Crom
The Cocaine Wars 1974-1989
Pessimiser
Beguiling little record here. First, the cover: At a cursory glance, and not taking into consideration its odd title (only printed on the spine), The Cocaine Wars 1974-1989 looks like your run-of-the-swill power-metal record, what with Crom’;s moniker and logo and the Red Sonja-esque warrior-princess adorning it, riding a polar bear across the tundra no less; open up the booklet and you find the same snowy tundra, but off to the far left is a giant Manowar-looking dude snorting “snow” off his dagger  sardonic, and priceless. Second, the music: West Coast power violence that seesaws back n’; forth between hateful sludge and lacerating grind would be one (typical) thing, but interspersed, all cut n’; paste-like, across The Cocaine Wars are snippets of howling wind and medieval sword battles, Sabbath’;s “Changes” and BOC’;s “Don’;t Fear the Reaper,” between-song concert banter from Slayer and Venom, among many other things  in a word, disorienting, or more appropriately, just plain fucked-up. And that’;s about the only accurate description I can muster here; dunno whether The Cocaine Wars is supposed to be some sort of post-ironic pastiche on the last 30 years of metal, but it’;s morbidly enjoyable nonetheless.
Pessimiser, PO Box 1070, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
