Rock and roll has become embarrassing. Seriously. Have you listened to your local modern rock radio station lately? It’s nothing but pathetic, watered down, ultimately cringe-worthy bullshit. What was once the sonic sword and shield of the counterculture has been reduced to campaign anthems for ultra-conservative rich white politicians. The remaining ‘relevant’ rock bands have basically been reduced to legacy acts at this point (Foo Fighters) or have taken significant doses of other genres in order to stay fresh (Arctic Monkeys). Sometimes cliches are cliche for a reason, and in this case, the old adage ‘rock is dead’ couldn’t be more on point. And is that really such a bad thing? Rock and roll is one of the oldest genres by far, origins dating back to as early as the 1930’s. We’re all mature adults here, right? Let’s just let it go and move on.
You can tell by the cover art and title of Årabrot’s latest EP, You Bunch of Idiots, that these probably don’t fall under the category of ‘mature adults’. They probably aren’t very sane either, if the unsettling rant of opening track “Cannibal Manifesto” is any indication. But this edge and unpredictability is exactly what rock has needed for a while now. Named after a garbage dump just outside their hometown Årabrot’s been fucking around with the Norwegian rock scene since 2001, but I first caught wind of them about a decade later, when they released 2011’s Steve Albini produced Solar Anus. Albini production and an album called Solar Anus… I think its pretty self-explanatory what initially drove me to checking out that record. The music itself didn’t let me down, frontman Kjetil Nerne’s twisted personality shining through Albini’s trademark sparse production. It was a nasty, noisy album that perfectly blended high and low art, featuring Nerne yelping out philosophy over chugging noise rock riffs and drummer Vidar Evenson’s blunt force percussion.
You Bunch of Idiots is the third in a series of EPs that have followed up Solar Anus, eschewing the noise rock of that record for something far more subversively sinister: glam rock. Nerne’s naturally demonic vocals as well as his deranged sense of riffage drip with effects on You Bunch of Idiots, making Årabrot sound like a more misanthropic Mötley Crüe than anything. This is what separates Årabrot from the legions of noise rock acts currently out there using rawness as a crutch; rock and roll is at the heart of what Årabrot do, and they let actual songwriting be the foundation of their work instead of cobbling together feedback and dissonance. I’m not going to say that the future’s bright for Årabrot, as success would be entirely missing the point. But in the shadows of the embers of this burnt out genre, something is stirring.
Ridiculous Made Up Genre of the Day: noise glam
Rating: 4/5