65%
Spoonful of Vicodin—Bursts of Rage at the Speed of Hate (2008)
Details
Tracks 1–18, 23 and 26 were recorded by Kyle and produced by Danny Lilker in October 2007. Tracks 19–22, 24 and 27 were recorded by SFOV in July 2008.
Tracks 1–13 are from SFOV’s 7″ out on HIDE THE BODIES and KEEP SCREAMING RECORDS; 14–18 are from a 4-way split with LOADED FOR BEAR, REPUBLICORPSE, and DECEIVER out on BACKGROUND NOISE MEDIA; 19–22 are from the ROTCORE tape comp; 23–27 “random ass shit”.
Released on Bones Brigade Records.
Band
- Tim—Blasting and ranting
- Sarah—Shredding
Tracks
- One more second and i’ll explode
- Stages are only good for stage dives
- I’ll sew with floss till all my teeth rot
- Grind is good for acne
- You smell like a bag of rotting dicks
- Carful of potheads
- Sacrificed for the thrash
- Cycle of desolation
- 357 channels of widescreen perfection
- God wins at everything
- My idea of anarchy is taking a dump at company time
- Roadkill in the lunch line
- Tapeworms in punk, a documentary
- Law enforcement perk-a-thon
- Starbucks revolutionary
- Confession booth gloryhole
- The 60’s changed the world, i’m sure you will too
- Whatever happened to fubu?
- Paved paradise
- The charles whitman anthem
- Library grind freaks unite
- B.I.Y.
- Don’t support sketchy fucks
- Controlled by fear
- Serial griller
- Fossils of humanity
- Totally brutal news exposure
Review
It would be very easy to simply dismiss this album with a phrase that my mum used about a lot of the music I listened to in my teens: a lot of noise and shouting.
This album is a lot of noise and shouting. But with an album entitled “Bursts of rage at the speed of hate” what else would you expect?! Unless they were being amusingly ironic.
Actually, what else would you expect from a grindcore album?
Grindcore is characterized by a noise-filled sound that uses heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdriven bass, high speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of growls and high-pitched shrieks.” (Source: Wikipedia)
This album of microsongs (the longest song is 1:19, the shortest song is 0:12, the average song length is 0:30) only lasts a total of 13 minutes 48 seconds. That’s even shorter than Slayer’s Reign in Blood! I’m not sure it’s more aggressive, simply because the songs are so short. There’s something to be said for a more sustained attack.
What I quite like about this album is the variety. Twenty-seven different ways of bursting with rage. Some songs are thrashy, others more akin to punk or hardcore; some begin with sampled vocals; some start slowly and build in speed. There’s a lot of squeaks and squeals from the guitar, a lot of gutteral vocals. I don’t think there’s a single lyric that’s clear enough to understand, though. But it’s all brutal. Obviously the most obvious comparison, if you want one, is with Napalm Death, not just from Scum but later albums too. Maybe a bit of Gorefest too, particularly on a song like “Controlled by fear (fear of God)”.
If I could wish for one significant improvement for this album it would be for better production. The drums sound like they were recorded under the stairs in our hallway. But it all adds to the feel in the end. This isn’t supposed to be a happy-sounding album. I wonder if ex-Anthrax/ex-Nuclear Assault/soon-to-be retired Brutal Truth bassist Danny Lilker was thinking that when he produced the album.
Conclusion
I’m not sure I’d like this album quite so much if it wasn’t sprinkled liberally with samples. They add a much required sense of humour to this music, and something to rub up against for contrast.
That said, there are some nice (extreme) musical ideas in here, and the short song format allows the band to explore them without playing it to death. Bursts of rage, indeed.
If this album came on while on random play I certainly wouldn’t switch it off, but what will be interesting over the next year or so will be whether I listen to this album again of my own choosing.
Review score: 65%