While it may seem a little odd to refer to The Locust’s most recent sonic assault as “mature,” particularly with a title like New Erections, the 11-track full-length is a great leap beyond their already intelligent, if inaccessible, catalog of bursting noise, buzzsaw synths, breakdowns and screams. Like their grindcore forefathers before them, they are starting to expand their songs and beginning to understand space as an additional audio weapon.
Beginning with “AOTKPTA,” which without the benefit of lyrics conjures up images of a bad sci-fi film with an antagonistic parent teacher association, it is immediately clear that the deconstructionists want you to be able to decipher them now, if only a little. Their fondness for complex keyboard/guitar arrangements pops up over the grindcore and the song turns into a post-apocalyptic nightmare.
They’re developing.
But don’t dismay, the discordant act is no kinder on the ears than before. “Book Of Bot” finds the band among their most frenetic and annoying, replete with stinging keyboard transmission intermission, yet they don’t mind bringing the tempo down to something approaching a grove during the circus-like main riff. Songs like “Slum Service (Served On The Sky)” or “We Have Reached An Official Verdict: Nobody Gives A Shit” are still episodic, in the length and breadth, feeling complete despite their placement among larger work.
And while prior Locust releases, often totaling somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes, feel like a sugar rush, New Erections, likely their longest work, taunts the listener with a meal, with plenty to digest and appreciate. Good job, you crazy bastards.
In A Word: Escalation
