I am genuinely not sure if French speed freaks Chiens are attempting to breach the land speed record, or merely attempting to extremely prematurely induce crippling arthiritis, either way they are just shy of acheiving both; their One Sided LP crams more blasts, riff changes, tempo swaps in one half of an LP than some bands put out in their entire career. It's a relentless, inhumanely fast paced storm of grindcore that had the misfortune of being leashed and dragged by a pack of fastcore hounds who just spotted a tasty looking rabbit.
Its no wonder they only filled one side of the 12", prolonged playing at such velocities would undoubtedly result in limb dislocation. Its a short lived performance, but one that undeniably secures the drummer in the blastbeat hall of fame, having blasted so invigoratingly and at such damnable speeds that I had to reconsider if I still felt Rob Proctors redifinition of blast beats on Assucks Misery Index still epitomised the brilliancy of kicking things, and pounding things with wooden sticks in the name of music. Misery Index held out, but not without taking a mauling by the One Sided LP.
Stylistically they are without a doubt the European counterpart to grindviolence hall of famers Magrudergrind; unleashing the same blend of catchy, well constructed power chord crunching rabidity. However I would be reluctant to box it into the Magrudergrind worship category, it has a number of perks that really make it stand out from the aformentioned speed to the two decade past Napalm Death leanings, and last and by no means least is the sheer viscousness in their two part vocal assualt; One being a screeching rabid monstrosity and the over a more typical chesty powerviolence alpha male bellow.
Forget lyrics, the band merely outline the theme to each song on the lyrics sheet, the likely reality of it all being that there are no lyrics merely a frenzied argument between the two vocalists that doesn't consist of words, merely a vocal manifestation of rage.
Despite the near ridiculous choice of terminal tempo, the release stands firm in not blurring into a mess of noise; with each riff jump, tempo swap, alternating blast beat method and vocal screech anchoring the releases rythmic back bone.
There is only really one more thing to say: Ta gueule putain! Écoutez les Chiens maintenant!
