SAYYADINA are from Sweden and features members of bands such as VICTIMS, BIRDFLESH and NASUM. According to their bio, they describe their own sound as grindcore. Well, maybe the Dutchman's either prejudiced or not keeping up with the times but usually when I think of grindcore the first things that come to mind are blastbeats, deliberately bad production, undecipherable grunting and lyrics that are either extremely politically left-wing or the silly gore antics of bands like ANAL CUNT, PROSTHETIC CUNT and WACO JESUS. Apparently a lot has changed since NAPALM DEATH's seminal "Scum" record. On "Fear Gave Us Wings" SAYYADINA give us 19 songs in just 27 minutes that combine furious hardcore with tightly-played thrash metal hooks and riffs. There's enough blastbeats to make it interesting for grindcore fans but there's absolutely nothing messy about the production or the playing on this record. Try to imagine "Pleasure To Kill"-era KREATOR playing songs by early D.R.I. and you'll get a rough idea of SAYYADINA's sound.

What also surprised me is that this is a pretty dark record. If you hadn't already guessed that from the title combined with that airplane on the cover, song titles like "Losing Faith" and "Sick Of This World" will kinda give it away. Not to mention lyrics like "The World Will Never Listen/The World Will Never Change/The World Will Never See/The World Is Going Down". No silly 'safe' horror imagery or gory slapstick here; mankind has fucked up and the guys in SAYYADINA are quite irked about it. SAYYADINA are living proof that music doesn't have to be doom or goth to be gloomy. All in all, this record is a really nice surprise from these Swedes (although 'nice' probably isn't the right term). I hope being in a multitude of bands won't stop these guys from making another one.

- Van Hoften

OFFICIAL SITE: www.sayyadina.com

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