Mob Terror: Hardcore Art Through Noise
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When Mob Terror supported Oxbow last summer, the band’s set was a chaotic, spastic blur that reimagined Hüsker Dü’s Land Speed Record if Earache released it in 1989. In the short time since, the band has become even more idiosyncratic, covering a lot more territory on their debut Superstimulus than might have been possible only a year ago.
The EP kicks off with “People” which given the title is surprisingly antisocial. His guitar gnashes and squeals like industrial noise — not the synthesizer-and-drum-machines dance stuff, real industrial sounds like the clamor from a construction site or vintage chrome-and-steel cars violently crashing into one another. Almost as quickly as it started, it ends. There are no survivors.
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The following three songs combined three and a half minutes, quick blasts of unmitigated horror. “Flushed” is unyielding, unwieldy jazzcore; “Ursula H’x” is blunted, stunted grind with ejaculated guitar skronk befitting classic indie noise label Amphetamine Reptile; “& Over &” is the least subtle song with guitars that become analog phasers set to melt your skin.
“New Orleans Underwater” closes the album with drummer Aidan Fisher pounding out a measured cadence, joined along by bassist Alex Kulick, who is best known for playing with rapidly-emerging death metal innovators Horrendous. With a slower tempo than the rest of the album, the song displays all of the uncompromising angst of the preceding material stretched out over six and a half minutes that seem twice as long thanks to the contrast and a somewhat convincing approximation of actual song structure.
Unlike many progressive noise outfits, there are precious few times that Mob Terror deviates from full-throttle attacks. If Superstimulus was a horror flick, it would not be one of the modern ones shown in arthouses where pacing was more important than gore. It would be a slasher flick where the intensity never lets up and it dares you to look away from the screen. Try not to, not even for a second, ‘cuz that’s the whole point.
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Superstimulus by Mob Terror is available this Friday through Financial Ruin with exclusive distribution by Dead Tank Records on vinyl and digital formats.
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