I pulled The Will To Power off the shelf recently. Whether there was outside influence to that, I’m not certain. I have been jamming Pissed On’s The Hanged Man a fair bit over the past several months. Maybe it’s central nihilism theme has just been bleeding in. Maybe it’s my day job.
Louiseville, KY (well known for their “sluggers”, this not being an exception) noisey/grinding/hardcore/powerviolence heathens Pissed On have been around for a little while. They put out a demo and a split with Street Rat not too long ago, but otherwise haven’t been very active up until now. The Hanged Man, however, should be loud enough to turn some heads and simultaneously crack some skulls.
The Hanged Man is a loud, vicious album. A brief inhale and it’s off to a blasting start with opener “Reader.” The slice of modern grind and hardcore/punk influences gives it feeling like it’s grabbed you by the face and sunk in its claws. And at fifty-two-seconds, this is just enough to establish the wrecking grounds.
See, Pissed On, like my descriptor above says, a lot of things. They’re a band that cover a lot of ground without feeling like they’re playing a copy/paste game. And they’re certainly not playing to a central genre. The Hanged Man is a heavy, noisy, violent experience. Sometimes all at once, sometimes little by little. “Shriveled Minds”, for example, is something that covers the spectrum. It’s sludgy and heavy, but starts out fast and grind-y. Meanwhile, the closer track “The Hanged Man” is a sludgy, trudging slam.
The mood of the album really can’t be stressed enough. The Hanged Man is the story of a man during his final days. A time of nihilism/meaninglessness and reveling in death. Pissed On do a fantastic job of breaking it down as the ten-minute concept progresses. It’s something that almost feels like it could have been taken and perhaps stretched out further. But maybe that would have killed the mood. Regardless, The Hanged Man certainly marks Pissed On as a band that should be watched and listened to repeatedly. There’s something even more sinister lurking beneath this surface and I can’t wait to see the beast’s black underbelly.
Score: 9/10
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