Serial killers have always held a certain degree of fascination in all walks of life and music is no exception to the rule. As long as there have been people out on the hunt and hacking and slashing their way through life there have been people singing about them. The first couple of names that anyone reading this should have on the tips of their tongues will no doubt be Macabre and Church Of Misery but did you know that The Boomtown Rats ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ was inspired by a quote from Brenda Lee Spencer, that Dylan, Guthrie, Baez and The Byrds amongst others penned tunes about Pretty Boy Floyd and the list of old rock n rollers who had a thing for Frankie Banker is a whose who in itself. Although it is nothing new, Section 37 (whose name pertains to the mental health act) have constructed a very interesting album that really beneath the skin trapped under the grubby fingernails of the serial killer.
The duo of Stuart J Harris (lyrics/vocals) and Cevin Moore (music) have poetically mixed a musical format that is not limited by genre and sees “each track in a different style to represent a different fictional serial killer and their style.” I guess the key word here is “fictional” which I admit to having only just noticed on the one sheet. I seriously thought on listening to this that the songs were about real serial killers, there are odd samples here that led me to believe this, for instance I am sure I can hear Charlie Manson on opening track ‘The Nu Millennial Art.’ The band have by doing so certainly made their killers very believable so have succeeded as far as that is concerned and I guess that makes my task easier as I don’t have to try and guess who the songs are referring to.
Song titles are pretty descriptive ‘The Rogue Drone’ and ‘The Body-Bag Wrapper’ sum up modus operandi in succinct fashion. Musically things are ever changing; electronics and hip-hop beats with monotone spoken vocals start us off. As we go into ‘The Garbage Man’ I am struck by the incredibly cockney sounding words, he is taking out the trash and it’s a dirty old job. I was convinced this was some East End gangster turned serial killer and went looking, finding a film about a black serial killer in the US which is completely coincidental (especially as this music was originally recorded in 2002-3 and has only just been mastered to see the light beyond the basement). ‘The Mind Bomb’ tick-tocks waiting to explode; this is more industrial and the likes of GGFH would no doubt be proud of this littering it with gory imagery. The mechanical clank of machinery sees the aforementioned ‘Rogue Drone’ going postal in a similar fashion to bands like Die Krupps, it’s a bit of an EBM body popper that is the dance-floor track of the album. I really like the addictive tones of ‘The Junkie’ set around a trance beat and lyrically producing a druggy shopping list this one really gets into your veins. ‘The Heptual’ is a bit of a change due to actual singing from guest Robert J White around a maudlin piano melody. It kind of reminded a bit of the dark pop of someone like Coil and is another stand out number.
This is a really interesting hour of music (complete with a couple of remixes at the end) and it seems that the subject matter is being treated with sensitivity and thought rather than in an exploitative fashion making it all the more compelling. The one problem I had was that on trying to listen along with reading a book (about a killer) I found myself having to abandon the printed word as I was enthralled by what I was hearing. Considering it took a decade to surface though I guess this could be a one off album, although I am sure there is plenty more nightmares that damaged brains like these could unveil and I would certainly be interested in hearing them.
Oh and I don’t normally do this but it’s a bargain £5 from the link below
http://www.aestheticdeath.com
