Three different labels, eleven different artists, and a whole lotta
noise! In what's been billed as the Pacific Northwest's answer to the
glut of Power Pop princes and Punk Rock pranksters parading their faded
Rock and Roll glories for all to see, here's the equivalent to a rotting
carcass put to music by way of a number of underground groups trying to
make a name for themselves. The culmination of roster space comes
together here to bring the likes of Homo Eradicus, Teen Cthulhu and
Bloodhag to the surface to expose the nether-regions of Rock music and
its darker side. There's no denying this will make ya cringe from
the first notes on!
Maddening to the extremes, you'll get a fistful of
violent riffs, deafening screams and chilling Hard-Core blasts the likes
of which you'd not only never have expected, but quite likely will never
want to witness again. Where Hollywood Mike Miranda fits into the
equation is beyond me, but the Seattle-based Noise-corists give it their
all for about two minutes worth of public drunkenness and pretty much
leave it all on the table... and I mean all! I just don't wanna be the
one to clean it up afterwards.
But I like their motivations -- "If there's
Grass on the Field..." and you can assume the rest. The production level
throughout is pure old-school in all its barely audible glory, which
works well for the likes of Old Rawler who might otherwise be considered
the grooviest of the bunch if not for that black cloud hanging over
their collective head! "Responsive Equipment" is their contribution and
I can't remember the last time I heard such an excruciatingly dark
guitar sound -- you'd probably have to look all the way back to the
earliest Celtic Frost demos and even that's a stretch.
Botch features a
live clip called "Hutton's Great Heat Engine" which, go figure, was
probably the clearest recording up to that point!
Akimbo
begins innocently enough with "The Lotus Eaters" then proceeds into this
indescribably Death-Rock noise that even on my best days I'd have
difficulty keeping time to!
"Is It Dead?" Hardly, in fact the "It"
they refer to, the "Heavy" music scene, is in fact alive, though we'll
hold off on the "well" part -- I mean, alive and well could never be
applied to something so collectively sick and twisted. But an
altogether interesting mix of noxious elements momentarily put on
display for the world to witness the slow decay of the once heralded
Seattle sound.
