It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with The Arson Project’s Disgust.
Oh, I hope you’ve heard this already. I really, really hope you have. But this column exists in case you haven’t, because holy shit has The Arson Project outdone themselves. This thing is an absolute monster; a brash, rabid, hateful piece of misanthropy that sounds like a firing squad of tanks. By the gods does this album fucking destroy.
The Arson Project has been around since 2005. Yeah, twelve years now and yet they only have handful of releases. Five total with Disgust, and this is actually their debut LP. You’d never know it though because they play like they’ve got a PhD in deathgrind and violence. Maybe twelve years will do that do you. I don’t know. I’ve been playing guitar for fourteen years and I still can’t write for shit.
It begins with a blood curdling scream on “Blood on the Shovel.” Like one that comes out at night when a maniac with a knife is about to cut your silly ass down. And then the guitars come in. It’s just heavy. Little bit of groove. It’s just an intro. Harmless, really. Then “Buried in Concrete” blasts on and it’s like gardening shears around your neck.
Disgust is a lot of things. Violent is its most prevalent, but that’s just what connects the dots. It’s grindcore, death metal, deathgrind, hardcore/punk and has its noisy elements. It’s got plenty of clips scattered throughout to drive home the idea of human worthlessness. But Disgust is pure violence towards these things, in genre, self, society and general philosophy. There are no good thoughts, to steal a line from The Body.
The Arson Project keep songs on the shorter side but not always on the blasting side. Oh, but it is plenty blasting. More on that later. Like the intro track, there’s plenty of more…moderate tempos. The band keep things banging without needing to constantly rip your face off, without it ever losing momentum. It’s the punk aesthetic that often keeps this going. The intro bit of “Raped Minds” does a good job of portraying this while the later parts of the song sound like pure death metal (the stuff in between the blasts). Other tracks like “Downward Spiral” keep things on the slower end, with a straightforward approach. The riffs and tempo vary slightly but the mood is consistent.
Meanwhile, when The Arson Project is getting off the ground, they blast like banshee. “To The Gallows” is an absolute monster. The band sounds like they’re flaying skin from muscle when they channel this madness. And most songs have at least a brief blast. They never overplay it, which only makes the tracks more intense. Tracks like “Forgotten Graves” are pure deathgrind with some insane blasting bits that always intensify but never stay too long.
The Arson Project may have taken twelve years to put out a debut full-length but holy hell was it worth it. Some might find the album a turn off I suppose. Things conclude on a George Orwell quote (from the man himself). If you’ve an issue with politics being shoved into your life then fuck off of the internet and out of music. Your only escape is death. Disgust is more than aptly titled. It’s free to download, directly from the band. Don’t sleep on this.
I'm here.
