The comeback record so filthy that you’ll need to go to the STI clinic after listening to it
Sometimes its just simple. As plain as the nose on your face, as swift and effective as a boot to the nut sack. Sometimes it’s so abundantly obvious it’s like saying night follows day or Lemmy was God.
Music (sometimes) doesn’t need frills. It doesn’t need fuss. It just needs – no, it demands – rock n roll to be dangerous again, and if you agree, then you need this album in your life.
“Too Loud To Live, Too Drunk To Die” is the first full length from Sweden’s self-styled “Street metallers” Gehennah since 1997, and given the filth and depravity contained within its tracks, you can only imagine what sort of hangover they’ve been sleeping off since then.
Dip into any of the songs here at any point and you can find something rancid and pretty disgusting. “Life Metal Must Die” proclaims war on posers, “Let’s Fall Off The Wagon” is as self explanatory as it gets and best of all is “Scumbag”. On this, singer (and we use the term loosely given that he sounds like he’s gargling razor blades mixed with gravel) Mr. Violence – what else? – utters two lines that some up this band better than MV ever could. “I never claimed to be a nice guy” he sneers. “I never was classy act, I’m the guy that fucks your sister and never called her back.” More tea, Vicar?
So if we’ve established by now that Gehennah are the type of blokes that not even the Hells Angels would turn away from a party, it does need saying that “…..Die”is a mighty fine record and is not without its filthy charms.
“Low On Cash, High On Speed” and “Unholy And Unpleasant” are pounding anthems that live up to their titles. Imagine Motörhead at their most disgraceful and you are somewhere close, or if you came across the record that Mammoth Mammoth put out last year and enjoyed it, this might be right up there in your favourites of the year so far. Because – and probably not even the band would dispute this – if it sometimes does seem that you are listening to the same song 13 times, it does need saying that it’s a damn good one.
And just occasionally there is a touch of regret, possibly even guilt, at the lifestyle. Closing with “All Of The Decadence, None Of The Success” there is the thought that perhaps a 24/7 hangover ain’t so much fun, with the pay off line of “the drugs ain’t free and the sex is revolting.”
It’s rather like this. If, during in their own decade of decadence, Motley Crue would have stolen your girlfriend for a night of passion, then Gehennah would be perfectly happy with a quickie with your grandma.
An unapologetic, rather crude – in all senses – attack on the senses, which means all is fine in dirty rock n roll.
Rating 8/10
