ROCK INFERNO - Rupture/The Nerds (Scarey Records)
Try this on for size: Infamous Perth hardcore band Rupture lose their singer, Gus Chamber (reportedly to rock and roll-related, er, lifestyle causes) after a dozen or so albums and shitloads of singles and EPs. Six years on - and with the instrumental tracks for another album in the can - they co-opt American Jeff Clayton (Antiseen) and The Boss (from Italy's The Nerds) to vocalise, and then release "Rock Inferno" on Italian label Scarey.
Let's detour here and say that I'm not a fan of post-production doctoring (even though my favourite live album of all-time, New Race's "The First and The Last", features completely re-recorded vocals.) I'm for recordings capturing "the moment" - even if that's naive in the extreme and a rarity in an age where you can ProTool yourself to production heaven. I also find lots of hardcore self-limiting and I'm long over the concept of a band shocking for shock's sake.
Having said all that, I have to add that this album does not suck. Not even mildly. There's a taught, explosive aspect to the playing by Rupture that would rip the heads off most of their crust-ridden contemporaries and shit down their necks.
You don't develop this sort of sound by getting together once a month over cucumber sandwiches and lemonade. Fuck no. And Jeff Clayton's vocals are as monstrous-sounding as anything you'll hear on tape, short of those silly death metal guys who fall back on soundboard effects to replicate the sound of a corpse vomiting.
Guitarist Stumblefuck exhibits no airs and graces with his wall-of-sound attack and any bass player with the name Zombo is fine with me. I can't imagine "Sodom Francisco" or "Cock in a Frock" going down well at a church recital but that ain't a bad thing for ironed-on fans of hardcore. This is a band whose entire album artwork was once confiscated by police, legend has it, so nothing should surprise.
There's even an intro to "(I'm The) Alcoholic Abortion" from beyond the grave by Gus Chamber to add an air of authenticity, and while Clayton singing about kangaroos had me scratching my head, I'll bet that even the biggest of those pesky fuckers would bound away at a million miles and hour if he as much as opened his whiskey-scarred voicebox within hearing range.
If 13 tracks of Rupture weren't enough, another seven songs from The Nerds are appended. It's in much the same style as their predecessors and a step above some of their stuff I've heard in the past. The Boss might share his name with Brooooce Springsteen but that's where the similarity ends. There's even a slow tune here (is that hardcore sacrilege?) just to show The Nerds are not one-dimensional.
Dunno if I'll play this everyday as part of my pre-wage slave ritual but it will get a look-in when I want to purge the soul after accidental exposure to hip hop.
–
The Barman
1/2
