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Show Close your ears, shut your eyes, and open your mind, the hardest batch of the year is here by William Athey Forum staff writer Heres a pile that would make Lemmy crawl under his bed and hide. If you dont know who Lemmy is, go buy an early Motorhsad album, then youll crawl under your bed and hide. It is really too bad I didnt receive these issue. You in time for the could have scared away all the little with any one of them. pre-Hallowe- ! i I 4 V Vi ? ii 1 . Milk album arFinally the rived in the mail. The band comes from what the UK music papers termed the Camden long-await- L rs Link 61380 Tantrum - en trick-or-treate- Milk garde and hardcore punk, and Ill jump on for the ride. Next up are a couple from Metal Blade, the same label who brought GWAR to the American public. Its a good thing the music censors focused their attention on Body Count and rap, or GWAR wouldnt have been available in your local chain record store last summer. ; t A vr v jp ed Epidemic LurchScene.Othermembersof thisscene included Silverfish, Sun Carriage and Th Faith Healers. The bands hated the term; they said they didnt come from a scene, and according to press materials it was 3984-14002- around. Vocalist Carl Fulli can recite lyrics faster than the fastest rapper in the world. He has a voice that could peel paint off the walls. How many fifths of JD and packs of Camel studs does it take to get your voice in such a The Camden Lurch refers to the audiences swaying and headbanging reac- grind yet Milk is not a heavy metal band. Sure at times they sound like one, but there isnt a heavy metal band in the world that would e noise lay down the totally free of Spyrosulphate. In fact most of the album is pure pounding noise with snatches of melody thrown in. The guitar alternates between a swarm of angry wasps andpolice sirens, then veers off feedback. Like the into total white-nois- e are in separate drums the bass and guitar, bands playing whatever comes into their heads, then all come together for a little truly thrashing metal before returning to their ' own space. Id call Milk the spawn of a plural marriage between heavy metal, free jazz, avant avant-gard- -2 They play the fastest of the bunch. It kind of made me dizzy from swinging my hair quickly dropped. tion to the music. After listening to the tape, I can think of no other reaction. If you are under 30, buy this and play it for someone over 30. Force them to listen; tie them up if necessary. If they dont like it, play it for them again, repeat as many times as needed until they admit that this is a fantastic album. If you think the heaviest music comes from Seattle, you havent heard anything' yet. Milk is about the heaviest thing Ive heard in decades, maybe since the first Black Sabbath album. No offense to Seattle there is still great music coming out of that city, as you will see when I get to 7 Year Bitch. What is Vic (vocals, guitar) screaming about? I barely have a clue; I can understand few words he screams. It has to be important from the screeching, clanging, banging sounds he makes with his guitar and that insane pounding Chin, or new drummer, Vic Tracey puts out. The vocals are mixed so far to the back as to be mostly incomprehensible. Ive listened to this repeatedly, and I can only make out snatches of words here and there. From the snatches I can pick up, I would say the band has had some truly horrible relationships and religious experiences. Have I mentioned the bass player, Duncan? Not yet; Ill just say hes no Ron Carter or Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Of course, he doesnt play jazz unless its free jazz, and he puts out some ofthe hardest and rhythmic and SKREW, the dissonance seems downright mellow. The CD is arranged in chronological order, opening with The Friend Catcher from 1980. Guitarist Roland S. Howard is all over the place, carried along by Pews bass and Calverts drums. Two other early classics, Happy Birthday and Mr. Clarinet, prepare the way for what is to come. In Happy Birthday, Nick Cave (vocals) barks and howls words over a wall of feedback and hypnotic bass. Mr. Clarinet adds science fiction organ, and Calvert pounds away. Metal Blade Decameron SKREW In Flame Burningln Water, Drowning Metal Blade 9 26948-- 2 I cant understand what the hell vocalist Adam Grossman; is screaming about, but SKREW included a lyric sheet. Here are a few examples: I look into .1 see my God eating filth, I see my fear, I see my heart burning up. I see my soul sick and grey. Those were from Feast. I interpret it as a song about the depression resulting from being dumped. Here are some lyrics from Poisonous: Embryonic warmth, liquid mothers touch, simplify and rectify, disguise the lie, like sweet Jesus breath, dilute the life with a little taste of death. What is the song about? Heroin addiction. ' Reg E.C. provides the rap and Jason Wolford does a little turntable scratching in Poisonous. Allen Jourgensen contributes some guitar to Charlemagne. Is this the infamous A1 Jourgensen from Ministry? I think it is. You guessed it, this is some extremely hard and heavy metal with more than a little industrial flavor. Take pure heavy metal Danny Lohner and Grossman guitar layer it with terrifying industrial samples and some banging, clanging industrial noise straight from the nearest foundry for percussion. Throw in programming and samples from the entire group and their many friends. Then take Grossmans demonic voice and have him scream incomprehensibly throughout. That is the sound of SKREW: a frightpiece of reening, possessed, corded music. Is the album any good? I dont know, but after listening to it a couple of times I took all of my old Ozzy Osbourne records and copies of Kerrang! magazine, built a fire with them and cooked and ate my pet lizard. The album has a parental advisory sticker, but I dont understand why; the vocals arent understandable. Maybe its to protect the little ones from the horrible sounds. Dont miss (he cover version of the Rolling Stones Sympathy For The Devil. It is a purely reading of the song hellish, distortion-fille- d . and it rules. ear-splitti- ng -- state? Here is a check of the lyric sheet I hate you and your kind, burned in me through time. Every fucking thing about you I learned to despise. A vision etched in me, you I do not see. Just another random face, one of the enemy. Those are from Hate. These arc some bitter guys, kind of like the League. Wrong. Just like any journalist, I quoted the lyrics selectively. The song actually racism and how we are taught to hate from the time were bom. This isnt so bad after all. Factor Red is about the suns dying days with the earth blackened and charred. Three Witches is about dropping acid. Territories concerns inner-cit- y gang vioanti-wlence, and Lord War is an song. sonic is a boom. whole CD The Every nowand thenGuy Higbey orErikMoggridge throw in some lead guitar runs that break through the sludge. Guaranteed for thrashing and to get some heads a bangin. Turn it up really loud and blow out your neighbors windows. Now for a change of pace with the Birthday Party. Anti-Nowhe- con-dem- By their second album, the horns are added. Nick the Stripper is the first song exhibiting them. The horns and Howards guitar enter the mix at any time behind Caves frightening vocals; all of it is bass and drums. carried along by rock-soli- d In Zoo Music Girl, Cave chants and moans over almost total chaos with guitar and the horns. Calverts rhythmic jungle drums are all that hold the song together. Release the Bats is a good example of where the Suicide comparisons come from. Simple voodoo blues rhythms back Cave vocalizing his nightmares. By the third release, the hOms are gone and The Birthday Party rely on innovative Howard and Mick Harvey for guitar dissonance. Dead Joe is by far the fastest song on this CD similar to the voodoo rockabilly of the Cramps, but far wilder. Cave continues to howl, moan and shriek his way through the CD. Screeching, discordant guitars continue, kept in check by the tremendous, bottom provided by the rhythm section. It is a truly dark, frightening, yet rhythmic and enjoyable CD. It provides an excellent starting point for the tortured music of The Birthday Party. I think Tom Waits must have listened to this before he recorded his latest. Now that Ive calmed down a little, how about a visit to Chicago and Invisible Records Pigface? no-wa- re ns ' ar The Birthday Party - Hits - 4AD 9 45087-- 2 This is a new compilation of some of the Birthday Partys best material from 1980 through 1983. This band is and their confrontational and short-liveinfluence will remain with us for years. Clocking in at over 65 minutes and with 19 songs, Hits gives you your moneys worth. The charm of The Birthday Party lies in the dissonance and cacophony of the music. At times they seem to be on the verge of deteriorating into utter chaos. The rhythm section of Tracy Pew, bass, and Phil Calvert, drums, always keeps the bottom going with their hypnotic rhythms. Mining territory is in some ways similar to the Pop Group, the Fall, early Public Image Ltd. , and even S uicide, yet they retain a distinctive sound a sound all their own. noise Classified as a band with elements, they sound pretty tame by todays standards. After listening to Milk, Epidem ic self-destructi- d, no-wa- ve ve Invisible INV 018 Fook As the press release says, Where else can you find a band containing members of all your favorite bands7 That is, if your favorite bands are Ministry, Murder Inc, KMFDM, Silverfish, Rollins Band, Skinny Puppy and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, to name just a few. This is PigfaCes most accessible album to date. After the heavy metal noise of the latest Ministry and just plain total noise of the latest Skinny Puppy, Pigface has on page 10 Pigface . November 24, 1992 forum Page 9 |