GUTS OF A VIRGIN

Super interesting viewing this band in the scope of RIO/Avant-Prog. I would simply refer to it as "[Horny] Avant-Grindcore" [lol]. To the former designation, I don't want to see it any other way now.

John Zorn and Bill Laswell--two of the earliest evil scientists devoted to the task of mixing numerous disparate genres and styles (most significantly of the metal persuasion), and creating an impressive and very influential monster--are here. Here with their debut for the Painkiller project (with Mick Harris on drums), a 12-song mini-LP of cacophony and chaos and brutality. This same year, Zorn was responsible for producing an album of similar heaviness, oddity and girth: Mr. Bungle, the timely debut of the madmen of the band of the same name (and that would be Mr. Bungle, for the record), released in August 1991. [To me, a band of even greater weight and, perhaps, talent of this same legacy that Zorn and, I believe, Laswell laid out in the '80s and '90s is Estradasphere. This is, to me, Required Listening.]

Many of these tracks are just vignettes ("Deadly Obstacle Collage" at 18 seconds long, "HanDJob" at 10), and seldom longer than 3 or 4 minutes. It is in these barely longer tracks where, I feel for the most part, the band really shines. More room to breathe, to feel out the nuances of specific compositions. See "Portent", for instance.

Some of this is incredibly noisy, with the shrill bleating of Zorn's sax, and the bombastic drumming from Harris. I would say the strongest material, which to my ears feels more substantial (and actualized), is at the front-end of the album. It's funny just how much of the same language I (inadvertantly) used alongside fellow reviewer siLLy puPPy [Been a longtime 'viewer' haha; Hello, if by some chance you see this].

Personal Tracks of Note: T1, T6, and, especially, T7

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