Terrorize, threaten and insult your own useless generation
– Malcolm McLaren.
Like McLaren’s Sex Pistols, Shotgun Messiah are a band who have benefited from that doctrine. ‘Violent New Breed’ is a disturbing masterstroke, more enervating than the most persistent nightmare. It is arguably the most effective release of the year.
For those who thought ‘Second Coming’ an aggressive album, ‘VNB’ will be like being hoisted onto a meat hook. That Shotgun Messiah share their initials with a painful form of pleasure is no longer any coincidence.
Take ‘Enemy In Me’; a whirling plunge into paranoid horror. As with “I’m A Gun”, “Sex”, “I Come In Peace”, and practically all the 12 tracks, it’s an aural clubbing of sledgehammer proportions. What the hell has guitarist Harry Cody been eating? He’s evolved from a closet pose-cutely into a total animal. His performance throughout the album is easily on a par with the likes of Warrior Soul.
Meanwhile, vocalist Tim Skold, originally an effenimate bass player, screams somewhere back in the mix like a man grappling with his sanity. It’s his most guttural performance to date, the shadow of someone as ugly as Al Jourgensen never far away. Put the Pistols into a blender with Pantera and Ministry, and you have SM ’93.
“Rain” and the brilliant “Jihad” are two examples of songs that bulge with industrial hammerings and special effects. Then, “Side F/X” is two minutes of machine age meltdown, with Skold wailing in impotent rage. But somehow, SM balance everything with superb melodic edge that retains the hummability factor. Whether it be the chugging Panterasmic “Revolution”, the Punk bombast of “Monkey Needs”, or the shocking opening salvo that is “I’m A Gun”, this album brings you the sound of white noise and fine songs in the same stroke.
Fans of ’70s gore flick ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ will appreciate this album’s tone of relentless menace. It isn’t a happy record. It’s in excessively poor taste. It is also unutterably brilliant, and the ideal excuse to blow away your neighbors once and for all. Terrorize, threaten and insult!
Steve Beebee
