Meek is Murder, Everything is Awesome Nothing Matters

The recipe that made 2011’s Algorithms so damn good is the same driving force behind Meek is Murder’s latest slab of frantic, noise-fueld hardcore. The thirteen tracks on Everything is Awesome Nothing Matters, however, aren’t just the same old brash blend of grind and hardcore. Songs are more aggressive, more raw and driven by a ferocious honesty.

“Last Year” gets things underway in a four second squeal of noise and manic drums before the group (guitarist/vocalist Mike Keller, drummer Frank Godla and bassist Sam Brodsky) dive head first into a string of eight tracks that last all of seven minutes. In Keller’s delivery you can hear why he has called the year leading up to this recording “the most trying year of my life.” There’s a feeling of release to his screams that are accompanied by guitars and bass so distorted and buzzed out that the whole things washes over you like toxic sludge shot out of a fire hose.

“Passerby” is disjointed and emotionally caustic during it’s one minute lifespan. “Dumb as Death’s Head” comes at you with a more complete structure and varied vocal delivery in its ferocious 49 second run time. “Ashes & Glass” is a more traditional track before ending in a flurry of jumpy time changes. “In the Ground” has a bit of a post-metal vibe to it’s frenzied buildup. The spastic sequences of “You had a Horse” will leave you dizzy and drooling for more as rhythms jump and lurch to and fro at record speed. “Our Dream” is a layered blasting monstrosity as it delivers bruising hardcore and heavy-as-fuck bass. “More Always More” is a gritty, technical blast of noisy hardcore that signifies the end of a manic seven minutes.

“Less is More” is the first of the album’s back half and the first song on Everything is Awesome Nothing Matters to break the two minute mark. It’s a chugging, off-kilter monster of a song. The slightly more traditional hardcore sound of “Our Hope / Our Home” is peppered with guitar squeals, reverb and energetic blasts of rhythmic mayhem. “Paper Hands and The Desert Sea” heads back into an ADD quality length of time before the nearly four minute long epic and frantic “Ghost Moth” erupts from your speakers. This song is technical, ever-shifting and, for lack of a better word, bonkers — all of these are good things.

Meek is Murder wrap up another stellar release with “Play Dead,” a song that exudes urgency and the need to release pent-up emotions from a year that’s seen family deaths and other life struggles. All in all, Everything is Awesome Nothing Matters is right in line with what we’ve come to expect from this trio. Energy, grinding blasts, noise, hints of Converge/Botch and a runtime that keeps you from becoming too overwhelmed with the amount of jumping and shifting that goes on within each song.