Locust


(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )

The Locust (1998), 6/10
Plague Soundscapes (2003), 6.5/10
New Erections (2007), 5/10
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San Diego's Locust, featuring vocalist and bassist Justin Pearson, keyboardist Joey Karam, Cattle Decapitation's drummer Dave Astor and guitarist Bobby Bray, coined a unique brand of synth-driven progressive, noisy hardcore and grindcore.

The Locust (Gold Standard Laboratories, 1998), compiling 20 songs (none lasting longer than two minutes), introduced their aesthetic of brief explosive outbursts of dementia, something like Teenage Jesus & The Jerks with Allen Ravenstine on synthesizers. Musical highlights include the 36-second Brand New Set of Teeth and Backbones of Jack Asses, with peaks of epileptic ferocity in the 34-second How to Build a Pessimistic Lie Detector, the 38-second Extra Piece of Dead Meat and and the 48-second Kill Roger Hedgecock. The spastic and childish fits of Nice Tranquil Thumb in Mouth and Normal Run of the Muck, or dissonant and lopsided songs like Straight from the Horse's Mouth and Twenty-Three Full-Time Cowboys, better represent the spirit of the project.

Astor was replaced in 2001 by another Cattle Decapitation alumnus, Gabe Serbian. The carnage of Plague Soundscapes (Anti-, 2003), containing 22 songs, sounded even more furious and savage than on the debut (Late For A Double Date With A Pile Of Atoms In The Water Closet, How To Become A Virgin, Solar Panel Asses, Teenage Mustache). A funkier bass lines, crunchier guitar riffs and almost comic synth noises even coalesced in more musical structures (Priest With The Sexually Transmitted Diseases Get Out Of My Bed, Pulling The Christmas Pig By The Wrong Pair Of Ears, Twenty-Three Lubed Up Schizophrenics With Delusions Of Grandeur, and especially Anything Jesus Does I Can Do Better a cross between a videogame soundtrack and Jesus Lizard). A temporary peak of instrumental madness is Wet Dream War Machine.

The EP Safety Second, Body Last (2005), containing just two lengthy pieces, and New Erections (Anti-, 2007), containing several three-minute "songs", allowed more breathing space in between the sonic grenades (Aotkpta), thanks also to the mature style of Joey Karam's synthesizer and Gabe Serbian's drumming.

(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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