It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Vulva Essers Lysergic Static.
There’s something looming about Sunday if you spend too much of it alone and on your ass (as is my case). Without proper distraction, you can get to fixating too much on the coming day. And in part, hunting down grind bands is my way of distracting myself from that looming doom, but the other part of it is to hopefully expose you to something new, or obscure, or nostalgic, but most importantly, ripping.
Vulva Essers is like the most static, vicious, violent b-horror film on PCP. A harsh, noisy, grinding rusted blade that has a taste for blood. Roughly speaking, that’s what you’re in for here. Like you’re being stalked leaving 42nd Street after a screening of Pieces. Ok, the metaphors and smilies are running thin in this paragraph—you get the idea.
Hailing of out San Fernando, CA, the two-piece (Jose Buzo on drums and Mardin Martinez on 7-string/vocals) has been a band since 2011 but only have a few releases. A split with Pudrete and two solo albums, both under ten songs, and both very brief, and all of which were added to their Bandcamp in September 2013. A release with Shooting Spree also came out last year on Mullet Death Records. But we’re here to talk about Lysergic Static.
In nine short minutes, Vulva Essers unleash a veritable hell upon the ears and senses. Noisy blasts with movie clips from American Psycho, Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Pink Flamingos spliced in. The bleeding, white noise pours through every song. This is the kind of album that’s always blasting at eleven. The title track opens things up with rabid aggression. The explosion quells for a moment and then the momentum picks up again before ending on a horror film clip. And then the following track picks right up with another film quote.
These moments break up the songs and make it so things don’t bleed together. They give the listener space for breathing but keep with the slasher-esque/pro-death mood that the album carries. Tracks like “Kubikiri” and “Mental Collapse” sound like they’re on the verge of snapping. The tight blast beats only get more vicious with every second that passes, while the guitar feels like it’s about to go off the rails.
But this isn’t a noisegrind album, though it damn well verges on it. The hardcore/punk influence that is so prevalent in the grindcore genre is here. “Amoebic Dysentery” and “Mental Collapse” are heavily hardcore. Hell, the recording quality even drastically changes for the final track, which weirdly makes it sound less static than the previous ones. Does it deter? No.
All in all, Vulva Essers is a band that’s constantly on the verge of bottling madness. Lysergic Static is an intense, grinding beast. It’s like rolling around in broken glass, getting up, and attacking the audience with a broken, jagged blade. The intensity of the album cannot be under or overstated. When they’re on, the band is in your face. In the meantime, they let their intensity grow through clips. It works without being annoying or overdone. Then again, the album isn’t around for long. Maximum volume is essential.
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