Liminal Minimals February 2012
Artist: Liberteer
Title: Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees
Label: Relapse
Matthew Widener is alive with possibilities at present. His history is in the California grindcore scene, with gorehounds Exhumed and the more political crust-inflected political grind of Citizen; but Liberteer is a whole other beast. He’s essentially taken the vicious snarling grindcore of his past and added upthrusting drafts of pomp and drama straight from the classic American songbook: think of the Entombed of Wolverine Blues (actually just think of a wolverine) on a hovercraft cushion of John Philip Sousa or even Aaron Copeland. Hell, on ‘Sweat for Blood’ I even thought of Bill Conti’s work on the Rocky soundtracks. And all this packed into a tightly wound 27 minutes of barely suppressed anarchist fury. For Better Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees also functions as a kind of manifesto, a mode for living. The package details not only the breathless bile of Widener’s politicised lyrics (check the titles alone for an idea of the content: ‘Class War Never Meant More Than It Does Now’ ‘We Are Not Afraid Of Ruins’) but also how to utilise the packaging as a graffiti stencil, and well, a bomb. As he has intimated in interviews, this is music of action, of agency. I hesitiate to use the word inspiring as I sit on my arse typing this, but this is serious and full of intent. It’s also a total blast. Go get.
Some new short reviews over at the Liminal.