Complete Failure - Heal No Evil
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When I interviewed Complete Failure drummer Mike Rosswog for a Decibel feature (#45, Opeth cover, order here), he was diplomatic about Steve Austin, Today Is the Day frontman and Supernova Records head. Austin had given Complete Failure’s debut, Perversions of Guilt (Supernova, 2008), strange production, to say the least. It was fuzzy, messy, and drum-heavy. Many objected to the sound, but I didn’t mind it. Rosswog is a whale of a drummer (at that time, he was playing two sets a night, one for Complete Failure and one for Today Is The Day, doing Derek Roddy’s parts from Axis of Eden), and the scratchy sound befitted his band’s harsh grindcore.
Church of the Self / The State of Impure ThoughtsCraft of Discontent
Rosswog is no longer diplomatic. Complete Failure recently self-recorded and self-released an album, Heal No Evil. In a statement (full text here), Rosswog said:
The tracks were recorded and mixed at my new home-based studio, and we achieved a sound that is incomparably more clear and powerful than our last one. Our bass player James Curl was the chief sound engineer and producer for these sessions and worked 16 hour workdays for 6 nights straight to accomplish our goal of putting out a “comeback” album that proves we cannot and will not be held back by anyone’s lack of effort or poor business decisions. Simply put, we are beyond pissed off at the “record industry”…
The obvious subtext is a schism with Austin and Supernova. DIY has served the band well. Heal No Evil adds sludge, noise rock, and loads of hardcore to the band’s trademark grindcore. These elements intertwine organically; songs gear up and down seamlessly. Joe Mack screams as if at the end of his rope. Rosswog’s playing is organic and surprisingly subtle. These songs could have been tracked live. They have that energy, and the band has the chops for it.
On this album, sound is a strength, not a liability. It’s raw yet clear, basic yet punchy. One bass, one guitar, one drumkit, one vocalist. Early ’90s hardcore comes to mind. The drums have some compression, but even that sounds like old-school tape compression. So much hardcore today is produced like metal, with overbearing walls of sound. Heal No Evil bucks that trend. It highlights four talented individuals in one pissed-off aggregation. In its anger at the record industry, this record is Complete Failure’s analogue to Nine Inch Nails’ Broken. They’ve even pulled a Trent Reznor and made it available for free download. Labels still offer advantages of scale, like publicity resources and brand affiliation. But this is the future for bands — self-financing (see also here) and self-distribution via the Internet, the world’s cheapest and widest distribution network.
Download the album for free here.
Buy the CD (hand-numbered, limited to 100) here.
