Ah Grindcore, a genre I have been sceptical about since its discovery; sometimes when genres get over the top silly I just think, can't we just call it simply Heavy Metal? But then again, you can't really put Depressive Black Metal in that genre I suppose, you can but there is not much point really due to the different class they are labelled as. So that's that out of the way then, guess it's just something us OG Heavy Metal fans need to open our minds on.

MARUTA are a Grindcore, Death Metal band from Miami/Orlando, Florida, I've seen a couple bands live from this stature, Grindcore/Slam I think they were including ACCURSED KINGDOM who put on a damn brutal gig, and I'm pretty sure these guys would too, and I love how these bands just shove Metal brute in your face, no gimmicks, no false entry, just straight up brutality.

This is not a band for the light hearted, featuring vocals from JR Hayes from PIG DESTROYER (a prime example of an influence) and Tomas Lindberg from AT THE GATES, "Remain Dystopian" is setting out to be a killer record.

With a very long tracklist but with short songs this really isn't a long album, but from the get go I got this distinct sense that my mind would be blown. "Genocide Interval", "Hope Smasher", and "The Void Within" crush you and leave you hungry for more crushing brutality, I know that sounds stupid to you non-metal fans out there but believe me, it's so good to headbang to this intensity of anguish and power. Oh my Lord of Steel, that power.

With Metal you don't always need to understand the lyrics, hence why we get the booklets with every CD, but I like to get this argument out of the way and keep reminding people that growling is also a lyric form, just more brutal and deadly. Read the lyrics and try it for yourself, it's pretty damn fun, just don't go too extreme from the beginning if you're a novice, you may leave your throat feeling a bit broken.

I have to talk about the guest appearances though, with "Stride Endlessly Through Scourged Earth" we have none other than Tomas Lindberg from AT THE GATES who helps fuse a fascinating combo of screams, yells and growls, a powerhouse of true steel.
"Submergence aka Barren Oceans" is one of the longer tracks and brings a break from the excitement of guest appearances for now, blood, sweat and tears were produced with this one surely. Those screams at the end were fantastic, I bet Mitchell Luna's throat was ruined a bit after! Next we have a very short one with JR Hayes from PIG DESTROYER, a band I enjoy myself and I believe he deserved a longer outing but it's still an honour for these guys to perform with such talent, short songs or not!

Following this we have a few more tracks that punch the groove line very hard and left me rattling my head like an insane groove nut. I'm pretty sure most Grindcore have very short songs like this but as I've said in a couple reviews they leave you wanting to repeat it over and over again until you're fully satisfied, at least this would be the case for you Grindcore fanatics out there! Definitely worth a shot if you love to unleash the brutal face of approval!

Bottom line, short album, but includes a kick arse soundtrack that Metal fans in general should appreciate. Great artwork too I should say before I close. As said at the beginning, I was sceptical about Grindcore, but this discovery may have changed my mind, cheers, MARUTA.