Origin Omnipresent (Nuclear Blast)

Grindcore’s over so fast no one can tell how good the performance actually was. Origin fixes that by slowing down just enough – two minutes, even four! – to appreciate the mastery with which Paul Ryan sizzles strings and John Longstreth rattles skins. The Kansas quartet’s sixth punisher, Omnipresent earns its tech-death designation with “Unattainable Zero,” “Redistribution of Filth,” and “The Absurdity of What I Am,” indulging in a multiplicity of tempos and fleet-fingered solos. None of it impacts Origin’s brutality, however. Music lessons were exhumed, but the titanic riffology and Jason Keyser’s vocal fury remain undiminished. Constant rage scorches nuance after hurricane force grind, but Origin’s musicianly dance moves put Omnipresent several stompings ahead of its peers. (Fri., 12:50pm, Midway Field House)

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This article appears in October 24 • 2014.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.