SANCTIONED
Annexation
Melbourne grind newcomers pick the sharpest blades
DOWNTUNED
Though modelled on the classic grindcore stylings of His Hero Is Gone and Disrupt, Melbourne newcomers Sanctioned feel altogether too tight and clean to neatly belong to the subgenre’s crustiest corners. Moments of bilious hardcore punk do crop up à la Doom and Police Bastard, but more often the band’s frenzied flailing gives way to some truly brilliant lockand-grind in the vein of post-2000 Napalm Death, as on Void and Faceless. This dichotomy is fleshed-out with a healthy dose of domineering death metal, as though somebody took the latest Benediction record and didn’t so much trim the fat as starve it until only the sinewy, piss-and-vinegar ultrathrash remained. These elements create a glorious, hyperactive synthesis.