Holding anger inside for a long time is a bad way to go through life. It’s awful for your mental health, and it’s likely to push some people to unthinkable acts because they have no way to release such energy. You need an outlet for something like that, and if it’s productive, it could actually have net positive results when all is said and done.

It’s been nine long years since we heard from Gridlink, and it sounds like in that time they’ve built up enough aggression and negativity that it had to come out again. On “Coronet Juniper,” their first record since 2014’s “Longhena,” we’re waylayed by 11 tracks spread over a bit more than 19 minutes, and everything here is molten and pissed. The band—vocalist Jon Chang, guitarist Takafumi Matsubara, bassist Mauro Cordoba, drummer Bryan Fajardo—is as vicious and frightening as they’ve ever been, blending your brain and guts in such a manner that you’re feeling like the contents of your body are dripping through your cells. And if you can connect your own venom with the band’s, this record also can be a productive outlet to exorcise what haunts you.

“Silk Ash Cascade” begins manically, instantly grabbing you by the throat and mercilessly squeezing. The vocals choke and shriek while the playing maims, spattering blood and heading into “Anhalter Bahnhof” that thrashes right off the bat. It’s a blast that doesn’t stay long but makes its impact felt, shrieks dusting, the playing rattling, the force coming at you and twisting you into something unidentifiable. “Pitch Black Resolve” opens in a melodic haze before forcefully unloading, the screams working their way down your spine. The playing zaps and dashes, strong riffs flexing their muscles and scrambling your brains like a milkshake. “Nickel Grass Mosaic” attacks with mammoth riffs, approaching you angularly, stabbing with fire as all of the playing tangles, blasting before choking with pulverizing smoke. “Ocean Vertigo” has the heat rising dangerously, hanging before the track busts open, the shrieks killing your entire cell structure. The chaos slaughters as the playing makes your insides quakes, blasting into a weird deep haze.

“Octave Serpent” is the first of a four-track assault that drives in, devastates, and leaves. Shrieks mangle along with shocking speed that ravages your body and leaves you heaving. The title track is an urgent crush of fast riffs, panicked screams, and mashing horrors that feel like all of your veins are being pressed together. “Zygomatic” feels like it has somewhere to be very soon, and before that appointment, the band chews with metal teeth, the guitars race with scorching tenacity, and at the end, it feels like your flesh has been pulled from muscle and bone. “Refrain” is calm at first, disarmingly so, and then we’re suddenly in full speed, making it impossible to catch a breath. The viciousness smokes as shrieks smash, and the exclamation point is stabbed home. “The Forgers Secade” starts with the drums slaying, vicious shrieks falling like acid rain, the guitars lathering with lava. The menace multiplies, the guitars toy with your mentality, and the track exits in a strange fog. Closer “Revenant Orchard” is tornadic and slashing, the pace knifing its way through your ribcage, the drumming turning rock into dust. A dreamier sequence sets in, only to be disrupted by horrifying shrieks, the last gasps melting planets.

For those times when our frustration gets to be too much, when we want to physically take something apart but know we can’t, there’s always Gridlink to help us get out that pain. “Coronet Juniper” is almost comically heavy and angry, something that seems like it’s having a hard time dealing with what is chewing at the nerves yet finding a way to contain the violence into something constructive. This band always finds a way to shock your system, and this record, as brief as it may be, never fails to dig into your brain and pull out all of the negative energy.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/GridLink512

To buy the album, go here: https://www.willowtip.com/bands/details/gridlink.aspx

For more on the label, go here: https://www.willowtip.com/home.aspx