Brutal Justice SPLIT,
KnötarötKnötaröt and Brutal Justice. Two bands, which, if I’m honest, I’d never heard of before picking up this CD; Brutal Justice play fast hardcore with old-school stylings and tinny solos (‘This item is perishable’), whereas Knötaröt are quite easily one of the strangest things I’ve heard in my entire life – imagine Rammstein meets hardcore trance meets terrifying German screaming, and picture the artists being tortured by the Mad Capsule Markets whilst recording. Difficult, I know.
Brutal Justice kick things off with ‘4 points for a songwriter in a divided world’ – easily the worst track of their five. It’s uncoordinated and full of directionless passion. Thankfully their other four tracks are a fairly big improvement and track four ‘Flanerie and me’ gives a massive nod towards the hardcore bands of old: low-fi aggression, very quick drumming and a good degree of urgency. Other tracks are fairly competent but present nothing out of the ordinary. None of it is perfect, but it’s not bad. There’s your obligatory cliché, folks.
Knötaröt manage to transcend hardcore, ska, folk, punk, dancey pop, electronica, and probably several other genres I didn’t notice because I was so utterly bemused at what I was hearing. I need to invent some new words to describe this, because existing ones aren’t quite up to the job. If these guys aren’t on some experimental drugs, then they must be absolute mentalists of the highest order. But that’s not to say I didn’t like some of it. Once I’d stopped laughing, I began to realise some of is quite good. Final track ‘Nahawe Dehre’ is sheer unadulterated genius and I’m sure it’s an absolute riot when combined with their live show of dressing up as superheroes/cavemen/princesses, as their little release tells me.
Pick this CD up just to see how varied (and bizarre) it actually is. Even if you don’t like it, I promise the Knötaröt half will at least make you laugh very loudly and probably force you to expel any liquids you happen to be drinking whilst listening out of your nose. Utterly, utterly mad.
www.cleanituprecords.com
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