Review Summary: Sloppy, mean spirited, and violent: What's not to love?
F
uck, sh
it, death, piss, sex, rape, hate, murder.
Alright, now that I got that out of the way, on with my review: This album is f
ucking bonkers. For those unaware, the
Brainbombs are a swedish noise punk band that are practically infamous for their over-the-top offensive lyrics and sloppy, violent instrumentation. Their 1992 debut
Burning Hell in particular is one of their nastiest, most disgusting recordings they’ve ever done, which for their standards, is pretty impressive.
For one, the instrumentation is all over the place. The guitars are messy and disorienting, literally sounding as if they’re not even tuned correctly. The bass is as thick as oil, for they always add extra weight to the tracks. The drums are frantic and rabid, and it is not unusual for them to flood tracks with relentless bashing of the cymbals. When these guys combine these instruments to form what they would call a song, it’s almost impossible to describe how insane it is.
“Danny Was A Streetwhore” is a definite highlight of the album: The guitars are messy, bouncing off of each other while the drums create sheer noise with the amount of times the cymbals are being bashed. It’s a song that describes the album perfectly: Trashy. The rude vocals, describing the life of a prostitute, sneer in a manner that’s anything but mean spirited. “Sadist Action” is just as noisy, the guitar screech and hiss, sliding on top of the (surprisingly) tight drumwork while the once again ill-mannered vocals describe a particularly gruesome murder.
For the most part, the album is just pure, distorted fun, however I would be lying if I said that the middle portion didn’t lag a little. “Wishing A Slow Death” is pretty much voiceless, sounding like any other track on the album, and the same goes for “Tired And Bloody”. “After Acid” is an interesting track lyrically, detailing confusing thoughts and imagery, but musically, it drags, having no real climax or high peaks of quality.
Burning Hell is a gross album that uses it’s sloppiness to it’s advantage. The messy instrumentation makes for great entertainment, and the mean spirited vibe that patronizes the album only adds to the charm. Whenever I listen to this, I can feel it burn inside my head, inside my mind, it’s a burning hell.
