Gumshen - What You Make It

Every time a new Gumshen CD is hand delivered to me by Postman Sal, I get overwhelmed by a mixture of emotions. First, it’s elation. Sal inevitably cringes and recoils in fear as I burst from behind my desk, give the old dude a bear hug, and thank him for being conceived, his parents for conceiving him, and his parent’s parents for conceiving them. He’ll leave and I’ll return to my chair, staring with that gleeful smirk that I get. Second, I’m overcome with this sense of privilege and power, for I have the new Gumshen in my possession and you don’t . . . Ha! Take that you cretins! Then, there’s the crash of reality. Third, I’m dropped into a mirthful state of depression, for how . . . how many more words can I hammer out to describe what I know will be a sonic thrill ride without repeating myself? I mean, I’ve reviewed the bands last three releases, they have achieved that near God-like stature in my music collection. Where can I go with the written word? And then it hits me . . . WWGD. What Would Gumshen Do?

I had to channel my inner Gumshen. Plain and simple. Even if I never achieve the godhead status of Gumshen with my own craft, the very least I can do is make the attempt. So . . . here goes:

What You Make It is technically the fifth release from this musical wonderment known as Gumshen, the fourth under the actual Gumshen name, and arguments will rage for evermore that this is the best recording to date. That argument will last only as long as you’re playing it . . . and then you’ll go back and drop in March of the Februaries, Super Buffet, or Stew and you’ll swear those are the best. What I’m getting at is this: Gumshen never fail to deliver a product that will please you as a listener, inspire you as an artist, challenge you as an intellect, or frustrate you as a music critic. I say frustrate because writing about these guys is one of those exercises in futility, for one will never actually capture the true essence of the music by merely chucking a bunch of words onto a page. What describer can I possibly plant in front of my nouns and verbs that I haven’t used before? Ah ha! I’ll make up my own! No . . . no, that’s just silly.

“Not Every One Of Us” opens the disc with a great modern pop-rock sound (no . . . not the sugary treat that explodes in your mouth), crisp guitars and keys plinking a simple little melody, the drums join in and help build the tempo, the bass saunters on in and adds the sultry textures . . . and then Ron Hippe’s vocals stop the world and we melt into a puddle of ourselves. At times, I hear a resemblance to Daryl Hall in that voice. Soulful, yet with a playful air, Hippe’s voice gets me on this track much like it did on “Dandelions” (Stew) or “Gone Too Soon” (Super Buffet). The song as a whole is a marvelous piece of music and another great example of how this band can compose a four minute track to sound like a mini-epic. The use of volume swells, added instrumentation at the chorus, changing tempo and mood . . . it’s all worked to perfection to create a song that takes the listener on a journey to soaring heights.

Now follow that track up with “I Know You Girl”, get ready to polish off the platform shoes and get your 70’s dance floor funk going on. The song starts with a cool piano piece that kind of sounds out of place in light of where the song goes, but is way cool nonetheless. Once the band kicks in together, we’re hand delivered a track that should be the highlight of any dance club on this, or any other planet. I can hear it now being remixed by every mix master this-that or another and filling every club with sweaty bodies gyrating to this funky ass bass line. I love the guitar line over the rhythm . . . it’s just the dynamic texture that separates this rhythmic groove sound from all the rest of the hyper hip shakers that have come before it. Classic Gumshen. The re-interpretation of a musical style. Create a sound, push the envelope on where that sound will go, and then push it some more. This track doesn’t just sit comfortably in a funk mode though, we get a little rap and 70’s-style progressive rock in here as well. These guys found a way to break up the groove and take the song into this great guitar and keyboard driven riff, and then they bring it all back to the funk groove . . . all without losing the listener, and in just over four minutes! Fucking brilliant!

“Krypton” is a stunner. Heavy and ominous, introduced by a delayed guitar riff and then propelled through the stratosphere by some heavy rhythms, this song has an overpowering sense of dread to it. This is a side to Gumshen that I had yet to hear, and they tackled the darkened vibes with a natural grace that makes me hope that they’ll explore these tones in the future. The major ear-perking moment occurs at just about 58 seconds into the song. The song goes from a space-y, quasi-psychedelic meandering to a tight and heavy riff, made special by the vocal performance and made spectacular by the backing vocal accompaniment. Very few bands can execute a vocal performance that becomes a focal point of a song, making it more powerful than if performed in a standard vocal approach . . . CS&N(Y) and the prog-tastic soundings of Pure Reason Revolution come to immediate mind of acts who use vocals to such moving emotional and dramatic power. I’m simply amazed. New wrinkle, same band. This track is clocking in at just over three minutes and has more textural dynamics than most fifteen minute prog-epics!

Overall, there’s a darker element underlying this recording than previous Gumshen efforts, and that’s fine by me. Oddly enough, this record has a sparse feeling in comparison to the bands back catalog despite the massive instrumentation. It’s almost like they wrote these songs for a symphony, yet played them as stripped down as possible. The music is still as complex as balancing the national budget, but not unlistenable. Me thinks this has to do with the bands innate ability to work such great melodies into their music . . . that melody acts as a metal detector on an afternoon hike through a minefield. I also love that this band has shown consistent growth year after year after year. Every CD that lands in my lap seems to outdo the one before it, but never completely disregards it either . . . the discs are all complimentary of one another and ultimately chronicle the bands history. If Stew was the infant just learning to walk, we might be looking at What You Make It as a young adolescent seeing the world through the eyes of experience. What the next record will be we will have to wait and see.

Pope

www.gumshen.com

Strand Of Oaks – Pope Killdragon

Full disclosure:  I have never had much success enjoyably listening to bands or albums just because they have a great name.  I don't think very many people do.  However, that is how I stumbled across this hidden gem of an album in 2010.  Strand of Oaks, the recording moniker used by Timothy Showalter, is, at its core, a singer-songwriter project.  Rarely is anything ever heard beyond Showalter's melancholy voice and his guitar.  Many of the songs you don't even hear his voice, choosing to forego that route for simple instrumental tracks.  However, for his second album, Showalter lets go of some of the despair that was the root for his first album, Leave Ruin, and chooses the much quirkier route of writing a concept album.

More disclosure:  I am a sucker for a concept album.  From Neutral Milk Hotel's Anne Frank-inspired indie-folk classic In The Aeroplane Over The Sea to Titus Andronicus' Civil War themed The Monitor, the stranger the concept, the more I am sucked in.  So, what is this grandiose concept that drew me in?  The same disappointment and regret as before, but this time focused around fictional stories involving the Bible, The Kennedy's, and everything in between, up to and including Ghostbusters. That's right folks, Ghostbusters.  Honestly, some of the concepts would not be out of place on one of your favorite metal albums.  Tales of 12-foot monsters leading to mothers crying in the street would seem quite fitting on the new Mastodon album, but not on a quiet indie-folk album.

 But enough of the concept, what about the music?  As I said before, rarely does he disembark from the textbook singer-songwriter aesthetic.  So, as is typical with these albums, the lyrical content is what must stand apart, and he passes with flying colors.  On “Kill Dragon”, Showalter starts of with what would seem like a fitting song on his previous album, singing about how everyone has left him, whether it be through break-ups or death.  However, the tempo picks up, leading to him repeating the line, “Mary, Mary, Mary would you marry me? / Then me and you and Jesus could be a family”.  And that's how the song ends.  That just sets up the strange feel of the album.

 On the next track, the seven minute centerpiece “Sterling”, Showalter launches into a story about a dream he had about a trip he took with the Kennedy's, in which John Kennedy discovers a German tale written by his estranged, bastard son about a pope named Killdragon. However, at the end of it all, he reminds you that he still has a heavy heart, telling about how he “drank himself to sleep, just to get some company”.  But, this is also where the music reaches its apex, a the acoustic guitar is subbed out temporarily for an electric and the drums slowly kick in as Showalter's voice fades out behind the wall of sound, saying “I saw him coming” over and over, further painting the picture of him drinking and passing out, repeating those four words.

The entire album carries this same weight.  As Showalter deftly strides from song-to-song, the listener gets insight into his own life, despite the fact that it is projected onto the wild songs of lore.  Also, in case you were wondering, “Alex Kona” is the song that references 12-foot giants and mothers crying.  “Daniel's Blues” is about Dan Aykroyd wanting John Belushi to have a role in Ghostbusters, but he had passed away.  He sings about who he will get to replace him (But who will I call / Chevy's an ass and Gill has got a cold”).  I won't spoil anything else for you, but it is easily the most cathartic song ever written about Ghostbusters.  Just do yourself a favor, and, if you are a fan of folk music (Or even doom metal, as he shows he can do that too with the song “Giant's Despair”), just listen to the album and let Strand of Oaks wave of tales drown you in its sound.

--Genesis

Buy here: Pope Killdragon

Burzum - Fallen

 Hmmm... how to begin this.

Disclosure:

1: Most of my adult life I've worked in forensic psychology, in prisons and police departments in six states, specifically with sexual offenders and serial homicide offenders.

2: I dig (though by no means am tr00 or kvlt) black metal; of course I still consider Behemoth black(ish) metal, and love Liturgy, so....

3: Burzum, aka Varg Vikernes, served time in Norwegian prison for murder and arson.

This highlights a sticky area for reviewers: how do you review a piece of (at least alleged) art, knowing the potentially toxic background of the artist?

Do you avoid the Ad Hominem fallacy ("He's a bad man, so he can never have anything good to say!") and listen earnestly to what he's done?

Or do we say Fuck that shit, murdering, church burning bastard.

And it's deceptively easy, from the safely of reading the monitor, to say "you go, burn that shit!" or something similar.

Now imagine your mother or grandmother being burned alive in a building she found peaceful, or held onto as a symbol, or source of peace.

Regardless of your opinion toward the church and/or Christianity (and the perhaps-inevitable paradoxes inherent therein), there are serious, life-changing repercussions of what Mr. Vikernes was convicted of doing.

The point is, this area gets emotionally tangled very quickly, especially to me; I'm likely to be particularly irritated by the artist's history and perhaps not enjoy this work as well as someone else might. Be warned, and read on with that in the background of your cerebellum.

So.

If his musical work, despite his background, is good, do we say it's good? Do we endorse it?

Maybe put more directly-- if Hitler gave you the winning lottery numbers, would you play them?

Or would you object to the millions you'd get, despite the millions dead?

[Although I'm phrasing this question somewhat rhetorically, I'm obviously working up to a review of the work in question. But: wouldn't it be hilarious if I just concluded it wasn't something that should be reviewed at all, and just stopped here? Something like, soup Nazi style: "No review for you!"]

Overall, Fallen sounds like it cost $10 to make; does that make it tr00? Or is it like John Cougar Mellancamp or Joel McHale, spending hours on a haircut, trying to make it look like they spent 10 seconds on it?

If the appearance, at least, of low-budget recording appeals to you, well then... there you go.

Track one, "Jeg Faller": sounds like my first guitar, a Harmony, played through its accompanying 1.5 inch speaker, with no gain-- but somehow does not sound bad...? Like all tracks on Fallen, it's a mix of ambient, electro-pop (somehow: maybe it's because of what I'm certain is a drum machine and its stiffness...?), black metal, folk music, acoustic pop... actually, it might be easier to list what musics don't end up somewhere on here.

"Valen," like the previous track, follows the songwriting trope of less-melodic verse followed by "catchy" chorus with cleanish vocals. And it pretty much works.

"Vanvidd" continues both the Norwegian lyrics and musical themes: cold, tremolo-picked chords in standard tuning, with murmured lyrics that become hoarse and raspy, replete with blast beats... managing to sound like black metal and ambient relaxation music (seriously) at the same time.... Bonus: at around 3:45 it manages to invoke both Ministry and Joy Division....

"Enhver till Sitt" starts with that same shrill, high-gain non-wound guitar string, bleating a flatted-fifth (sinister) riff.... The remaining tracks "Budstikken" (black metal Pet Shop Boys? Dance floor KMFDM?) and "Til Hel og Tilbake Igjen" (say what you will about the songs themselves, but Norwegian song titles sound metal as shit, don't they?) are interesting, above average black metal.

So-- the overall verdict here is actually quite anticlimactic: Fallen is pretty good.

It's got good moments, and interesting uses of texture and contrast. It's not great. It's not terrible. It's the germ of something great.

Whether Burzum is past his greatness, or approaching it, is anyone's guess.

 --Horn

Buy here: Fallen

Buy here vinyl: Fallen 

Buy here mp3: Fallen 

Ripple Theater - Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son of a Bitch DVD

Ever since people stopped buying rock records in decent quantities, there’s been an increase in quality documentaries on classic artists like The Ramones and Rush as well as rescuing a band like Anvil from obscurity. Given the subject matter, it seemed like Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son of a Bitch would be the ultimate portrait of rocks favorite ugly son but unfortunately this one falls pretty short of expectation. While definitely worth watching, the overwhelming feeling I’m left with is “what happened? How did they not get the job done?”

Granted, I’m a bigger Motorhead fan than most Motorhead fans. Motorhead’s music changed my life the first time I shoplifted Iron Fist from Caldors back in 1982, and when I saw them for the first time in 1983 my ears rang for 8 days afterwards. To this day, all live performances are measured against that high energy volume overkilldose. It’s obvious the filmmakers are fans but not stone deaf forever Motorheadbangers. They have stated many times that the movie is about Lemmy and not a history of Motorhead but we all know that those two things are one and the same.

Some of the better parts of the film are about Lemmy’s days before Motorhead, including a great segment about the Rockin’ Vicars, the band he played guitar for in the mid-1960’s. They managed to track down some of his band mates and even legendary producer Shel Talmy (The Who, The Kinks) who make it clear that Lemmy was pretty much the same guy back then that he is now. The section on Hawkwind is also good. Lemmy repeats his often told tale of how he got fired from the legendary space rock band, but you also get to hear Dave Brock and Nik Turner’s side of the story, too. Even the Amazonian dancer Stacia gets some screen time. Unfortunately, there isn’t that much discussion of Hawkwind’s groundbreaking music. No one mentions that everyone should own a copy of Space Ritual and there’s no information about the classic albums Lemmy made with them.

The formation of Motorhead takes up about 120 seconds of screen time. Guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke is on and off the screen way too quickly. Philthy Animal Taylor apparently did not want to be interviewed for the movie and he’s barely mentioned. Again, there’s hardly a word on the incredible run of albums that line up made. Wurzel, Pete Gill and Brian Robertson are written out of the script. Mikkey Dee and Phil Campbell wind up looking like mere sidemen of a band that they’re equal partners in.

Way too much screen time is spent on pointless interviews with Billy Bob Thorton, Jarvis Cocker and the bass player from New Order. Who fucking cares what these clowns have to say about Lemmy? The usual VH1 talking heads like Scott Ian, Dee Snider, Dave Navarro and Henry Rollins have some good stories and there are interviews with all the members of Metallica except, surprisingly, Lars Ulrich. Dee has one of the funniest lines in the movie where he talks about not having seen Lemmy for a long time and goes backstage and it’s all the same roadies that he knew from ten years before. Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible of The Damned share some great tales from the insanity they participated in with Lemmy in the late 70’s. 

One thing that the filmmakers get right is showing just how dedicated Lemmy is to his music. This is someone that has literally sacrificed everything for rock n roll. He’s had some moderate success but lives in a rent controlled 2 bedroom apartment with his enormous World War II collection when he’s not on tour or at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in LA. He has one son that he has a good relationship with and another one he’s never met. When he’s not playing music, he’s reading or gambling but always drinking.

Luckily the DVD helps correct some of the problems with the feature film. It’s worth picking up just for the full interview with Fast Eddie Clarke. It’s up to him to tell the real story of how the band started and he’s the only one to mention original guitarist Larry Wallis by name. Eddie also gives insight into how Motorhead got their signature sound – speedy music played by guys on speed. He claims that speed is a great drug to take when you’re playing music since you don’t have to leave the stage every 20 minutes to re-up. His story on how they wrote their signature song “Overkill” is hilarious and inspiring.

Other cool extras include extended interviews with Lemmy and individual features on Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee. The movie could have used more of this and less ass kissing testimonials. Any movie about Lemmy is worth watching, and this one definitely is, but it should have been so much better.


--Woody


Buy here DVD: Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son Of A Bitch 
Buy here Blu-ray: Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son of a Bitch [Blu-ray] 



 

Ripple News - Katatonia Announces ‘Last FairDeal Gone Down’ And ‘Night is the New Day’ Special Editions

    

Sweden’s Katatonia has announced that it will release special editions of the critically acclaimed albums, Last Fair Deal Gone Down and Night is the New Day, on April 25th, to coincide with a series of special shows to mark the band’s 20th anniversary in May.

The special 10th anniversary edition of the classic Last Fair Deal Gone Down will be presented in deluxe mediabook packaging, as a two-disc edition containing tracks from the now hard-to-find singles, ‘Teargas’ and ‘Tonight’s Music’.  2009’s stellar album, Night is the New Day, will include bonus tracks from the ‘The Longest Year’ EP.  Both titles will be presented with newly updated cover artwork courtesy of original artist Travis Smith.

Performances for the 20th anniversary “Last Fair Day Gone Night Tour 2011” are scheduled for Luxembourg, Germany, Holland, France, England, and Greece, and the band will perform two sets at each show.   The first set will see the band play Last Fair Deal Gone Down front to back.  The second set will consist of a mixed set of carefully picked songs from the band’s extensive catalogue.

The band is offering exclusive VIP ticket packages, limited to only 70 for each show, which will include a laminated VIP pass exclusive to the show, access to sound check, a meet and greet with Katatonia, a t-shirt exclusive to that particular show, a special tour program, and a very special limited edition vinyl of their latest opus, Night is The New Day, amongst other exclusive items.  All the goods will be included in a specially made Katatonia messenger bag.  The VIP laminate will also allow early access to venues, so that VIPs can get the best seats in the house.

In addition, all VIPs will automatically be entered into a draw for a grand prize made available by a selection of the band´s equipment endorsers.

            Head over to: www.katatonia.com/tour-dates for more information.

            Dates and venues are as follows:

May 4th  – Kulturfabrik – Luxembourg **
May 5th – Stollwerck – Cologne, Germany**
May 6th – Koko – London, UK (Live DVD recording)**
May 7th – De Kade – Zaandam, Holland**
May 8th – Alhambra – Paris, France**
May 14th – Fuzz Live Music Club – Athens, Greece

** Exclusive VIP packages available for these shows.

Chat with Stone Axe Live on Ripple Radio Before they Storm the Shores of Europe and the UK with New Tour and Deluxe CD/DVD Package

Classic rock preservationists Stone Axe have officially announced that they’re hitting the road through the UK, parts of Europe, and wrapping up the tour with a night at the illustrious Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland! And before they hit the road, this is your chance to chat live on the air and in the Ripple chatroom with Stone Axe mainman, Tony Reed.

Tune into Ripple Radio (Live with Tony Reed), sign into the chatroom and chat directly with Tony Reed.  He'll join us on air Wednesday, March 23rd at 8:30pm (PST) and is welcoming the fans to fire off those nagging questions. Hit him with your queries about Stone Axe, Mos Generator, Wino, or any aspect of obscure '70's rock.  Type 'em in the chatroom and have 'em answered on the air. Doesn't get much better than that!

Then, starting on April 8th in Oxford, England and running through April 16th, Stone Axe will embark on their third tour to foreign soil with the aim of converting new ears to their sonic-brand of classic rock.  Better yet, this time they’ll be doing it in support of their first CD/DVD package. Scheduled for release on April 5th and in time for the tour, Stone Axe has put together a Deluxe Edition of their self-titled debut album. The CD portion of the package features eight bonus live tracks, while the DVD portion features more than 70 minutes of videos, interviews, and live footage! Released through Ripple Music, Stone Axe – Expanded Edition CD/DVD pre-order's are now available on the label's web site. www.ripple-music.com

Tour Dates:

8th April -The Wheatsheaf, Oxford (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Desert Storm)
9th April- The Unicorn, Camden, London, UK (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Grifter)
10th April- The Earl, Sheffield, UK (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Groan)
11th April- The Captains Rest, Glasgow (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Low Sonic Drift)
12th April- Asylum 2, Birmingham (with Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Alunah)
14th April- The Vortex, Siegen, Germany (with Stubb)
15th April- MTC, Cologne, Germany (with Stubb+more)
16th April- Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, Holland

Stone Axe has also contributed a song to the Heavy Ripples double vinyl 7” compilation that will also feature three other acts that have put their own unique spin on the sounds from a by-gone 70’s era, showing that rock n’ roll hasn’t died, but simply has gotten better! The compilation record will include tracks from the UK blues-based bike rockers Grifter, Brooklyn-based stoner-fied punks Mighty High, and New England’s southern-rock-tinged Sun Gods In Exile (on loan from incomparable Small Stone Records). The record will be officially released on April 19th to a world-wide audience!

Total Fucking Destruction - Hater

“Good evening.  I’m your host Glen Moderator.  Welcome to Point / Counterpoint, a show featuring informative debates on hot-button topics.  Today’s program is a little different than normal.  Our regular contributor Penfold is here of course, but unfortunately I have to report that tonight’s scheduled guest was forced to cancel due to an unforeseen emergency.  The show must go on however, so we found a willing replacement to assist us on such short notice.  Ladies and gentlemen help me welcome Richard Hoak, drummer and lead vocalist of the band Total Fucking Destruction.  Thank you for being here sir.  Penfold, are you ready?
“Yes Glen, I am.”
“All right, let’s begin.  Due to the nature of our guest’s vocation, we’re going to be asking after some music related issues.  Here’s an easy one to get us started.  Do you believe that the current state of music is getting better or worse?  Mr. Hoak, you can go first.”
“I long for and listen for a deathlike silence to engulf the planet. Otherwise, I listen to 24 hour news radio for the up to the moment information on the slow motion apocalypse that is unfolding around us.”*
“Ha, very good!  And you Penfold?”
“I’m afraid my answer won’t be as interesting as Mr. Hoak’s.  I’ve been listening to a wide variety of music lately, and I’m confident that music is better than it has ever been.  Unfortunately, the albums I’m most excited about I can’t talk about thanks to a non-disclosure agreement.”
“That’s too bad.  We’ll just have to move on then.  Mr. Hoak, when I think of what it means to be an underground act, and I mean this in a complimentary manner, your band registers in my mind immediately.  Do you feel an underground band will break through to massive popularity this year?”
“The only reason such obscure artistic concepts like the underground scenes of grind and death metal exist is because of the privilege and power provided to selected citizens by the global corporate economy that allows the leisure time and extra income to make such noise. No guitar riff is brutal when compared with watching your children slowly starving to death or dying an early, violent death in a religious war of hate. The underground scene is a state of mind, an artificial construct based on collective ego stroking by members of the ‘in’ crowd. I refuse to be defined by others, so my state of mind is unaffected.”*
“Okay…I guess.  Penfold, what say you?”
“While I think it is more difficult than ever to really ‘break through’ to the mainstream consciousness, yes I do believe there will be some artist or band who has been toiling for a few years that will make that transition.  It seems to happen once every year or two, so I’d say we’re due.”
“I’m inclined to agree with your reasoning Penfold.  Mr. Hoak, assuming Penfold is correct, what can you do to increase the marketability of Total Fucking Destruction?”
“Total Fucking Destruction is driven to create temporary autonomous zones where we can celebrate the end of times in the style of Babylon together with other like-minded individuals. We encourage all individuals to get in touch.”^^
“What does that even mea…?”
“Penfold, hold on a moment.  I’m going to give Mr. Hoak a chance to further explain that statement.  How exactly do you go about creating these temporary autonomous zones?”
“Maintaining localized anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic atmosphere. Forgetting about unknown motherfuckers. Grind 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some days I don't eat or sleep, only grind. Time is running out, the future is now and we are participating in the end of history. It's fucking awesome.”^^
Glen and I sit in stunned silence.  After a few moments, Glen collects himself.
“Ladies and gentlemen we’re going to take a short commercial break, but we’ll be back with more after these words from our corporate sponsors.”

Cards on the table time waveriders.  I know next to nothing about grindcore metal.  Honest.  I don’t yet own any grindcore albums, I’ve never seen a true grindcore band live, there are no stickers on anything I own advertising a grindcore band, and there is no chance that I would be able to differentiate a song by Napalm Death from a song by Carcass if my life depended on it.  With all that being said I do know what I like, and I like Total Fucking Destruction!

The name of the album that has managed to hold my attention for a good little while now is Hater.  It is the latest full length release from TFD, and it is composed of twenty seven ear-blasting songs.  The uninitiated (like me) might make the mistake of looking at the quantity of songs on offer and assume that this was a monstrous two disc affair.  Not so, as I quickly learned.  These twenty seven songs lay waste to your eardrums in a little under twenty eight minutes.  What I find most impressive is that I listened to this album multiple times before noticing the short running time.  Hater is such a complete listening experience, I feel fulfilled with every run through.  It was truly shocking to find out that some of my favorite songs had such short running times.

What should you expect to get from this album waveriders?  Well, you should definitely expect a blitzkrieg assault upon your senses accomplished with lightning-quick guitar and bass lines coupled with mind-bogglingly manic drumming.  You know…grindcore music.  Now if that last statement produces concerns over whether these songs might become monotonous, fear not, for this band throws quite a bit of variety at the listener.  Seriously, it is not difficult at all to tell these songs apart.  Most are quite memorable thanks to huge riffs, crazy lyrics, interesting breakdowns, or unique song structures.

“Weaponization of the Mega-Self” opens the proceedings with the aforementioned blitzkrieg assault, functioning as a righteous call to arms for the rest of the album.  Highlights abound.  “Everything you Need but Nothing you Want” begins frenetically before transforming into this heavy groove monster.  “It’s Only Attitude” brandishes it’s message of self-empowerment like a bludgeoning instrument.  “Repeat Repeatedly” refuses to leave my conscious thoughts.  “Green Fire” is thrashtastic and features a fantastic guitar solo!  “Time Theft”, a virtual marathon run clocking in at two minutes and twenty seven seconds, bowls me over every time with this wickedly repeated upward-scaling guitar riff.  Look waveriders, I could go on but I think your time would be better served by listening to this album for yourself.  Do it!  Do it now!  With that, we now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

“All right, we’re back.  I’d like to thank our two esteemed guests this evening.  Penfold, great job as always.”
“Why thank you Glen.”
“And Mr. Richard Hoak, I’m not sure that we have ever had anyone on the program quite like you sir.  Thanks for filling in on such short notice.  Are there any last words you wish to express before the show ends?”
“Nihilism, nothingness, emptiness and nonsense is the agenda of Total Fucking Destruction. Our songs are true stories of life in the modern day world. Our interest is in both the music and the message; our art is our only possible response to the complicated questions that post-modern society asks of the individual human.”*
“Right!  There is no way I can compete with that statement.  Good night everybody.”

--Penfold

Buy here: Haters


*- Actual interview responses from Richard Hoak on Chronicles of Chaos  http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles/chats/1-744_total_fucking_destruction.aspx
^^- Actual interview responses from Richard Hoak on The Sleeping Shaman  http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/interviews/totalfuckingdestruction/totalfuckingdestruction.php