"Grindstone" dithers, lurches and brawls like a gnarly beast of ill-temper. As the second full-length from this young Norwegian collective, the work essentially offers a skewed interpretation on the melange of genres (from prog to hard rock, jazz and ambient) which were twisted together on their previous outing, "In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster."

"Asa Nisi Masa" stews with unremittingly grim noises set behind heaving sub-bass vibrations and stuttering rhythm loops. As sky-reaching drones and vocoodered vocals spill into the piece, though, it becomes clear that there is no center or subject to these works, simply atomic elements that don?t so much belong to any particular song but simply make it up and reappear elsewhere as though of their own whim. In this regard, these songs disregard quality and simply concern themselves with quantity, with an ?anything goes? aesthetic that spawns a certain ecstatic communication, not to mention an erotic intensity in the heart of some of these works.

On other tracks such as "Psalm" and "Fight Dusk With Dawn", this method results in some wonderful moments of lycanthropy. In numerous other places, however, arrangements fall flat, recycling motifs from prog rock and metal as though they were the excrement of a toxic waste plant. The group seem less flat-footed and more free-wheeling when no one element is overly predominent - something which seldom happens on this release. Astral electronics and propulsive jazz rhythms are incorporated into these hot-headed prog rock arrangments, but rarely significantly so. On those odd occasions when the group does in fact cool down, they demonstrate a tendancy to become too complacent and sketch uneventful ambient fodder . Thus, compositions fare better when these disparate elements provide real challenges for each other and, in so doing, create a realm which allows their music to be full-bodied and episodic while also slyly elusive and imponderable. As a result, on pieces such "1:4:9" and the aforementioned "Psalm", elements cover and uncover each other and a pleasing cadence between appearance and secrecy sets in. 5/10 -- Max Schaefer (27 March, 2007)