Thought Police Brutality

Pitted Against Nature

Written by: PP on 14/01/2010 02:06:40

When it comes to Danish punk, I've always had a thing for Thought Police Brutality. I don't know why, because all conventional logic suggests that the band's nonsensical, unstructured, all-over-the-place breed of brutal hardcore punk is crappy both on paper and on disc. Maybe it's because the band takes themselves as (un)seriously as Stars Burn Stripes (more cool Danish punk, check them out), maybe it's because they make it REALLY challenging for the listener to find any redeeming points about their music, I don't know. All I know is that the band's sickening vocalist Alessandro / The A-Man / Bertel / Il Duce literally sounds like he's simultaneously in every corner of the soundscape, releasing his ridiculously furious growl/scream/yell hybrid l as if it came out of a rocket launcher with all the associated noise and rumble that comes along with it. He kinda resembles a punk rock version of Converge's legendary Jacob Bannon, except he's way less focused and much less talented. Strangely enough, that's what's so appealing about Thought Police Brutality and their new 7 track EP "Pitted Against Nature" in general: sometimes you just want to listen to ugly music instead of the polished, well-produced routine stuff that usually revolves around your stereo.

So there are only 100 copies of the record in circulation, and it consists of a mix of older songs that the band has played live since they started, but never had time to record, and a few brand new songs as well. Stylistically, the band is still hardcore punk, noisy as hell, the soundscape is compact like a tiny dungeon cell, and the songs are played without regard for potential arm injury: if you're looking for insanely fast hardcore that matches the pace with aggression, look no further. The lack of production means that the record has a live feel, leaving it riddled with sloppy mistakes, but that's of secondary importance. As long as the sound is loud, raw, and fucking hardcore, that's all that matters to this band. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that melody has been altogether forgotten. "Purgative", the best track on the record, has a few passages where a distant echo of melody can be heard even whilst Alessandro continues to sound like a raging beast, ranting on about his usual pissed off socio-political criticism which is the theme throughout the record.

Chaotic, uncompromising, unrelenting. Those are the three words I'd use to best describe "Pitted Against Nature". If you belong to the club that believes you don't have to be an excellent musician to play punk, then check this record out, otherwise, stay the fuck out, this shit's not gonna be for you. Clocking in at just ten minutes, however, the EP does feel a teeny weeny bit too short, and one's left wishing for more hardcore insanity than is on offer here. Normally this is the part where I'd talk about the potential of a band, but since Thought Police Brutality have less than zero chance of expanding outside the borders of Denmark Copenhagen, I'm just not gonna bother. But at the same time, if I can find this shit extremely enjoyable on some sick level, I'm sure there's a whole bunch of others who will too.

7

Download: Purgative
For the fans of: Raised Fist, Sick Of It All, Chaos Delivery Machine, ungdomshuset
Listen: Myspace

Release date December 2009
Self-Released

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.