Shards of molten guitar feedback streak across the surface, casting flints of aggressive riffs cascading into the abyss of rock and roll. This ain’t genocide, stating some hoary old rock star, but we beg to differ. This is genocide of actual rock and roll. Destroy all senses and leave you gasping for more. You want to hear the past, present, and fucking future of rock and roll? You may well find it in depths of the new Over-Gain Optimal Death album, Die Underground.
Of course, all that rely on whatever drugs you have imbibed or whether you fit into that small niche of people who find beauty in the swirling madness of Stoogian white hot riffs. Submerged vocals bubbling underneath tracks such as ‘No Lord’ which out Pigs our beloved Pigsx7 by a multiple of 700. That’s a lot of pigs.
That this noise is made by a trio is all the more remarkable and that minimalist punk ethos is what drives the whole shebang forward. Riffs scythe across your brain, sharpened edges lacerating your mind. The intense ‘Oversleep’ unrelenting in its pursuit of pure carnage. All you can do is give into it.
It’s not all 1000mph punk fury, and in the more quieter (although let’s not kid ourselves here, these aren’t exactly that quiet), there is an undercurrent of 60’s freak rock, fuelled by brown acid. That resolute bad trip of the blues down a psychedelic highway. All 14 minutes of ‘Fallen Woman’ sounding like the bastard offspring of something from Stooges Fun House. It’s the only way to end an album which acts as a pure attack on the senses. Approach with curiosity, leave with free mind.
