Metal Meltdown: An Unanticipated Night of Noisecore

Over the weekend, and to my delight, I had found out from a band mate that one of my favourite death/grind bands, Despised Icon (DI), was coming to Hamilton. Quick as a turnip, I recruited my nefarious evilutionary colleague, C-lo the Malevolent to ‘come with’.

Despised Icon has recently emerged as a veritable force among the death/grind elite, what with the technical riffage, blistering drums and of course, the whimsical growling. I was not always a DI fan. The first I had really heard of them, was several years ago when we opened for them in Sudbury. At the time, I thought their EP was mediocre Montreal-style death metal. Things changed shortly before the show. As we were waiting for doors to open, the lads in DI went through their entire set acoustically. Gathered round a coffee table, with guitars unplugged, drums tapped out on a practice pad and vocals tapped out on the table¹, the lads rehearsed their whole set. Fast forward two years and two albums and these guys are one of the fastest up-and-comers to the genre.

I admit that the main reason I wanted to see DI again (after having seen them three times) was to marvel at the wonder that is Alex Pelletier, who can only be described as a humming bird with drumsticks. The other reason of course, was to chuckle at the whimsical grunting².

When I arrived at the show, it turned out that half the band had either been replaced or was being filled in by other musicians. Most notably, the position of drummer was being filled in by fellow Montrealer Patrice Hamelin, who also happens to play for Montreal-based Martyr and a former band mate’s of mine band, Senate. It turned out that Alex sat this tour out because he was working (alas)³.

I was however, pleasantly surprised by the high caliber playing and were it not for the fact that I knew some members were replacements, I would never had know the difference by ear. Other than the crazy screamo windmill kids, the evening was quite enjoyable – until the noisecore that is.

DI doing what they do best.

When I obtained the tickets for DI, I really didn’t care about the other bands on the bill. It later turned out that the headliner was a notable (so I’m told) noisecore band called The Locust and the two openers were a band called Child Abuse and The Discord of a Forgotten Sketch, both also noisecore, which luckily I missed.

So what is noisecore? Noisecore (or occasionally called noise-grind) is the less musical cousin of the oft anti-musical grindcore. It is marked by abrupt stops and starts, incoherent political lyrics, strange tunings and instrumentations and all round weirdness.

Here is a hastily (and sh!ttily) drawn pseudo-phylogeny⁴ describing the relationship of noisecore to metal.

Figure taken from Mai-Ars et al, 2006.
Niche of a niche niche sub-sub-genre. Audience=2, SD +/- 4

Huh?

The easisest way to describe it would be to suggest that noisecore is the postmodernist metal. Still don’t get it? Neither do I. Have a listen to some of The Locust, in particular ‘Safety Second, Body Last’.

Feel better? Me neither. What’s perhaps weirder still is that the entire band (and even sound engineer) performs wearing green skin tight outfits with mesh eye-holes.

The Locust, boasting outfits that are stylish and practical. With song titles like Gluing Carpet Your Genitals, they must get loads of chix.

Although I was generally fascinated by the weirdness of the band along with the weirdness of the audience⁵, my stay became unbearable on account of the pure volume of the “music”. After my pants started vibrating uncomfortably from the bass frequencies, I decided to leave lest my testes rupture from the sonic onslaught. Therefore C-lo and I made our stealthy egress hoping to avoid sterility.

Oddly enough though, I’ve been craving a bit o’ The Locust lately. I think it might be time to have my brain checked.

NOTE: There have been a number of requests for me to post some of my band’s music. Although there are a number of sites hosting some of our recorded material, I’ve not pointed any of my posts to them for a few reasons. First, I’m trying to keep this blog somewhat anonymous on account of the fact that I have perhaps said (or will say) a few unflattering (but true) things about some persons, labs, etc. As a grad student, and one who found it very hard to find work after leaving a prestigious lab due to medical reasons, I’m mindful that what I say/write can work against me. Second, the most recent material from my current band is somewhat dated and I don’t feel adequately represents where we are now. Perhaps I will post some tunes, but we will have to wait and see.

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1. Let’s face it, the vocals, being mostly atonal, are more of a rhythmic device than anything.

2. 'Officially' referred to as pig squeals in the metal/hardcore community, it’s really a simpler and stylized form of Mongolian throat singing, or overtone singing - without the singing. As an aside, who the h3ll are these officials? Is there some metal convention consortium? If so, I want to be on it.

3. There are no more r0ck st*rs. The truth of the matter for the last ten years or more is that most signed bands are in fact ‘working bands’, insofar that they work full time or seasonally to support themselves when not touring or recording. The reality is that most record contracts are merely loans or advances for recordings and distribution deals. The band always has to pay this money back, even if sales don't cover co$ts. There are of course exceptions such as U2, Metallica, most mainstream manufactured pop acts, etc.

4. Don’t even bother you prickish pedants – this mostly means you Brummel.

5. This requires further discussion. An uncomfortable number of male audience members were wearing colourful sweaters, white leather belts, painted-on pants (that can only be described as the new ‘hardcore cut’ by Tommy of whomever) and silly slicked down hair-cuts that defied physics, unless of course super glue were applied.