By Jake Gillen
Sometimes, and not often enough for me, things just happen to work themselves out in cool and interesting ways.
For example, I finally have enough time, again, to do reviews here at E&D. We’re an all-volunteer force for musical good, so when work and other adult stuff gets in the way, the writing takes the backseat. So, now I finally have some time to write again, and I see an unclaimed ready-to-be-reviewed album by That Massive Bereavement. I like the name, and was listening to Oceansize today, and in fact to their tune ‘Massive Bereavement’ from ‘Effloresce’, so I decided that the coincidence was too much to ignore.
The album by That Massive Bereavement, an EP actually, is called Eat the Rich, and other than that, I knew nothing about the band or their music. I have to say, this is one of those times where things ‘just worked out’ - I am really pleasantly surprised with ‘Eat the Rich’ and have listened to it a couple of times already.
Karma = Good today!
Starting off, we are told ‘Let’s Eat the Rich’, and I am down for that. Seriously, this sounds like The Stooges to me, but that’s high praise. If you are going to sound like a band, why not sound like one of the most influential in your particular genre? Aidan’s vocals remind me of Kevin Seconds (7 Seconds) and other 1980’s-era, So-Cal Hardcore bands, bands that I saw as often as I was able as a youngster here. In fact, these vocals remind me specifically of some band whose name I have long forgotten, but I am sure I’ll remember as soon as I get this done.
By far, my favourite on this EP is ‘Benetton Models’, and that’s mostly because I clearly remember the asinine and inane advertising campaigns that those douchebags ran in every magazine that they could pay (including my Rolling Stone magazine). I agree that Benetton models ‘should be burned to the ground’. Not the models, really, I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone, but you know what they and I mean. Nothing musically groundbreaking here, but it’s scuzzy (quoting their Bandcamp reviewer), fun punk. I can picture my buddy Chris crowdsurfing at the all-ages show to this music circa 1987. Yep, I am that old.
‘Waste it Now’ is a little more Garagey, a little more Stooges again, with a brooding, slow-building growl. ‘Sity’ is like early Henry Rollins meets AC/DC meets malt liquor, with the refrain “Burn, Burn, Burn!”. ‘Gorilla’ is next, and happens to be my least favourite track on this EP, although the guitar riffs are cool. Last up, the too-short ‘Snatch’ kicks up back up a notch, with the classic spastic punk rock drums.
If you haven’t realized it so far, this album is just what I needed today. It’s short and fun, and it’s like the equivalent of comfort food - warm and fond memories evoked. The tongue-in-cheek, albeit acerbic, humour reminds me that I don’t need to analyze the shit out of it, that I can still have a more emotional reaction to it...that music can and should be fun. I am definitely still a fan of punk and hardcore, as well as their predecessors, so it does the soul good to hear that there are still bands like That Massive Bereavement making music like this.
Rock on, Gentlemen.
