Venomous Concept – Retroactive Abortion (Ipecac Recordings, 2004)
I would like to point out that this band seems to have borrowed their logo, an intertwined “V” and “C”, from the now defunct Choking Victim. Anyway, this album has been brought to you by old men from old bands. And while the source material for HC flows freely out of every ruptured vocal chord and destructo-riff on this slab, if you like HC go find where this all comes from. Honestly, this is fun to listen to and Buzz (The Melvins) surely had a good time playing those guitar parts, but I am deeply offended by bands putting out half an hour of music and charging over ten bucks for it. I can buy a Miles Davis album for the same price and be entertained for twice as long. In days gone by, musicians were limited by the capacity of vinyl, but we’re now pushing eighty minutes a cd. But back to the tunes. HC fans like simple lyrics and this one wails on your balls with simplicity for twenty-seven minutes. The guitar and bass riff together on every track while the drums pulse the unceasingly damaging beat. Buzz takes his lone solo on “I Said It Before” and it sounds damned nice. The music and lyrical content of this slab is what you would expect from any offering with a skull on the cover of the cd (save The Dead). Songs range from critiquing commercially viable punk acts, to not understanding religion to railing against the music industry. Oddly enough though, there are two songs (“Run Around”, “Total Recall”) that have clown references. It would be heart warming to see a clown on the cover of the next Venomous Concept album, even if he were wielding an axe or at least toting one around lodged in his skull.
