Monday, February 11, 2013

Fear of God – Pneumatic Slaughter

1992 • Atrocious Records

I'm not terribly knowledgeable when it comes to really early grind and the general punk scene of the late '80s, but supposedly Fear of God is a good place to start. They're one of the pioneers of this sort of raw, uncontrollable punk, with songs that are more like noise experiments without a lot of structure and are hard to get a grip on. The old-school vibe of the late '80s / early '90s and bands like Agathocles is presented well here, complete with senseless disregard for audio quality (although this is a posthumous live recording, so it's a bit more understandable) and a very visceral approach. It's nearly impossible to make out the low grinding of the guitars over the overwhelming feedback and muddy vocals, but the band plays with such a ferocity that it hardly matters that you can't tell what's going on.

It's an aesthetic that I've never been particularly fond of, preferring the more modern and clean sound over this, but Pneumatic Slaughter and music like it has a definite appeal to it, albeit to a relatively small fanbase. And when it comes to this sort of stuff, Fear of God is definitely near the top of the list.

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