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This disc is worth the price for the song titles alone, and
most of them don’t even appear as lyrics. How can we stand
proud as Americans when the wily Danes have a better mastery
of our language and our music than we do? Exhibit one: from
Scandal-navian leftist band Lack; I'll define your
apathy with the exact same word you use to categorize my thinking
as childish and spoiled/ Because it bites me at night when
sleep won't seduce me and dreams refuse to lie. Now by
contrast: Andrew W.K.; And when you work you don't
feel all right/ And we can't stop feeling all right (all right)
/And everything is all right. Shut up! Philosophy junkies
will be satisfied as well, but then the Danes never disappoint
us there. The enlightened lyrics and advanced thought processes
on Blues Moderne: Danois Explosifs have a solid backing.
The mix of melodic hardcore with disturbing discord will please
heavy-leaning emos. The harshness breaks up your bony orb,
which allows the sickness to ooze into your squishy matter.
During "Zur Genealogie Des Modernen Menschen",
blinking guitars go off like lawn sprinklers pausing briefly
for tuneful noodling. The emotional screaming threatens to
blow the top right off the popper. Vocalist Thomas
interacts with creative placement as his jaw pumping rivals
the guitars. The second-degree assault on "Pessimist
Poetry" submits to an unexpectedly natural interlude.
Sebadoh used to do stuff like that but on a much smaller
scale. "Achilles And The Tortoise" toys with metal
waltzes and eye-opening time changes. The tension increases
several times as excitement builds. It reduces to sludge for
the closing indictment History will judge you. A little
less demanding, "Solipsist Letter To The World"
has Thomas again playing keep away with the band. It’s these
sort of inventive vocal choices that keep you hanging onto
his words, which are for once intelligible. A little number
called "When Even The Most Honest Of Emotions Turns Into
A Commodity..." is a percussive piece. The vocals compete
with the intense drums while even the deft guitars rattle
like drum rolls. The dramatic effect increases thanks to a
rising organ backdrop. Real horror show stuff, this.
The delivery in "Kill Britney" is as humorous as
the title. Almost as cartoony as Yamatsuka Eye’s Tasmanian
devil impersonations with Torture Garden. As his vocals
tease the guitar line, Thomas mocks popular culture with,
In the name of every holy hero/show me the next slogan/
and I'll be the first to wear it/In the name of every holy
hero that ever sold out/ I'll be on your side/ I'll be your
faithful soldier. No one, including Lack is safe from
the scathing condemnation. The frustration is turned inward
on "Falling From The Peak…" where self-doubt becomes
evident. Just like swinging the guitar wildly and a sore
throat makes no revolution/ Yet another wheel in the entertainment
machine/ We became capitalists the second you bought our first
record. How’s that for forward thinking? "Dawn"
brings a pretty straight hard rock attack with Lack’s typical
mastery of dynamics. And just when you think it’s over, they
punch through with the trickiest false ending yet. Manic scrubbing
on "The Only Thing That Can Save Us Is Despair"
melds an operatic progression into a metal alloy fusion. The
space between rants proves the instruments are in tune and
the operators are not machines. They’re actual people who
really play that fast and hard. The most melodic piece is
saved for last. "Great Russian Nihilists", like
any successful revolution, starts out quietly and simply.
Soon it builds into a sonic frenzy with snippets of the original
melody. The hair-swinging stomp rests up for the final brash
battle.
On a scale of philosophical quotes: One being "Plato
was a bore." - Friedrich Nietzsche, andTen being "Nietzsche
was stupid and abnormal." - Leo Tolstoy Blues Moderne:
Danois Explosifs deserves an eight - "I am not a Marxist."
-- Karl Marx.
— Ewan Wadharmi
Track Listing:
- Zur Genealogie Des Modernen Menschen
- Pessimist Poetry
- Achilles And The Tortoise
- Solipsist Letter To The World
- When Even The Most Honest Of Emotions Turns Into A Commodity...
- Kill Britney
- Falling From The Peak Of Truth To The Catastrophe Of The
Disillusioned
- Dawn
- The Only Thing That Can Save Us Is Despair
- Great Russian Nihilists
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