While the ongoing pandemic and recommended shut-in conditions continue to surround everyday life like a restless poltergeist, I cannot help but wonder if this is also a driving force in some of this year’s most chaotic releases. And while working on albums can be a year plus in the making, this madness started early enough that we might be just beginning to feel its ramifications. Let’s call this first wave chaos. And The God Awful Truth is another taste of it.
The Denton, TX trio The Godawful Truth are not strangers to the mathcore scene. They have been making frenzied music since 2015 and their latest, Memory Palace, is a continuation of their campaign of destruction. Their sound is like The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, and a weird dash of early Daughters, almost like if this were the bridge between Canada Songs and Hell Songs. You’ll see.
Opening with “Jack, Jack” it is apparent quickly that The Godawful Truth do not want to play nice. The song is flying off the walls quickly, firing in every which direction, like a flurry of machine-gun ricochets. It is the band showing full teeth straight out of the gate and keeping that pace when “You’ve Got Red On You” hits. Though the track is not a full-bore neck-snapper. The song goes into a heavy, wheezing breakdown that would make a pit explode.
The thing about this band is how much variety they have going on. Mathcore can suffer from being over-abundant and, as a result, half-baked (see: Dave Rubin’s book). Now granted, that may seem a little harsh, early mathcore was adventurous, and The God Awful Truth is nothing shy of great. For some, it still seems like there can be some trepidation when some approach mathcore. Nevertheless, great things are being done in the genre right now. And The God Awful Truth have some real variety in their songwriting.
Tracks like “Knockout Ned” draw a strong comparison to bands like The Callous Daoboys, and other tracks like “Multiple Miggs” sound like they are straight channeling Hell Songs. “Kyoko, Go Go” is like an 80s hardcore/punk track that seamlessly becomes a modern mathcore song, hailing down some of that laser-like distortion.
If you have not had a jumping-off point for mathcore, this should be it. The God Awful Truth is a tasty dose of all that is great in the genre. Their sound is chaotic but without going Loony Tunes on the listener’s ears. It is still plenty frantic, but it has its slower sections that will still make one double-check those time signatures. Get mathy, get jazzy.
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