Buckshot Facelift - "Ulcer Island" (Paragon Records, 2017)

Band: Buckshot Facelift
Title: Ulcer Island
Genre: Grindcore with many Metal and Hardcore Punk influences
Time: 40.29 min
Release Date: 14th April 2017
Rating: 78/100












Hey brutalbangers, finally this is the first review for Timpani allo Spiedo 'zine in this new year! Today I'll tell you about the 4th album of a band that started their demented career in 2004 in Huntington, New York. To say the truth, their album, "Ulcer Island", was released in 2017, but, as you know, it's never too late to discover very good productions like this one!

Released by the US label Paragon Records (it was interviewed by the mighty Malay fanzine Deadhead!), "Ulcer Island", whose cover artwork was made by the famous desinger Travis Smith (Amorphis, Opeth, Overkill etc.), is a 15-track concept-album in which this lunatic quintet torture and screams the "unlucky" listeners with a kaleidoscopic and psychotic grindcore. So, we're talking about a grindcore that is very contaminated with many other genres, that are mainly death metal (also from the slamming subgenre), power violence, hardcore punk, noise...and there is also a touch of ambient! They mix all these influences into songs that are characterized by totally schizoid structures, excellent technical skills, an impressive vocal annihilation divided between 4 band members, and we don't forget that the guitarplayers plays occasionally some solos and even some melodies, which are a rarity in every grindcore band, as you know. In addition, there is need to mention the participation, as guest vocalist, of an illustrious singer like King Fowley (from the mighty Deceased/October 31) in the song "Sundress Skeletor".

Considering the musical style of Buckshot Facelift, the tracklist is full of different songs. So, you can range from destructive 30-second explosions of grindcore fury like "Burn the Baby Raper" to mid-tempo-oriented tracks such as "Weathered Mask of Autumn (Unearthing the Armless)". Plus, "Hell Eats Repetition (Goodbye)" draws surprisingly a very relaxing ambient landscape within this maze of chaotic madness, while the album is ended by its longer song, which is "A Trophy Cup Intoxicant".

 

But now, there's something that doesn't entirely convinces me. In fact, after the first 5 songs (that last often 40 seconds), the album see always longer and more articulated tracks but these last one, even though they are more imaginative, are also less intense due to a less instictive approach. In other words, I think that the album needed more short songs in order to keep a brutal but imaginative intensity, and also to offer a better alternation between the short and the longer tracks. Fortunately, all this doesn't significantly ruin this creative sonic experience.

Said all this shit, Buckshot Facelift released a very interesting fourth album that is fit for those in love with a multiform and spastic kind of grindcore able to surprise the listeners in every way without being strictly experimental. So, Imperative PR did very well to send me also this album, hence expect other releases promoted by them on these pages!

Tracklist:

1 - Ulcer Island
2 - Czech Yourself
3 - Afterbirth Puzzle
4 - Ascend to Descend
5 - Burn the Baby Raper
6 - OxyDocs
7 - Sundress Skeletor
8 - Comptroller Cult
9 - What Does Fergus Dream Of?
10 - Hell Eats Repetition (Goodbye)
11 - Don't Hang from the Pipes
12 - Weathered Mask of Autumn (Unearthing the Armless)
13 - Delusions of a New Age
14 - Dustification (End Times Version)
15 - A Trophy Cup Intoxicant

Line-up:

Will Smith - vocals
Terrell Grannum - guitars/vocals
Rick Habeeb - guitars/vocals
Tom Anderer - bass/vocals
Sal Gregory - drums

Guest:

King Fowley - vocals ("Sundress Skeletor")

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/buckshotfacelift/
BandCamp: https://buckshotfacelift.bandcamp.com/
Paragon Records: https://www.paragonrecords.org/
Imperative PR: https://www.facebook.com/imperativepr/