The Jesus Lizard
Bang

THE REVIEW

In 1999, the Lizard dies.

The official obsequies were fulfilled with the release of Bang, a collection of Live tracks by the four, plus three unreleased ones (a demo, a bootleg track, and a song with Santiago Durango [Big Black] on vocals). The Jesus Lizard will leave an immense void in the entire music scene, a void comparable in weight only to the massive insights, raw violence, technique, genius, and theatricality of the group itself. Music of the '90s is unthinkable without The Jesus Lizard; their jolting rhythms and heaviness will represent the models of grunge, a certain type of post-core, and unfortunately also that Nu-Metal trash of Rage Against The Machine, Korn, and their peers, who from the Chicago group "stole" only the veneer and not the depth. The Lizard represented one side of a coin shared with the great Slint: both groups make "description" and not denunciation of what passes before them (the denunciation and teaching being rather the trademark of the Fugazi), only with opposite musical dynamics. If Slint were masters in the shadows, with their subdued style that rarely erupted in slight outbursts, painting urban reality with gentle watercolor touches, the Lizard vomited directly on a white wall. The worst obscenities and basenesses of the human being are channeled into the listener with the violence of a rape.

Their live performances remain legendary, as demonstrated by their 1992 UK tour through Brixton Academy, the Marquee, and The Garage, which definitively consecrated them as the ultimate icon of musical bestiality, as well as supreme aruspex priests of entrails and excretions. "Bang", a nostalgic snapshot, lives off this, from stages stunned by the anti-virtuoso virtuosity of Duane Denison, obliterated by the rhythmic tornado of Sims and MacNeilly, devoured by the vile, barbaric, incredible David Yow. In an interview, the Lizard declared that the titles of their albums were chosen for the sound of the words (Goat, Shot, Head, etc.), always dry and unmistakable sounds. "Bang" is the ideal conclusion of their saga, a gunshot to the temple.

The bullets of "Bang" are 19: from the powerful and fast "Deaf as a Bat" and "The Test", to the brutal and obscene "7 VS 8", passing through the masterpiece "Mouth Breather" and the remarkable "Glamorous" and "Chrome", leading to the live delirium of "Lady Shoes", with the most raw and abominable lyrics remembered, the legendary "Seasick", the adrenaline-pumping "Gladiator", and the early scenarios "Bloody Mary", "Killer Mc Hann", and "Monkey Trick". Among the unreleased, "Anna" stands out but above all an extraordinary "Blockbuster", raw to the extreme and among the most famous tracks. That's it, in one breath; there's just enough time for a few tears and to pull the trigger.