Artist Name: Super Death
Release Title: Noise Breeder
Release Date: 6 October 2022
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Written by Alfred C. Key IV
When I first listened to Super Death it was on a cloudy day on the California central coast. I had no idea what kind of music they played, and I was most certainly unaware of their preferred sound or its musicality. So when I turned on my computer and listened to their Noise Breeder album I was taken aback by what sounded like a demented version of hyper pop with metallic vocals. I was taken back in time to when I was a teenager, and a friend of mine was introducing me to the sounds of Arsonists Get all the Girls.
The same clash of electro with screamo can be heard on this album. Waves of synthesizers with chugging guitar sounds and vocal parts that grind on and on but not in a bad way. When listening I want to put my tight jeans on and slam dance around the house. The sense of scene is very prevalent on this album and it makes me feel ten times younger and at some points a little older than I would like to admit. When listening to music I like to paint or draw as a way to digest the sounds but when I listen to this particular band I am thrown into an overdriven pit of schizophrenia which describes how it feels to be unmedicated.
In the middle of the album there is a rhythmic almost hip hop flavored song called How it Feels which has a clean piano part that emphasizes the emotional lyrics and vibe of the song. Some of the songs are quite similar, which may be on purpose, but it’s not too bad – the industrial influences are there and I can hear the Ministry style of electro. While painting to this great music I am taken to a place where the underground fascination with electronic music is apparent. For as much as this album is a throwback to the early 2000’s and the first decade of the millennium, it is progressive in other ways.
It expresses ideas and sounds that I thought were extinct. Sounds of breakdown music with high energy emotional lyrics that makes one think about the human condition. The first song on Noise Breeder takes the punk beat to a new level with a synthesizer that combines dance with hyper intense distortion. I feel like I am moving through Ghost in the Shell, trying not to have my brain hacked by a rogue robot. There are some Death Grips influences here too, unsurprising given this release sounds like it’s from the Hackers era.
While listening to this album I felt a strong pull towards dubstep, which could be a good or a bad thing if one takes into context the emotion that’s trying to be conveyed. Super Death conveys electronica with the sensibility and chaos of Iwrestledabearonce. I’m not sure if that was their intent but it’s what I was hearing. To be completely honest, I feel one has to have really good ears to tell the subtle nuances between the bands of the underground music scene that combine screamo with genres like electro and technical death metal. This music reminds me that music is a spectrum not a monolith and I am hoping that this group is on a path of exploration rather than of stagnation where all their beats sound the same. I am looking forward to hearing more and I would hope to the gods that they keep an open mind instead of succumbing to the gate keeping and close-mindedness that killed the music of the first decade of the 2000s.
Listen:
Follow:
