Shapes Of Misery

This group of Blockheads is a French grindcore act, not to be confused with any of the other bands who have taken the name over the years even though one would think Ian Dury's backing group had laid sufficient claim on it. (It's not like you see multiple bands called "the Attractions," now, is it?) Only their third full-length released during a decade-and-a-half-long career, Shapes of Misery is brutally efficient grindcore, twenty short, sharp, shocks' worth of whiplash headbanging complete with vividly misanthropic lyrics (in English, to the extent that this matters in grindcore), precision unison riffing, and a solid line in double-time blastbeat drumming. Shapes of Misery gets the job done, then, but that's about all that can be said of it: this is grindcore at its most generic, the sort of thing that even committed fans of the style are likely to find underwhelming.