3

Simply Dull

Haemorrhage are certainly long-timers in the grind genre. Having formed 17 years ago in 1990 and released a respectable amount of albums in the meantime, the record company man must have thought it was long overdue for a best-of to come out, and so we have 'Haematology: the Singles Collection'. Unfortunately as one might expect, grind is hardly a genre where a best-of is even distinguishable from a regular album and to be honest, there is nothing special about the grind on offer.

Now to start with there are some good points. If you ignore the fact that your average track doesn't clear the two minute mark, then you've got good value for money in terms of variety. Furthermore, like most grind, goregrind, death metal and the like there is some comedy to be found in the song names, my personal favourite being either 'Rectovaginal Fistula' or perhaps 'Slithering Marceration Of Ulcerous Facial Tissue'. Musically speaking this is the same old gore, the same old grind. Think poorly done death-metal riffs with a variety of different howled and screamed vocals over the top, which is all mercifully over with in 2 minutes each time. There's nothing innovative, nothing interesting and to be frank nothing particularly enjoyable about the grind that Haemorrhage have to offer the outsider such as myself.

Now, this release is not a regular album, it's a singles collection. Now, singles are only really worth collecting under a few circumstances. Is the band particularly famous and well liked? Is their enough variety in their songs to justify a singles album? Are their singles actually good enough for a recompilation to make sense? In the case of 'Haematology: the singles collection' the answer to all this is no. Whilst Haemorrhage have certainly put in the years and effort into their music, frankly, their music doesn't really warrant being repackaged and resold at all.

If you're a grind fan, you probably already have most of these songs, if you're not a grind fan, you probably won't like this. Besides a suitably filling track list and a few comedy moments there is little to advocate in 'Haematology: the singles collection' at all. Generic grind and generic lyrics make for a dull, dull listen. Grind has its potential, it has its moments even, but this album has none of that and is simply dull.