Future Death – Special Victim

Future Death
Special Victim
Bloodmoss Records
★★

Listening to Special Victim is like trying to have sex with a grizzly bear. The cacophony of punk, speed metal and abstract avant garde meddling all blend together into a hallucinatory garbage can, slopped around and scooped up for the masses to regurgitate.

The ideal is very punk rock, the output is beyond anarchism. A perfect example of this is “Junkhammer” and its seven minute blurring of a practically unlistenable montage burned into a churning punk underlayment.

Where the essence of the band feels like their decisions are based on impulse, the way everything is laid out is delicately persistent. When you dissect “Riot Trains,” you have that chaotic punk approach with seconds of interspersed speed metal thrown in to occasionally catch you off guard just as much as the second time signature diversions do. It puts your mind in a spiral.

“Basement” is the perfect description of the elation of what it is like at a basement show. The sweaty euphoria of garage pop put through a blender with the musty aroma of noise grind love orgies. This is the highlight of Future Death’s power.

And really the angular jaunts of “Speedweed” is just as enticing but just in a different way. And I would take that over “Roman Devices” where it sounds like Lightning Bolt put to coherent lyrics and vocal doodling. But if you are going to have this next to the shoegaze performance art butchering of “Dream” then it’s not too far off from making sense.

I could keep talking about descriptives but you get the idea. I’m not sure I want to listen to Special Victim. Yet, I cannot stop thinking about wanting to listen to this album.