on’t be misled into thinking this collection is representative of Discordance Axis’ work on seminal grindcore albums like Ulterior and Jouhou—some of the acts don’t subscribe to that particular palette on this covers album. The two hitherto unreleased tracks which open Our Last Day are the closest to those albums’ bassless thundering gnashing bastards, “Ikaruga” being the more relentless and longest of the pair at just over a minute long (“Sega Bass Fishing” is half that). In sum, what we have here is twenty-one songs by eight acts (including DA) at thirty-eight minutes (one of which is sixteen and a half minutes long).

Nintendo musicians Cide Projekt bastardize ten songs in a row after DA’s opening salvo, marrying ever-forward pushing drums to Mario stabs of bleepery for some vocal-less covers. Obviously less aggressive than the song’s original instrumentation, and never fast enough to go gabba, these have a comedy curio value that eventually spills over into overkill territory. The first nine tracks offer nothing that many DHR affiliates have covered far better in the recent past. On “Macro (remix)”, however, they slow it down and incorporate damaged breakcore rhythms and tense drones.

Gate’s deeper growling vocals (as opposed to DA’s slicing screeches) make both “Radiant Arkham” and the barrelling “The Inalienable Dreamless” all the more extreme in the wake of Cide Projekt. With both songs coming in at less than two minutes, though, there’s barely time to get accustomed to their style before Mortalized step in and wipe the slate clean with something that might even put the DA originals to shame, particularly “A Crack in the Cataracts.” Judging by their website, it should be no surprise: proclamations abound about how they don’t give a fuck about talking to you, talking to me, answering emails, or very much else to do with humans.

An almost too-close-to-normal-rock take on “Mimetic” by Noiseear is the weakest piece here, but it’s only a tad more disappointing than the album closer, a version of “Naked Pieces Scattered” done by Gridlink, an offshoot band of DA. Its especially evident coming in such close proximity to the exceptional work done by the compilation’s big name contributors: Merzbow and Melt Banana. Merzbow takes the whole of The Inalienable Dreamless LP release and megamixes it into a version called ” The Inalienable Dreamless (Complete)” which snaps from vertebrae to vertebrae between DA and his own rugged black discharges, while Melt Banana steal the whole show with their uncoiled barbed wire spring “Ulterior” which kicks off innocently enough before exploding into runs of frenzy and cartoon chaos in a can. If only Cide Projekt could’ve offered their space on Our Last Day to Melt Banana instead.

As defiant last gasps go, Our Last Day fits the bill perfectly. For a proper tribute to the genius of one of grindcore’s shining lights, however, this isn’t nearly enough.