THE LOCUST

I don't like to write about compilations... But This is it! The chance to get the most rare side of their discography altogether in a glorious CD remaster. Oh, and I didn't wrote about the obscure band The Locust again after the mess with my review for the album "Plague Soundscapes". FIVE SOLID STARS and one of my first reviews for PA, along with my praised ELP discography reviews series - and that's the reason of the many pages of comments in the forum. I'm very ecletic, but I will warn you this time: they're the extreme side of the Avant-Garde music. Open your mind or stay away from them.

Well, here I go again, and as a big fan of these guys, I couldn't waste the chance to get "Molecular Genetics from the Gold Standard Labs". 40 minutes of The Locust records, with everything that you will never find again, even in the internet (maybe). The CD comes in a digipack designed version, featuring all of the lyrics (goddamn yes!!), really awesome artwork and 5 album covers from previous releases inside the comic booklet. This collection of rarities includes ALL THE TRACKS from a lot of their LPs and EPs, and The Locust full-sides from the split records:

[Tracks 1-5: The Locust / Melt Banana split EP]

[Track 6: previously unreleased]

[Track 7: Dynamite With a Laser Beam (various artists)]

[Track 8-13: Flight of The Wounded Locust EP]

[Tracks 14-18: The Locust / Arab On Radar split EP]

[Track 19: Well I'll Be A Monkey's Uncle EP]

[Tracks 20-33: SELF TITLED LP]

[Tracks 34-37: Bonus Tracks from Self-Titled CD]

[Tracks 38-44: Self Titled EP]

If you still don't know how is their music, they are a synth-based experimental band, and one of the few faithful bands into the "powerviolence scene": influenced by avant garde, jazz fusion and progressive rock, the focus are bizarre timing breakdowns, and constant tempo changes into short lenght tracks. If you like this kind of stuff and wants more obscure avant- madness, check Naked City (John Zorn's avant-jazz and grindcore), An Albatross (unfortunatelly not in the PA, hammond organ-based powerviolence), and Maruta (technical dissonant grind/crust/death. Not progressive though).

Yea, this band isn't as heard of, because of their obscenities, mainly that they dress up like insects.

I love this band, mainly on their appearance yes, but also of their musical abiliity.

Taking a mathcore, math metal direction and mixing it with a more technical texture (not just random screams and dischords) and a more hardcore definition of the genre. Their music is incredibly virtuostic and very fiere.

This album is only 20 minutes long, but it is to the point and doesn't really need to be longer. They came saw and concured within less than a half an hour.

1. Aotkpta - The intro is just mezmerising. The time changes are incredibly frantic and fast. Their is also a quite doomy quallity to this song. 10/10

2. We Have Reached An Official Verdict: Nobody Gives A Shit - Love the title. Quite cathcy in a mental way. 10/10

3. The Unwilling...Led By The Unqualified...Doing The Unnecessary...For The Ungrateful - Has alot of multimodal textures and shows alot of ability. 10/10

4. One Manometer Away From Mutually Assured Relocation - Koo Koo crazy with some amazing instrumental work. 9/10

5. Full Frontal Obscurity - Pretty amazing vocal performance. 8/10

6. Scavenger, Invader - The very noisy keyboards are cool. The vocals are pretty impressive. 10/10

7. Hot Tubs Of Brand New Fuel - The lyrics are pretty cool. Again, incredibly frantic. 9/10

8. God Wants Us All To Work In Factories - Again, some amazing lyrics. Love the title. 9/10

9. Book Of Bot - The longest song, being just 4 minutes. Has a very experimental side. The noisy parts are very cool. 9/10

10. Slum Service (Served On The Sky) - Short and sweet. 9/10

11. Tower Of Mammal - Good ending to a crazy album. 8/10

CONCLUISION: A whole bag of crazy. I love this album.