The Locust
Plague Soundscapes
Anti Records
I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but The Locust have created a real masterpiece with Plague Soundscapes. If you’ve heard their 7”s and EPs on GSL, you know that The Locust are a bunch of spazzes playing really fast, sloppy grindcore crossed with tinges of metal, synth and just plain weirdness (they’ve been known to sport peculiar costumes on stage, wear mullets and mustaches and just behave in a bizarre manner altogether). I have always shrugged off The Locust as a joke band, a bunch of hipsters trying really hard to be different, but they totally have shown me up with this record.
My personal feelings on The Locust go way back, as I absolutely loved The Locust’s lead singer’s old band, Swing Kids, when I was just a wee young man. When Swing Kids broke up and I first heard The Locust, I had very high expectations, but what I heard was ridiculous garbage. With each release, The Locust seems to improve as a band, kind of getting their “thing” together. Plague Soundscapes is like the sucker punch you get from an old friend whom you had forgotten about.
The recording quality is what does it for this Locust record. Every instrument is recorded perfectly, so every weird synth sound effect (they mainly sound like bug noises or something of that effect) is heard clearly. The stuff on their 7”s was always garbled and staticky sounding. The guitars here are simply devastating and overwhelming, but in the good way that aggressive music like this should have them. The drums are punishing, lightning fast and mathematically specific. Vocalist Justin Pearson hasn’t been this convincing a screamer since the wonderful split that Swing Kids did with Spanakorzo. He goes absolutely nuts on this album, reminding me why I like Swing Kids so much.
Let’s look at some song titles: “Halo of Pubic Hair and Earwax Manufactured For the Champion in All of Us,” “Pssst! Is That a Halfie in Your Pants?,” “Priest With Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Get Out of My Bed,” “Teenage Mustache,” “The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like to See You in His Office,” “How to Become a Virgin” and “Who Wants a Dose of The Clap?”
So, it’s happened. I’ve finally accepted, wholeheartedly, that The Locust are a real band, and not just a bunch of hipsters looking for a reason and method to be different from everyone else in San Diego. I’m telling you kids, if you want something to terrify your parents with, forget Marilyn Manson or Slipknot; one spin of Plague Soundscapes will have pretty much everyone in your family screaming at you to turn it off. Nice job, hipsters.
Anti Records: http://www.anti.com/
