Brainbombs
Burning Hell

Rapes, knives, dicks, feedback, out of tune guitars, Die bitch Die, Dennis Nilsen, songwriting and technique so basic that compared to them, the Ramones sound progressive, a trumpet here and there, sperm and blood and slain hustlers, and so on.

We live in fast times so the review can end here. The rest are just the useless mental gymnastics of a loser (me).

The portrayal of violence in music, even the most extreme and disgusting, is nothing new. Nowadays, anyone with even a basic knowledge of extreme music isn't truly shocked. After a while, it all becomes the same. At 13, I would shiver and change channels when a Marilyn Manson video played on TV; by 16, I was up until 1 a.m. on BlackMetalRadio, and now at 25, it's all dreadfully boring.

Uh, you wrote a song about a crazy rapist. Oh, you put a butchered child on your album cover. How original.

But for some time now, I've been thinking a lot about Brainbombs. I often read stories of serial killers and considered myself numb to certain things. Brainbombs depict violence and perversion (the real kind) in the seemingly cold manner typical of Industrial groups. The difference is that they make a kind of decidedly monotonous noise/garage rock. Few riffs, repeated endlessly with very little variation. I put on the CD, “Burning Hell” starts, and it's 1 (one) riff repeated for three and a half minutes. What a drag, you might say. No. It never bores me, not for a second. “Danny Was a Streetwhore,” and I think: these guys just like having fun. And I enjoy it too. But then “Pleasures And Dreams” comes on, the guitar starts at a low volume, the words are crystal clear... and it becomes less amusing.

Tears of fright and pain
Streak down the little boy's face
A big, stiff cock in his ass
The little boy screams "Mammy God!"
When he pumps the little baby's ass

And it was genius and brutality
Taste and power
Genius and brutality
Taste and power

Something stirs here. I no longer enjoy it. I get pissed off. Do you really think these subjects are funny? Genius and Brutality? Screw you, scum. And yet.

And yet, in the end, there aren't many differences compared to hundreds of other lyrics (see Brutal Death Metal, etc.). But here it really hurts. Is it because everything is clear? Is it because the voice is sometimes comprehensible and not drowned out by the rest? The fact is, I'm sincerely disturbed by these songs, and I don't understand why. Actually, I do. It's because they seem to genuinely believe in what they say. You read the lyrics and there is a certain joy in describing various atrocities that cannot be faked. It feels like these people are genuinely thrilled, sexually excited by things like rape and child murder. Look them up on the internet and you won't find photos, you find practically nothing. No photos of guys with villainous faces. A few interviews that provide little insight except that they are drunkards. An almost absolute anonymity for a band that's been around for almost 30 years.

Other songs? “After Acid” is the only track that really breaks the flow of the album, a slanted and dark psychedelia. Then the massacre resumes.

She was sixteen and innocent
I cracked her head
Ripped into her tits with a screwdriver
and tore out her lungs
I have this urge to kill
I have this urge to kill any woman
I remember I screamed
Dirty prostitutes!
Blood, blood all over her place
Bleed, bleed for me
Dirty prostitute

…and the soup is more or less always the same. In the end, I solved nothing. Musically speaking, I really like them. But while with Death In June and Burzum, I simply enjoy the records while thinking “Too bad they're such assholes,” with Brainbombs, I don’t know what to do. They piss me off. They manage to make me feel guilty, and a bit sick. Maybe that's their genius, I don't know. If I met them on the street, I would first express my appreciation, and then maybe beat them mercilessly. Just like the protagonists of their songs.