Over the course of a decade, Fuck The Facts has easily become one of the most interesting bands in grindcore and arguably one of the most interesting outfits in all of extreme metal. Starting off as a one-man project in 1998, the band has morphed through countless incarnations and released a staggering amount of splits and full-lengths. In the process, they’ve twisted the basics of their grinding sound into something more than the sum of its influences, something outside the boundaries of standard grindcore. Elements of death metal, post metal, hardcore and more float freely through the band’s angular and angry jams. Disgorge Mexico (the album) hit this reviewer’s top ten of 2008, its mix of the progressive and the violent-slash-devastating a truly visceral and engaging experience, a record that solidified the band’s place amongst grindcore’s top innovators.
Flash forward a few years and the band is still following that album’s gloriously discordant path. Disgorge Mexico: The DVD is split into two parts (or three, if you’re lucky enough to have the version with the bonus disc). The first part is the only live performance of the entire Disgorge Mexico album thusfar, enacted from start to finish, filmed in Le Petit Chicago in Hull, Quebec on August 2, 2008. The band is in grand grind form for the show, ably pulling off what has to be some seriously challenging material to play, some of which had never been performed live before. (For touring purposes, the four-piece band is augmented by a second guitarist.) The video recording is very well-done—Disgorge: Live is a multi-camera professional job, with constantly shifting angles, digital effects, stop-motion shots and some interstitial footage to keep things moving as quickly as the music itself. Vocalist Melanie Mongeon alternates between French and English, keeping the chattering to a relative minimum, and her performance is impressive, as is that of the entire band.
The second and more whatthefuck part of the package is Disgorge Mexico: The Movie, made by David Hall, who’d previously given the cinematic treatment to Today Is The Day’s Axis Of Eden. During my interview with Facts bassist Marc Bourgon a few months back (available elsewhere on this site), he joked that it would best not to watch this film if you were epileptic, and he’s definitely right about that. Devoid of dialogue or exposition or anything approaching linear narrative, Disgorge The Movie is described by its maker as “a substance abuse art-house riff on the destructive and volatile nature of love,” and I’m not certain I could’ve described it any better. In some ways, the film follows the music, as much a barrage upon the eyes as the record was upon the ears. I won’t pretend that I understand its mix of symbolism, jump-cut madness and superimposed storylines, but I will say that I enjoyed watching it, even as it confounded and, in moments, disturbed me. Overall, it’s not exactly something I’d watch all the time, but it definitely adds an interesting spin on an album I already dug.
As with the recent (and excellent) Unnamed E.P., the release of Disgorge Mexico: The DVD is handled entirely by the band, with zero label involvement. Those interested in purchasing a copy can order one directly through the band’s Myspace—the DVD is a limited run at present, hand-numbered. For what it’s worth, I can offer the best recommendation a reviewer could ever offer: having viewed the DVD online for free, through the proffered promotional link, I quickly bought a copy for myself, thankfully in enough time to get the bonus disc. (The first one-hundred come with said bonus disc—my copy is number eighty-five. That second disc features quite a bit more live footage and various other bouts of behind-the-scenes wackiness—it’s definitely of interest to FtF fans, and in that respect, it’s more than merely a bonus for the main attraction.)
Fans of the band will absolutely find Disgorge Mexico: The DVD worthwhile, both as a live document of a damn good band and as an artistic visual statement unto itself. Those unfamiliar fans of expansive, envelope-pushing extremity who haven’t already fucked the facts should explore this band post-haste.
