Since Jason Tipton of Willowtip Records sent me a copy of Circle Of Dead Children‘s Exotic Sense Decay mCD several years ago, I’ve been one of the band’s biggest fans and supporters. While I was completely blown away by Exotic Sense Decay and The Genocide Machine, I couldn’t help but feel slightly let down by the group’s last full length recording Human Harvest as it just seemed to be lacking that hook that kept the group’s prior recordings spinning in my CD player constantly.

With Zero Comfort Margin I’m happy to say the band has returned to their old form and have put out their fiercest recording since Exotic Sense Decay. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes, this 15 track album is filled with plenty of short and furious grind tracks, audio samples and even a cover of Hideous Mangleus‘ "Playdumb".

The production on the album is, to be generous, flawed. I’m not sure entirely what happened with the recording, but for some reason the album was recorded in June of 2004, but the group had to re-enter the studio in February of 2005 to record a few more tracks, probably due to the poor audio quality of some of the tracks. The production on the material is different from track to track, with some songs sounding clear but flat, and others sounding like they were recorded on a Sesame Street tape recorder in a closet in another room. Needless to say I can’t see the guys being too thrilled with the job Steve Austin did on engineering the effort.

Having said that, while the production is awful in moments it doesn’t detract from the quality of the music at all as Circle Of Dead Children deliver a crushing assault on the senses with their patented grinding death assault. Tracks like "Zero Comfort Margin", "No Tears Fall Through Hollow Eye Sockets" and "Host (age)" fit in perfectly with the material from the group’s earlier efforts and are both catchy and punishing.

The Hideous Mangleus cover is solid and being a big Hideous Mangleus fan, I have to say they definitely do a good job, even though it does stick out slightly from the rest of the material.

Production issues aside Zero Comfort Margin is definitely among the best material the band has composed to date and by far one of the best grind releases of 2005 and is an absolute must own for grindheads worldwide. For those out there who are more anal about production, all I can say is you seriously need to get a girlfriend. Highly recommended!

Review byTeufel