If I told you some of the song titles on this album included “Big Baby Jesus Ain’t Dead, He Just Got Priors,” “Shart Week,” “Dick Pixelation,” and “Don’t Fear the Reefer” what would you think?
If I told you the average length of the tunes comprising Quemés Una Iglesia Para Encender La Mota was in the neighbourhood of a minute, what would you think? Would your mind jump directly to scenes involving some sort of not-so-gory-or-porny take on gore/pornogrind? Would you assume Scowl holds Seth Putnam and Anal Cunt in a brighter light than is probably healthy? And considering the volume of releases coming down the pipe each and every day, would you think this was a joke you shouldn’t be burning your precious time away with?
Well, I’m not going to claim I have the answers to these questions, but beyond titles that are worth a chuckle or two, New York’s Scowl deliver short noisy bursts of grind-inspired calamity that back in the day had people describing Sore Throat as noise core, Spazz pegged as fastcore, Agathocles as mince core, Capitalist Casualties as powerviolence and Agoraphobic Nosebleed as grind. However you want to slice it, Scowl’s plan of attack sees them rocketing along with incendiary volleys of rapid-fire power chord progressions, Brutal Truth inspired screech/growl vocal dualism and blasting drums all of which would have been more palatable, effective and listenable had the recording been a couple more steps above demo quality.
This is Quemés Una Iglesia Para Encender La Mota greatest failing; that, when the nature of the material is combined with the jocular air and the poor recording, it sounds like the sort of thing you, me, anyone could hammer out given a couple weekends, a basement, GarageBand and a couple bottles of moonshine. Sure, great works have emerged from these sorts of sessions – think S.O.D.’s Speak English or Die – but more often than not it ends up being another throwaway on a pile with Intense Mutilation’s Safe Sex at the bottom.
If there is an ace Scowl has in its deck, it’s the ability to mix things up with atmospheric noise segments and power electronics interludes. It helps break up the monotony of songs that are over before they start, do little to draw the listener in and possesses none of the sonic power and brutality that has the ability to ignite run of the mill grindcore to the point of excitement, something that would have definitely worked in their favour.
4/10
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