both Canadian, Greber from the aforementioned Cambridge and Anthesis hailing from the maritimes.

Greber's sound is heavy, chaotic, and organic, songs swaying through rhythmic patterns and tempo changes that repeat but don't feel like a verse chorus structure. They have two songs on their side of the EP and on neither do they let up for even a moment unless it's to punctuate what's to come. There is some really great musicianship on this recording, both instruments are played together in ways that accentuate each other wonderfully. The music is heavy and complex enough to stand without guitar, but the bass never goes so fast as to lose it's identity, and the integral rhythmic relationship between bassist and drummer is never lost or even compromised.

The drums are great, thunderous and powerful the rhythms rise and fall with really nice sound on the drums for this kind of generally lo-fi, crunchy kind of music. The bass is really great as well, and it needs to be to make up for the lack of other strings. The tone is really cool and the songs are filled with great leads and fills. The bass is sometimes lost behind the crushing drums and the harsh barked vocals, becoming an almost drone-like noise, this is not a bad thing as it gives the songs texture during these portions of blasting percussion.

Anthesis have two songs on their side of the EP as well and they come out swinging with a nasty, crusty, punky hardcore with a big fat shot of metalcore, in the best way possible. I have to start by saying the bass on this recording is really excellent, not wildly technical or anything, just a great tone played and recorded very well. The guitar is good, but really is just not able to get out from the shadow of the bass, this is cool though as the nearly lead bass with more rhythm guitar is somewhat unique.

The songs are cool, intense, and fun with some great heavy riffs, some sweet bass-only breakdowns, and shouty hardcore vocals tinged with a touch of the metalcore grunt, all supported by some solid drumming applying stalwart modern metal stylings and d-beat-esque rhythms that occasionally escalate to nigh blast-beat territory. Again the recording and production is good quality, but still raw and a little dirty.

I really enjoy both sides of this split EP from Greber and Anthesis. It makes me excited to see more material from these bands and will inspire me to keep my eyes out for any live shows they might be playing in my neighbourhood. This split EP remains in regular rotation when I am looking for good heavy music to bang my head to.

Recommended for

Super cool stuff here for fans of heavy music, especially Canadian heavy music
If you like grindcore, hardcore, or metalcore 
Bass players

The Vinyl

Size: 7"
Speed: 33 rpm
Colour: solid green
Weight: medium-lightish
Labels: Ancient Temple Recordings, No List Records
Limited Edition to 300 copies
Good sound quality


An error seems to have left some excess vinyl around the spindle hole, but it sits fine on my turntable so no harm done.






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