Blast Worship: Eastwood

Where they from?
Bandcamp says they’re from Germany AND France, quite the combo. This where I write about some sports team affiliated with wherever the band is from but instead I just wanna ask: Is anyone else not paying attention to the Olympics? I’m usually all-in when the five rings come around, but for whatever reason this year I am just totally not invested whatsoever. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are still very much battling a global plague, one that currently has the host country in a freeakin’ lockdown? Guess I’m the asshole from trying to pry the IOC from their precious money grab. Anyway, I gotta go watch the Reds play the Brewers in a half empty stadium…

Why the hype?
Eastwood has supposedly been around since 2013 but since I didn’t know they existed since about a month ago it’s safe to say that they are the Come-Out-of-Nowhere/Cinderella-Story of the year (cue Bill Murray hitting a bush with a five-iron). I was just thinking the other day about the profound differences between American and European grind bands, and this band perfectly encapsulates all the trademarks that make the latter so effective: razor-tight precision, hectic stop-start turns and just generally squeezing as many notes as possible into an air-tight framework. Seriously, these guys blast with the same type of precision as many of their French half-contemporaries (namely Whoresnation) but add a bit of their own unique flavor in the off-kilter jerking groove that makes the listener feel like their head is indeed on a swivel.

Latest release?
Antibiose on Lixivat Records. I am genuinely curious as to whether this band’s name is derived from the actor Clint Eastwood. It seems like it wouldn’t be the case, due to the actor’s somewhat conservative political ideology and the band’s leftist leanings (they are very much not fans of the QAnon segment of the U.S. population). But still, maybe it’s an ironic moniker? IDK, does irony even exist anymore? What the fuck does anything mean?