Originally written by Ross Main.
There is much hype surrounding the strong numbers of young death metal bands cropping up here in Britain. But traditionally, us Brits have been known to use hype as a weapon to ensure the failure of our prospects. Anything from our budding sports stars to our currency; we just love to pile on the pressure to the point of implosion. Then when the disappointment and tears roll in – we’re happy.
“Eradicate! Obliterate! Terminate!”
Of course, the first step to ruining the purity and individuality of a dozen solid death metal bands from the same part of the world is by making them part of a scene. But for the sake of argument, amongst the guttural styling of bands like Annotations of an Autopsy and the more melodic interpretations of Ignominious Incarceration, the inevitably dubbed “UKDM” collective is chaired by the relentless intensity of Bristol’s Trigger the Bloodshed. Representin’.
Their history is short but action-packed, like a midget wrestler. Formed in 2006, their debut record Purgation came in 2008, followed by a change in line-up bringing Johnny Burgan to the microphone and Dave Purnell (younger brother of guitarist Rob) to the bass. Their recognition is mostly a by-product of extensive touring and hard work done to rub their intense flavour of extreme metal in our faces, and despite an average age that would only just allow them into see “Crank 2”, sharing the bill with such acts as Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus is an indication that these fetuses are very much alive.
“Strangulate! Fabricate! Twenty-Eight!”
The Great Depression does not sound like five guys playing death metal, as I was hoping for though. It sounds like 28 guys playing death metal… which is also fine. TTB’s sound at its most ferocious will show you where the veins in your face are and strangle you to death with them. Tracks like “The Great Depression” and the anthemic “The Scourging Impurity” are just relentless, 3-4 minute sonic tantrums, finished in one mighty breathe, showing that the flag they carry for British death metal is sown from the fastest material known to man. Enough, in fact, to make 28 doom albums. On a loom. Yes, of doom.
“Magistrate! Empty Plate! Exchange Rate!”
Anyway, once you have trained yourself to find the riff and tune into the vocal frequency correctly, The Great Depression has some great moments and shows an astonishing maturity in lyrical theme. Nobody really cares what these guys have to say about politics, but if the ugly-world theme can squeeze this much anger-juice from their vengeful minds, then it was a wise choice. Britain’s problems are of course a valuable source of inspiration, however the music’s reflection of a recessive nation is up for debate considering – at time of writing – people have not yet resorted to biting each others teeth out and embarking upon last stand industrial machinery rampages.
“Imitate! Propagate! Could be great!”
Straddling the new and old school, with the low-end horror of Suffocation and the frenzied forays of Cryptopsy and Necrophagist,the aforementioned great moments are not the non-stop pummelling that would make this album indigestible had it extended its 34-minute allocation. The epic summoning that is the outro to “Warbound” goes along with more balanced, segregated tracks like “Disfigured Anonymity” and “The Dead World” that demonstrate the song-writing development from Purgation.
But as sure as the London Olympics in 2012 will be a predictable disaster, what will help Trigger the Bloodshed pull what this year is calling a “Mastodon”, by avoiding victimisation of their own success? Well, like Mastodon, their modesty and gratitude goes along way to creative bliss and will stand them in good stead for the future when they will undoubtedly want to make things heavier and faster (boys will be boys). But eyes off the ball for one moment and this music will become very samey-same, very quickly, so please don’t let us down lads. No pressure.
