Malefaction
Crush The Dream
G7 Welcoming Committee Records

Politics indeed make for strange bedfellows. And, as it turns out, odd labelmates. I thought the G7 name was fantastic, but it’s no empty tongue-in-cheek pop culture reference. It’s the loaded tongue-in-cheek name of a serious activist label which rosters punk artists like Propaghandi with pundits like Noam Chomsky and Ward Churchill. Malefaction’s unintelligible grindcore fits into this diversity because their lyrics are essentially brief propagandist posters. They address issues of concern in language simple enough to be chanted at the appropriate rally, but intelligent enough to be thoughtfully considered when plastered on the street in large block letters. Also salty enough to be seen as bathroom graffiti. Until you read the liner notes, however, it may as well be Anal Cunt. Crush The Dream presents 23 songs in 25 minutes. The sonics of each consist of papery Napalm Death drums, barked Cookie Monster vocals, and speed metal chugging guitars. Lest the review end there, let’s explore the garbled free-associative lyrics, which mostly eschew rhymes and verbs. These are infinitely more interesting than the music. With one or two sentences per song we out to be able to flesh this out real nice-like.

"No Positive Impact" would go over well at any World Bank gathering you may be planning, touting, With the quest for profit, the welfare of the majority ignored. The rift is growing. Wait for the backlash. Kind of a threatening haiku. Native New Zealanders will appreciate "Beothuck." Well they would if they weren’t all dead. Their extinction is explored with, The forest is quiet. She wonders where her children have gone. The band’s dissatisfaction with Christianity comes to a head in "Dead World Harvest", For God so loved the world that he sent his murderers to conquer you. (see also Corporate Avenger review) The album title is culled from the social statement "Life Within The Hive". Oppression ends when death begins. A new level of antagonism. Crush the dream of heaven. It reads like a brochure entitled, "So you’ve decided to have a baby…" but the song is "Abused And Unloved." Parents play an important role in a child’s development. And abusive upbringings breed the same. I enjoy the wonderful irony of this line from "A Defining Moment," We are one and the same…you stupid piece of shit! In tension. Nonplussed by my indifference. The defining can be intentionally self-depreciating. Nice punnage as well. An odd standout in a genre of misogyny, "Hunger/Exhaustion" is supportive and comforting in poetic non-sequiters. The news snapshot "Keeping Out Of Harms Way" shows the dispersed from an undisclosed but common war. Refugees awaiting repatriation. End of a civil war? That one is a haiku, isn’t it? Having to choose a clip from "Wills Less Resolute" is tricky. Let’s go with, Why don’t we reach out to like-minded deserters brought up with inherent lies? Stalemate divides our common ground. Hypocrisy residing in the pro-life camp gives birth to "Fuck The League For Life." "No Sympathy" is directed at racism and those who tolerate it. "To Ensure Bloodlust Prospers" is the punchline to the question, What are you killing for? But the lyric to watch for is, Children trained to fight ancient battles beyond ancestral graves. Nothing is truly dead.

The cryptic "Drowning In Public Approval" is a complete mystery to me. The great demoralization of the land they thought they new. Sorry, they lost me. More decipherable questions are raised in "I Will Not Serve". What makes a man a man? Repulsion? His god, a wife and kids? Malefaction also stabs at homophobes on this one. A Keirkegaardian view of the majority on "A Victim Of Free Living," stating, I was so naïve. Bleed them white and trust in yourself. A different arena comes under fire as "Dance Floor Politics" takes on the testosterone in the moshpit. Or is it a metaphor for congress? I found a rhyme in the Machiavellian, "The Great Annihilator" but I guess it may be unintentional, Take aim of independence with enigma that blinds. Soften the mind, harden the kind. Nope, there are three. It’s on purpose. "Bled" points out corporate greed at the expense of the environment. A preemptive solution to prison is offered in "Something Less Destructive." The American practice of warring for economic purpose is exposed for "People Before Profit" The subject of "Killing Over Faith" is the tradition of label- based conflict, Religion and nationalism are such a crock of shit. It’s too bad you suckers keep falling for it. Our hunger for blood as calculated by news ratings shows through "Topic Of The Day". Silent screams of defiance. The coverage that we long for. And we react with polite horror.  Whether or not grindcore is your bag, we’ve shed light on the subliminal content of the maelstrom.

On a scale of bands I would like to see happen; one being Tony Robbins & Helpless Self, and ten being Ralph Nader &Unsafe At Any Speed.  Crush The Dream rates a six, Deepak Chopra’s Deep Rock Opera.

— Ewan Wadharmi

Track Listing

1. No Positive Impact
2. Beothuck
3. Dead World Harvest
4. Life Within the Hive
5. Abused And Unloved
6. A Defining Moment
7. Hunger/Exhaustion
8. Keeping Out Of Harm’s Way
9. Wills Less Resolute
10. Fuck The League For Life
11. No Sympathy
12. Ensure Bloodlust Prospers
13. Drowning In Public Approval
14. I Will Not Serve
15. A Victim Of Free Living
16. Forever
17. Dance Floor Politics
18. The Great Annihilator
19. Bled
20. Something Less Destructive
21. People Before Profit
22. Kill Over Faith
23. Topic Of The Day

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