January 15, 2010 | | 3

Buckshot Facelift, Anchors of the Armless Gods

Buckshot Facelift: Anchors of the Armless Gods

So, what can I say about the debut album from New York’s Buckshot Facelift? Well, for one, I love the fucking band name — descriptive and genre appropriate. Secondly, the fetid grindcore that their self released, debut album Anchors of the Armless Gods is comprised of is sickening, brutal, wacky, annoying and clever — everything you could want in a grind album.

Musically, these guys layer burly guitars, grinding drums and a varied, guttural vocal delivery that fills more than one sub genre of metal. There are the obvious grindcore influences within the band’s sound, but there’s also a healthy slathering of NYC hardcore, powerviolence and more. All of it shoved into a nicely designed piece of vinyl.

Fowl Mouth Old Bigot Who Would Steal the Coat Off a Dead Man
Starting in the distance with slightly muted vocals and drums, the opening track is a steroid popping mosh machine with discordant riffs and layered vocals belches (some pitch shifted). It’s a pretty slow paced song that’s vile and sickening and sets the mood for the rest of the record.

Johnny Depp Overface
I’m not entirely sure where these dudes are going with their song titles, but they are certainly are bizarre — almost as bizarre as some of the sound clips they use throughout the album. This one is a fully layered, cacophonous assault on the senses as the band bludgeons their way though just over a minute of violent, guttural utterances and mosh.

I’ve Suffered the Plump Pheasant
The tone to this one is thick with suffocating layers, textures and noise. The super guttural growls behind the main vocals are a nice touch, though. This one is a sub 40 second beat down.

Raping the Spider Demon
“Raping the Spider Demon” sees the band slow it down a bit with some melodic tones thrown in for good measure. The layered vocals are evil as fuck and contrast nicely with the more open guitars. There’s a definite hardcore feel to this one even through the weird vocal distortions that dominate the latter half of the album.

Horny Greenfield Dragonbreath
How can you not dig a band with a sense of humor. The sound clip that opens up this chaotic, driving song is from the classic kids’ movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I know this cause I just watched it for the 13th time with my daughter the other day. Aside from that, the song is short, noisy and violent.

50 Pounder
For some bizarre reason, I actually knew from which movie the sound clip that starts off this bile retching song starts off with. Let’s see how many of you know the title to this 1993 movie. There is a healthy dose of bass running through this one as the punk tinged guitars do their best to keep up with the layered vocals and crashing drums.

The Serpent Bears the Scowl
“The Serpent Bears the Scowl” is another one minute blast of beat down hardcore tinged, nasty grind. The layered vocal effects continue to add to the mayhem as this one thunders along slowly before picking up speed in the second half of the song.

St. Peters Lobby
This one sounds like it could have come from the back catalog of Shattered Realm or Blood For Blood had they only been a bit more chaotic in their delivery. This is a bruising track with thick guitars.

Preparation Montage
Here’s another track that lays on the back alley beat down vibe thick with a nail studded baseball bat. It’s a slow, plodding track over the first 45 seconds or so before the higher end screams come in with blasting drums and driving riffs.

Drinking Spit
There’s lots of vocal effects thrown into the mix with “Drinking Spit” — so much so that this track is over the top with it’s use. There are some nice tempo changes that make up for it though.

Anchors of the Armless Gods
The title track is one of the more structured tracks that varies from rapid fire drums to slow moving mosh. The over all tone is thick and suffocating as if it were mired in sludge. More guttural utterances are layered in with the main delivery.

I Can Control Your Mind by Smoking God’s Toenail Clippings
This next one is probably the most traditional grind track. After leading in with a bunch of noise the guys bust out some old school, blistering Napalm Death inspired nastiness before devolving into a mess of guttural nonsense and noise.

Elated Mask of Winter (Diseasum: The Blessed Basket)
“Elated Mask of Winter” also sticks with the more traditional feel, as well, but shifts tempos throughout it’s short existence. The higher end screams over the crawling music around the one minute mark is evil as hell.

Sgt. Perrier
“Sgt. Perrier” starts off with blasting drums and violent guitars before settling into a chill, melodic groove as the band let’s loose with the group vocals. Tucked into this tribute, there are some massive bass lines, distorted guitars and thundering drums. This single song is as varied as the entire album and wraps it up nicely.

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Additional Notes:
N/A