Guttermouth

Covered With Ants (2001)

Patrick Book

Guttermouth is terrible.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get on with a fair and impartial review, shall we?

Guttermouth, perhaps best known (if known at all) to Canadians as the band that got banned from Canada, have always been a sub-par band who makes sub-par music with the intelligence of adolescent kids who think homosexual epithets are still acceptable and to be enjoyed by everyone.

Maybe I should try this again.

Covered With Ants is nothing special. Not even close. Musically, the tempo of the songs has slowed down drastically since their last album, Gorgeous, which was not terribly original either. While there are some genuinely catchy riffs (and a great cameo by Sasha of the Mad Caddies on banjo for one song), the majority of the sounds on the record are exceedingly derivative of bands like Bad Religion, Bracket, or Good Riddance. Lyrically, the band are as big of assholes as ever. They attempt to make their self-described "lyrical criticisms" farther reaching in a societal context on "Secure Horizons" (which is about the stock market), but the majority of the songs end up back in the gutter/toilet. Take, for example, "Chug-A-Lug Night", which is about how great it is to get wasted, make an ass of yourself, abuse strange women, and drive home drunk. Or maybe you'll like "I Won't See You In The Pit" better, where the band calls its fans poseurs and makes "oink" jokes about cops. This aside from all the other, misogynistic, homophobic, ignorant "humour" that is the bands trademark. Think of them as a less popular Eminem with less brains and far less potential.

Of course, reviews like this are probably exactly what the band gets off on. I'm sure this is exactly what they want. Oh well – they can use it to write a song for their next album about how "gay" music reviews are.