ED GEIN

The point where grindcore and noisy hardcore meets is where you will find ED GEIN (the band anyway). On "Judas Goats and Dieseleaters" the trio plays a brand of planned wreckage made from piles of iron riffs, clanging bass, and tolerably scathing, pissed off vocals, all of which contains elements of TURMOIL, UNSANE, and (in small doses) musical battering rams like SWARM OF THE LOTUS. A thin coat of sludge covers the album. The music sounds very familiar, but all of it is played with passion.

At an average track length of around two and a half minutes (not counting the 13 minutes or so of hidden messing about that elongates unlisted track 14),the band gets in, rants about a societal/political bug up the butt, and gets out. When the pace slows on "United Ninety Three" and a pavement-scraping riff groove begins, that UNSANE element is brought out and works well in providing an effective break between the amphetamine races on either side. Reading the lyrics, it is readily apparent that ED GEIN doesn't look to "The O'Reilly Factor" for political direction. The samples of President Bush aren't exactly placed there to serve as a rallying point for the disenfranchised either. "Small Towns, Small Minds" slams the peanut-brained and inbred ways of the white supremacist, "Christianity as Foreign Policy" is self explanatory, and "We're Drowning It" runs the gamut of societal/political ills ("drunks, wife beaters, child molesters, racism, sexism, homophobia, plutocracy, bureaucracy, health insurance cancer…"). After 13 tracks, you are then treated to an unlisted cover of NIRVANA's "Breed", a rendition that does an already great song big time justice.

Stopping short of producing calamity and noise for the sake of calamity and noise, "Judas Goats and Dieseleaters" is a jarring listen, but it is done with a purpose. The album may not fall into the "totally awesome, dude!" category, but it is a good effort just the same.