CHOOF - “A Very Special Blend of Psychology and Extreme Violence”

16 Jan

Written by: Tom Wilson | Thursday 16th January 2025

“…A relentless display of hostility, born of blood, spit, beer and bong water.”

What powers your violence? What grinds your gears? A Very Special Blend of Psychology and Extreme Violence is an apt title for this, the long-awaited debut album by the most dangerous band in Australia, Melbourne grind outlaws CHOOF.

Our recent interview with frontman Jake Seymour had to be scheduled around a screening of Rashomon, and the lyrics on display here run the gamut from cock-and-ball torture to cryptocurrency. This is the thinking man’s grind, warped, savage and bleak. Last Meal at Huntsville sets the tone immediately, with Jake and Jackson playing bad cop/worse cop over a whirlwind of powerviolence. The stop-start battering of Forgotten // Despised is as subtle as a mouthful of beer spat in your face at point-blank range, or a shiv to the belly in the H Division rec yard, if the Chopper-inspired music video is anything to go by. Jake Seymour’s vocals veer from APARTMENT 213-style snarls to deranged, tortured highs which sound like his balls are in a vice, and Hoovers Hooters sees him sink into a GUTALAX-style croak, while bassist and frequently shirtless handsome specimen Jackson bellows over the din. It would be strange to say that a grind album sounds like a million dollars (albums like WORMROT’s Hiss notwithstanding), but A Very Special Blend of Psychology and Extreme Violence sounds exactly how it should, dripping with Aussie grind pedigree and recorded in Melbourne with BLOOD DUSTER’s Jason Fuller. Twenty tracks that are done and dusted in less than half-an-hour, it knows not to overstay its welcome. Indeed, by the time Eunuch Maker rolls around and throws the listener into a whirlpool of Adam’s dizzying riffs and Jack’s hammering drums, you’ll be more than ready to come up for air by the end.

CHOOF’s live show is so extreme that the music itself is almost irrelevant. Thankfully, they still took the time to make it awesome. A Very Special Blend of Psychology and Extreme Violence is a relentless display of hostility, born of blood, spit, beer and bong water. Get amongst it.