Destroyer – POISON SEASON
Destroyer*, as you
can easily guess from the name, is a heavy metal band. In fact, they have to be
one of the 3 or 4 heaviest heavy metal bands in existence. They are that heavy. These Canadian motherfuckers
certainly put ‘bang’ back in Bangkok (incidentally, that’s the name of one of
this album’s more guttural and uncompromising numbers).
Overall, Poison Season is punishing hardcore. And
with song titles like “Hell” and “Girl In A Sling” (released as a single, my
God!) – what else do you expect?? Dan Bejar (a Mexican mafia man with a glass
of El Diablo in his hand, you would think) sings his guts out on this one. By
the second half, my ears bled more than after standing for three hours in the
first row of a Swans gig.
A Swans gig makes me
think of a Destroyer show. Never been to one, but I guess it’s about as
bruising an experience as listening to Chuck Palahniuk read one of his more…
challenging stories (side note: Palahniuk is badly overrated, and Fight Club sucks balls).
Where were we? Ah,
Destroyer. The leader of the band is also a member of a group of Canadian
hardcore pornographers frequently performing live and occasionally even
recording studio albums (Christ knows what could be on those). With Destroyer,
though, Mr. Bejar shows his other side. One that is, quite clearly, not for the most faint-hearted of
us.
Fucking hell, “Forces
From Above” is BRUTAL.
*This review was
written in a Cambridge bar while drunk on Cuban Old-Fashioned.
