Total Fucking Destruction

Peace, Love and Total Fucking Destruction (2008)

Jesse Raub

Some people like their grindcore to be political, like genre pioneers Napalm Death. Others prefer light-hearted fare, like the humorous Austrian Death Machine. And then there's a select few who like their grindcore to fall somwhere in between, and have half-covers of Rush's "Spirit of the Radio" in some of their songs.

Total Fucking Destruction fit into the third category.

With blistering drums played like a programmed drum machine, noisy riffs that are hard to distinguish from just plain noise, and the random breakdown interludes, Total Fucking destruction isn't really breaking down any musical barriers. Content-wise, songs like "Grindcore Salesman," which features the title of the song shouted twice during the song's entire 25 seconds intercut with the aforementioned "Spirit of the Radio" riffs, leaves TFD in a strange place. And then there are songs like "Total Fucking Destruction" (almost pulling a Black Sabbath with "Black Sabbath" on Black Sabbath), which has abstract lyrics about the current geo-political state screamed over what's basically a fully amped-up thrash-punk song.

Yeah, the songs are short. Yeah, it's a bit gimmicky. But it's strangely listenable and imbued with just enough humor and classic hard rock riffs (e.g. "Antidecompartmentalization") to keep me going through all 25 minutes of the album. And I may not see the album played very often, but it's definitely going to replace the last go-to grindcore album I had slotted in my music library.