I’ll Eat Your Face seems far too talented to be giving away their album for free. This duo from Ireland, made up of guitarist/vocalist The Boy and drummer Barrytron, has managed to find the perfect combination of light-hearted weirdness and grinding insanity, making their debut full-length Irritant both a joy and a complete mind-fuck to listen to. Song titles like ‘Rat Milk Moustache’ or ‘Dr. Pancake’s Luxurious Ratskin Housecoat’ almost seem like they belong on a Primus album, but fortunately I’ll Eat Your Face have both the chops and the songwriting sense to write music that matches the subject matter in unfettered unpredictability.

I’ll Eat Your Face’s musical stylings reminded me a bit of old favorites Human Remains and Radiation 4. Like those acts, I’ll Eat Your Face can write face-melting metal tracks whenever they want, but what really sets their music apart is the parts they throw in that make you go “what the hell just happened?”. Out of nowhere come softer sections, weird sound effects, or neck-snapping time-changes. The music is so schizophrenic that you almost want to laugh at the ridiculous randomness of some of the songs, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s so amazingly well-executed.

One of the impressive things about I’ll Eat Your Face’s music is the maturity of the songwriting, especially for a debut album. Aside from all the weirdness on this album, it’s very obvious that these guys have been playing music for a long time and are no slouches when it comes to writing powerful and well-crafted songs. Hopefully these guys get the attention they deserve - Irritant is easily of the cooler albums I’ve across from this year, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even really listen to grindcore or deathgrind very much nowadays.

» Download Irritant for free