WOLFBAIT: " A Veil Of Phosphorous"

Sneaky fuckers. I haven't even had a chance to listen to this myself just yet but it popped up out of nowhere: a new all drone/noise recording by WOLFBAIT, whose debut self titled album you should already know and love by now

"WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?" : a decade of Deathpile's "GR"

I talked about the movie "Maniac" earlier on this blog. About how it was basically a horrendous story, a grotesque and horrific misogynistic character at its core performing gruesome and despicable acts - and about how the success of the film was to make the viewer feel implicated in the action so as to feel the full horror. For convenience's sake because it operates and affects me in much the same way that film (and the original version) did, let's refer to Deathpile's "GR" as pretty much the audio equivalent. Only more so. Because it's based around a true story of utter horror, which makes it all the more frightening. 

Yeah, I know, power electronics artists singing about true crime and sexual abuse is about as powerful and disturbing this point as a bowl of melted ice cream. "GR" - a concept album about the Green River Murderer Gary Ridgeway written from his point of view - is one of the tiny percent of records in that vein that is as unsettling as you want it to be. Listening to the fancy new green vinyl reissue version of it I got in the post yesterday makes me feel just as uneasy and on edge as it did the first time I heard it a decade or so ago. 

I have a lot of time for Jonathan Canady's work. I dug Dead World, the industrial metal band he was in in the mid-early 90s as a teenager,back in the days when Relapse (who released their now pretty dated but still enjoyable enough "The Machine" album) were still very much an underground concern. Angel of Decay, Nightmares, and his recent solo work are all highly recommended. His artwork and his late, great "Colours of the Dark" blog piqued my interest too.

But "GR", recorded by himself and David E. Williams, was the game changer for me. It's the work of his I keep coming back to. It's a record that presents difficult, horrible topics in a way that is utterly without titillation, without any sense that these horrible acts are being trivialised. Indeed, the most frightening moment on the record is it's calmest - "Known Victims", which lists those who suffered at this horrendous man's hands. It reminds you this is real. This isn't something you should enjoy, or take lightly. It's an audio documentary of a man's murderous descent into misanthropy and violence.

"GR" succeeds in being a compelling and ultimately affecting record because it channels the atrocity of the situation unflinchingly. It's hard to get through. It is a piece of art that I think genuinely reflects the darkest reaches of the human psyche in a powerful way, and without even a hint of irony.

And I wanted to talk to him about it now, in light of the fact that's back out there once again. I'm by no means the first person to ask him about it, nor is this the most in depth piece, but I felt compelled to ask him about it from the point of view of someone who has been spellbound by it. I'd urge you to read a more detailed piece in Mark Goodall's "Gathering Of The Tribes" too, and thank Jonathan for taking the time to answer these questions for me.

Firstly Jonathan, it's now ten years since "GR" first came out, so looking back on it in hindsight, how do you feel about the record a decade later?

I'm not really one to pat myself on the back when it comes to my own music but I think "G.R." stands the test of time remarkably well. Until David (keyboardist / engineer on the album) and I listened to the vinyl test pressing I hadn't heard it in years. I was expecting to hate it. Other than some of the lyrics making me cringe, I actually enjoyed hearing it again.

Can you remember where the idea to dedicate an entire album to the Green River murderer rather than just,say, a song or two came about? I presume it was a personal obsession/interest that lead to it obviously but what I'm getting at here is taking the step to write a whole album about it - was it something you felt needed a whole album to explore fully?

I can't take credit for the idea. Dominick Fernow from Hospital Productions saw Deathpile perform live in Providence, RI in 2002. After he watched our set he suggested we do a theme album on The Green River Killer as the suspect had just been arrested at that time. I thought it was a good idea so Dave and I agreed to do the release.

How long did the writing take? There was obviously a timeline of events you had to follow in order to tell the story, I'm curious was it difficult to do that, to condense so much information into a relatively short space? Were there any aspects you want to include in the lyrics but couldn't? Any material that wasn't used?

The research and lyrics took over two months to complete. In retrospect I can't believe I actually put so much time and effort into it. I relied mostly on The Seattle Times newspaper articles but also a couple of books, a magazine feature and a couple of TV documentaries. I wrote pages and pages of notes based on that research material. Then I made an outline and built on that from my notes. I broke the expanded outline into potential "songs" and then completed the lyrics after several drafts. So yes, it was a nightmare.

I included everything interesting that I had access to at the time and then added my own speculations as to what Ridgeway may have been thinking. The only material I didn't use was Ted Bundy's theories on the Green River case that were published in the book "Riverman" by Robert Keppel. I think Bundy's ideas were mostly bullshit but they did help me get into Ridgeway's head a bit.

Was there any specific books/documentaries you referred to for research during the writing? And kind of an aside, but have you read the "Green River Killer" graphic novel that came out recently and what did you think of it?

I had already read "The Search for the Green River Killer" by Carlton Smith and Tomas Guillen and actually didn't end up using it for the writing of the lyrics. The only other book out at that time was "Riverman" and it wasn't all that helpful. The Seattle Times was the main source. Some of the research and the voice samples on the album were from two different TV documentaries / news magazine shows but I don't recall the specific titles. Since I can't help you there, I will recommend the excellent film "The Killing of America." It has nothing to do with the Green River case but it's the only True Crime documentary you ever need to see.

I don't care for graphic novels and I have avoided almost everything about the case since the album was recorded. After some time had passed I did end up reading the chapters added to "The Search for the Green River Killer" after Ridgeway's confession, but that's it. At this point in my life I have very little interest in True Crime at all. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that the writing of "G.R." burned me out.

The album is obviously written from Gary's point of view, rather than just a retelling of events from a third party standpoint. On a personal level, do you think approaching the topic from that point of view and inhabiting that head space helped you understand Ridgeway any better? Or empathize with his victims any further?

There was so little detail about the crimes available I had no choice but to try to express what Ridgeway may have been thinking and doing. I am a fan of Peter Sotos' writing so I used some of his early work as inspiration on how to riff on the bland facts. I think I may have been able to understand Ridgeway a bit but obviously not enough if you think about the song "You Will Never Know." It was really all speculation based on the research and reading far too many True Crime books over the years.

As for the victims, since the majority of the album was (to borrow from the Adverts' song) "looking through Gary Ridgeway's eyes" I didn't empathize with them at all. That sounds pretty cold but I was still in the "young and angry" part of my life. I've matured into a kinder, gentler person since then. Funny but true.

Obviously it's not something that ever really gets discussed as in the power electronics/industrial scene I suppose a lot of us are , for better or for worse, unshockable, and the album obviously was intended to be an underground release; but as someone who made a record that I think handles a taboo topic very well ,here's a hypothetical question:  I was wondering how would you respond if someone who were to stumble across the album without really understanding the context were to accuse you of "glamourising" a serial killer in the work?

I don't think killing people and having sex with corpses in real life is very glamorous.

Finally, "GR" ended up being the final Deathpile full length (besides the "final confession" comp) - was this by design? Did you feel after that it was time to draw a line under the project because of the fact that you had maybe done what you'd set out to do, or was there a different reason to call it a day?

Dave and I knew we couldn't top the "G.R." album. As I've said before, I really wish Celtic Frost would have stopped after "To Mega Therion" was released.

For further information on the music and art of Jonathan Canady, please check out:

Malsonus

The Art of Jonathan Canady

the album is available via Tesco and Freak Animal or digitally/streaming via Bandcamp

T O M B E A U

Day two of sick leave started with a quick listen to this here sample from the upcoming Tombeau release on Tour De Garde . 

The tape, "Mephostophallique" should emerge momentarily, and if this sample is anything to go on I may need to pick up a copy as soon as it does. The guitar tone alone on this is one of the most genuinely brutal things I've heard in a while, and when welded to this kind of simple but dark  Blasphemy/Demoncy/Teitanbloodesque pugnacious Satanic sounding death metal it applies maximum force. 

Obviously I've only heard this one sample but my interest is piqued - I've heard a lot of shitty bands attempt this style in the last few years and Tombeau strike me as one of the few who have some intangible secret ingredient I can't quite place that has lured me back into listening to this repeatedly. The Quebecois duo actually have a decent riff or two hidden under the tornado like approach. More please.

P O R N O G R A P H Y

I'm sick today. I have a chest infection that has been brewing for the last week and which kicked my head and lungs into submission yesterday to the point where a lot of my afternoon was spent sneezing blood and dislodging large,ominous looking globs of brown phlegm into the sink

While I sit here on my sofa and wait for these newly prescribed antibiotics to start working their magic, I've done two things so far today: one is watch a movie (a movie which we need to talk about later), and the other is listen to "Mississippi" by Pornography over and over again. 

Listen to this song. Perhaps it's the fact I've just watched a movie that has a lot in common with this music, perhaps it's because I feel like utter shit and am struggling to breathe but..nah, it's not really, there's no but here: all on its own, Pornography's music is actually as oppressive and disturbing as I think it is. It's also superb.

My ongoing internal audio visual film vs music linking component is hearing this song and processing it in a similar way to the way it did "Maniac". It's the same coward/misogynist/serial killer line being towed, always difficult terrain in music as the context is harder to clarify. But there's nothing titillating here by my reckoning. This isn't Cannibal Corpse. This is evocative, cinematic almost-doom that's deliberate and I think responsible in how it presents the subject matter.

In the other song "Promises and Virtues" that the band have online at their Bandcamp page which you can stream or download, he sings "the only faith I have is in the cowardice of hollow men, and violence is the only way I can express myself". You get the feeling the character inhabiting this song is himself a coward underneath his menacing veneer, who seizes the opportunity in the weakness of others to prey on them. And he knows he's a coward. This is the strength of how Pornography present their lyrics:  misanthropy as directed towards the facets of himself that he dislikes in other people.


The music of course is the real meat here. Stark isn't the word. Think vaguely along the lines of the earliest Khanate or Swans - easy comparisons but highly valid (and complimentary, I don't throw them out lightly). There's an approach to guitar that marries the heft of O'Malley's playing with the discordant invention of Westberg, and those pummeling almost industrial drums at the start of "Mississipi" recall the latter's "Mother My Body Disgusts Me". There is of course a strand of their own self produced DNA of course rather than just aping the aforementioned acts. There's a strange restraint in the music, it intimidates rather than explodes. I like that a lot.

So, two songs on bandcamp. That can't really be all there is, can it? I'll report back. I've mailed them/him to find out.

UPDATE: There are at least two new Pornography releases in the works. details are thin on the ground but a tape on TOANG and another release are recorded and awaiting vocals

S H O X X

Shoxx - Brooklyn, 538 Johnson 13 Sep 2012 from (((unartig))) on Vimeo.

Pollution were an horrendously underrated band. A couple of tapes and an lp of gloriously mutated, art damaged hardcore, three years, and that was it, they were done. What softens the blow slightly is the fact that after they called it quits, they bequeathed the world Shoxx.

Shoxx are what I want punk rock to sound like in my head. It's fast and violent when it needs to be, mid paced and pounding just at the right time, has snotty vocals - but all the while it sounds utterly fucked, like normal rock music turned inside out. There's some incredible counterpoint between the guitars and the bass (the bass sound alone is glorious enough to be reason to listen to them) that drives everything along and makes it sound totally jarring at first - in that way they have something in common with the excellent Gas Chamber , although that band use the contrast between the instruments in another entirely personal way.

It's like they wrote a bunch of straight ahead hardcore punk songs that would have sounded fine and then thought "fuck it, let's all play them slightly differently from each other". It's a reminder that while 4 guys ploughing through three chords can work wonders, the real magic happens when you pull those three chords apart and find a way to destroy them entirely.  I was going to say Shoxx do a great job of avoiding the natural impulse bands have for playing in unison, but the truth is that impulse is probably just something they don't have. I make them sound like some kind of deconstructionist bullshit, but they aren't - this is just how they sound naturally. 

I've been listening to Shoxx a lot this week after them being buried in a pile of mp3s I was transferring onto an ipod, and when they came on my headphones for the first time again in a while it was a total breath of fresh air all over again, as it was first time I heard them. There was a demo last year - you can find it online pretty easily. But the thing I keep listening to and that you really should listen to is this WFMU live set - for one thing it's a better quality recording and has more songs than the demo. The opening version of "Sludge Seed" on this is literally the perfect hardcore song in my warped little version of what hardcore should sound like: primal and recognisably punk but at the same time. There's something dizzying about how the bass goes off on it's own during the closing section.  And then the kick off straight into "Dark Cylinder" is a woozy,driving transition.

There was talk of a 7", but I've heard nothing for months. Hopefully they'll emerge from hiding soon.

L U R C H demo

Shameless self promotion, meant to post this here the other day and didn't get a chance (though the tunes were reblogged on the tumblr): LURCH is a new band I'm in. I play guitar and do some of the vocals. Our first show is April 26th here in Dublin at the Joinery with Legion of Two and Dublin Laptop Orchestra.

Cory plays bass, does vocals and was/is in Drainland, Alan drums and was in Hooray for Humans, Trenches,and is currently in Vacant and Bridges of Madison County. It's heavy but it's also kind of melodic, and is more interested in tension and atmosphere than the sheer inrelenting violence of Drainland and Coalinga.

 We just put this rough two song demo online as a free download and stream. Listen, and feel free to spread to friends.

5 Reasons Why The Evil Dead Remake Doesn't Work

I'd be lying if I said I'd really had much hope for the Evil Dead remake being any good, but it still pisses me off having seen it to be able to confirm that it was a totally unexciting mess of a movie. Yes, I am a fan of the original trilogy and sure, I will put the hand up and tell you I was definitely one of the number of people for whom even the mere idea of remaking such an iconic film was completely anathema to the point of verging on outright sacrilege .. but that's got little to do with why I think it's such a piss-poor film.

Look, honestly: "Maniac" and "I Spit On Your Grave" which are the two decent films in my mind to have come out of this remake surge were flukes. While it's not quite the spectacular failure of the "Halloween" or "Nightmare on Elm Street" reboot it's about on a par with the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Last House On The Left" in terms of sheer pointlessness. Actually, the one it reminds me of most is the "Hills Have Eyes" retread in terms of how it retreats into torture porn in the second half. Basically, it's just a really silly film.



I genuinely can't stop thinking there's a hidden agenda with some of the press on this new fangled "Evil Dead". A lot of the reviews I've read seem more like sales pitches than critiques of the film. The marketing budget and push it's getting is huge (look at this shit - it's on a bunch of Dublin Buses,for example, not regular protocol for films of this type). Somebody somewhere is trying to make a big deal out of it. But the truth is it's really selling a brand name here, a franchise some accountants somewhere in Hollywood now they can make a fortune off in the next few years.



I'm writing this to be honest just to get this of my chest really, to point out that while it's obviously just my ultimately worthless opinion, I feel cheated. And here in a vain attempt to explain why, are the five things that immediately piss all over any potential it had. It's about 99.9% spoiler free, so go see it yourself and make your own mind up.

1) The Book: 
I've never owned a Devil Driver album, but I suspect this is what the lyric booklet would look like. Assorted monster drawings with some nonsensical "THIS BOOK IS EVIL MOTHERFUCKER" and "SATAN GON' MAKE YOU HIS BITCH" bullshit scribbled on all the pages. I can only presume this was designed by a 15 year old whose entire wardrobe is made up of multi- colored metal band shirts and New Rocks. The book is integral to the whole plot of the film: you fuck that up, you fuck up the whole thing straight away.


2) The Dialog: 
Acting and dialogue were never much to write home about in the first one and it would be deeply remiss of me to pretend otherwise. But here, some of the stuff is nonsense. An exchange early on where a female character is mistaken for a doctor instead of a nurse and there's an awkward silence instead of any explanation as to why this is such a big deal is clumsy,the delivery of the few lines rehashed from the original film in reference is shoe horned in awkwardly, the overly sentimental brother/sister exchanges are like Dawson's Creek after a total lobotomizing of the cast.. and one scene is made up entirely of some cringe worthy sub "your mother sucks cocks in hell" shite that's either a terrible attempt at referencing the Exorcist or was written by the 15 year old who designed The Book in a further attempt to shock his mum.

3)The Blonde Girl: 
I can't even remember this character's name. I'm not sure she even has a name. Those most blatant insertion of a figure into a film purely to keep up the body count I've encountered in quite some time. My friend Aisling and I were talking after we saw it about the fact that there was a whole chunk of the film where you forget she's actually even there. She has no purpose other than the 10 minutes or so where she's involved in some gory Kandarian shenanigans. You don't miss her when she's gone.

4)It's Just Not Scary Dammit: (This bit might have spoilers). The "girl with black hair who suddenly appears out of nowhere" thing as is tiring as Found Footage at this point. Give it a rest. And while the slightly green, misty tint to the film looks nice, the whole thing just seems to lack any real atmosphere of tension or menace. As goofy as the original was, it carried an air of repugnance and the violence was so overwhelming when it happened; that doesn't carry across here at all.




The gore while very well executed and thankfully largely CGI free becomes utterly redundant real quickly as well, the momentum of the gore sections is non existent after the first major bit in the bathroom.. And I dunno if they just hired a special effects guy who just specialises in arm and hand removal or what but how many times can you see different characters lose an arm/hand in the one film? Blondie loses two in fact. We get it like, Ash lost a hand in Evil Dead 2, if you're doing this to remind us of that you've seriously over egged the pudding. We get it. We get all the other references you put in there to try and keep the hardcore fans happy too, quit trying so hard.

Finally, this is the bit that kills me most:

5)The Set Up: To be honest, the spin they'd put on it - the main character goes out to a cabin with her mates to kick heroin - is an interesting one. It was the reason I thought I'd give this a chance, to see how they worked that in there. Coupled with the fact that the main character was a female in this version, there was at least two potentially workable new spins on the old tale that might give it a sense of identity of its own. And while Jane Levy's Mia does kinda work interestingly enough when she gets into heroine mode, at that point the other promising strand they could have mined has been long abandoned. Drug withdrawal coupled with demonic mayhem could have allowed so many potentially interesting explorations of actual horror, a combination of the psychological and the visceral, and a bit of depth to the back story and characters (who are basically just fodder rather than actual personalities). And instead they abandon it as quick as they can once the demons arrive. There's another much better film that could be made off this idea.

"Evil Dead" isn't the absolute, cack handed monstrosity of abject celluloid failure it could have been. Had it just been an outright shitty movie it would have been fine in a weird way. The problem for me is that it just seemed like the little bit of potential it might have had was squandered in a rush to make a pointlessly splatter filled theatre filler that really offers nothing to the title it bears. Shame.