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Of all of metal’s subgenres, grindcore involves the tightest fusion of serious and silly. Weekend Nachos branded their album Unforgivable with the slogan “I don’t want humans to exist anymore”, but they’re still called, well, Weekend Nachos. Agoraphobic Nosebleed blend juvenile splatstick with genuinely creepy ideation. Even overtly goofy grind acts like Blood Duster, Birdflesh and (early) Leng T’che sound deadly serious between samples.
Grindcore bands stare into the abyss and choose laughter over insanity. Most grind bands can capture this tension live — the rickety blastbeats and snapped strings push the audience towards nihilistic transcendence. But it’s much harder to do so in the studio. Discordance Axis used to do it. Drugs of Faith, who recorded my favorite album of 2011, can do it. And Norway’s Beaten to Death, whose 19-minute debut Xes and Strokes came out late last year, can do it.
Beaten to Death play anomalous grind — they’re melodic. Theirs are not the icy, compressed melodies of Gridlink; nor are they akin to Fuck the Facts’ melodeath breaks. Instead, Beaten to Death favor a bittersweet jangle. They’d verge on indie rock at times, if it weren’t for the glottal vocals and pressurized rhythms (courtesy of Tsjuder’s Christian Svendsen). The nearest referent I can think of is Quills, the Misery Index side project that also featured a guitarist from the melodic hardcore band Ruiner.
But Beaten to Death haven’t forgotten that grind should hurt. Xes and Strokes’ scrappy production belies an underlying death metal influence. Every melodic flight of fancy relies on a harsh counterweight. This album invites you to soar; as soon as you do, it slams you back to earth. It’s a grindcore recording that actually breathes, if only in snorts and gasps.
One of the only comprehensible lyrical sections comes on “A Soulless Alarm”: “The time is now, time is now / A life without progress / The time is now, time is now / A life without content.”
I can get behind no progress and no content. But “the time is now” for what? Laughter seems like a pretty good bet.
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Beaten To Death – “Winston Churchill”
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Beaten To Death – “Xes and Strokes”
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BUY XES AND STROKES
Amazon (MP3 download)
Artist Xite (MP3 download)
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I forget what album it was on, but Leng T’che sampled one of the Jesus’ monologues from The Big Lebowski. That pretty much sealed it for me.
Brutal Truth seem to have grown less serious and more nihilistic since their reunion. Their last two albums have embraced the whole “the world is headed towards ruin so we might as well party and use the flames to smoke a few bowls” attitude. I wonder if they’re planning anything for 12/21/12?
The Leng T’che album Manmadepredator sampled Army of Darkness really heavily. That’s the first one I had and it likewise sold me on the band—at least until they got all serious, circa Marasmus.
I’ve never been much of a Brutal Truth fan for some reason. On paper, they bring tons of stuff I like to the table: crazy noise riffs, gnarly grooves, and that attitude you’re referring to. Nonetheless, they’ve just never really clicked with me, though I do spin the early stuff sometimes.
I’m definitely more of a fan of Brutal Truth circa Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses than any of the stuff since the reunion. “Anti-Homophobe” is one of my favorite grind songs for its refreshingly open message that contrasted with the rampant machismo of the early 90s. Their early lyrics were much more specific in their subject matter than the generalized nihilistic mayhem of the more recent albums. And if we’re talking metal songs that sample Army of Darkness, Cryptopsy’s “Orgiastic Disembowelment” tops it for me. “That’s it, go ahead and run! Run home and cry to momma!” What a great way to end one of the most chaotic the death metal records of its time.
I feel like these sound more like generic Lamb of God metal than they do a decent grind outfit. Those vocals, especially. Certainly energetic but I dunno, maybe I’m missing something…