Shitload

Reviews

Agathocles / Shitload split cassette

AGATHOCLES pumps out raw, unhinged mincecore sounding like it was recorded in a public toilet. Nasty, brutish, and short, each of their 25 tracks on this split is a punch to the face. Some tracks, like “Porcelain A,” fold some of that sweet D-beat into the mix. All of it has that trademark snare drum/cymbal overload and growling, political vocals you’d expect from these veterans. Then, taking a huge swerve into another dimension, SHITLOAD starts blasting straight-up migraine fuel. The second of their seven tracks of dissonance and shouting is entitled “Kazoos, Whistles, Feedback and Noise.” I appreciate when things are labeled precisely as what they are. I don’t even know what to compare this stuff to, but I do love their track titles. My favorite is “Brah, You Shoulda Seent Da Looks People Were Givin Me When I Wore My Mawbid Angel Shirt With Da Sleeves Cut Off In Rouse’s.”

Shitload More Vaccinated Than You! cassette

“In celebration of getting my third COVID-19 booster shot, I’ve recorded this to let you all know that I’m more vaccinated than you!” This is SHITLOAD’s statement for this self-released two-track tape. Bobby Paranoize does it all: bass, noise, yelling, screaming, drum programming, and vaccines?!?! Each track is a seven-minute frenzy of blastbeats, screaming, and gritty bass. No false grind here, just hatred and vaccine-filled noisecore! A total shitload of noise!

Shitload Unplugged cassette

Consistently pushing the inanity of noisecore to new limits, New Orleans act SHITLOAD may have outdone themselves. But before you look at a list of the (acoustic) instruments used to create this cacophony and turn away, I would like to offer this advice: just give it a chance. Yeah, the kazoo in between bursts is a little much (OK— it’s a lot much), but hearing everything piled on top of everything else is the same kind of complete sensory overload that makes walls of harsh noise so…comforting. This time it’s in the context (or spirit) of raw powerviolence through shit-fi, and the chaotic monotony works. I know that Bobby Paranoize, SHITLOAD’s sole member, is having a go at us here and that this was released in an edition of ten copies…but I’m going to hold onto mine. Even though, as the artist states: “This is a bunch of ridiculous bullshit.”

Boiled Tongue / Shitload split cassette

Lo-fi noisecore solo project split cassette. SHITLOAD from New Orleans I have reviewed releases from before, and this is more of the same. Drum machine sounding like a machine gun, fast riffs over top. It’s a bit hard to differentiate from song to song since they’re all essentially in the same formula. Speaking of songs being difficult to differentiate from one another, BOILED TONGUE from Gulfport, Mississippi lists their tracks on this release as just “(Untitled 1-17).” If lo-fi grindcore, powerviolence, or other forms of aggressive music are your bag, then this would presumably be up your alley. Both projects mix elements from all different forms of brutality into a single package.

Shitload The Marrero Atheist Truck CD-R

This one’s a marathon of solo noise grind diarrhea out of New Orleans. It collects a bunch of SHITLOAD split appearances and live recordings on one CD-R, and it goes on for what feels like hours. All of this sounds pretty much the same, 30 seconds of drum machine blast with unintelligible bass and shouting, followed by a few seconds of feedback and repeat over and over again. They do switch it up for the last couple of tracks with some noise dirges, which are not so bad but it sure took a lot to get there. Highlights are the “Takeshitload Collab Session” and when it’s over. SHITLOAD… it’s not just a clever name.

Shitload / XBrackishX Da Parish X Westbank Unity split cassette

Uncompromising noisecore from two New Orleans powerhouses. XBRACKISHX is truly, and by design, all over the map—samples, interludes, shit-fi grind, Casio pop, hardline vegan black metal guitars driving a one-person drum machine assault. SHITLOAD opens up with a damaged bass blasting “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” while a who’s-who of New Orleans notables rep The West Bank for 68 seconds before the sonic shit-machine blasts through eight doses of noisecore, brutalizing mainstream heavy metal melodies as an interlude between blasts (HALEN, MAIDEN, LICA all get the business). This is the kind of tape where you exhale after each side…and you take a deep careful breath before you hit play.

Shitload / Squelch Chamber split cassette

SHITLOAD does some terrible bass and drum machine noise grind. Now with noise grind, it’s all pretty terrible, but there’s good-terrible and bad-terrible. This one is a bunch of thirty-second songs of the same-ass programmed blastbeat with the same-ass incoherent bass noise and two guys shouting different things at the same time. It’s on the terrible side of terrible. Just as I’m about to completely write off noise grind (again), SQUELCH CHAMBER comes on and my mind completely explodes. This is quite possibly the first noise grind band who are not only not terrible, but actually are fucking sick! Absolutely brutal, total fucking noise madness with an actual drummer and actual song structures, and no funny stuff. Almost sounds like a heavy metal MELT BANANA with the evil turned way up. SQUELCH CHAMBER makes this one a must!

Shitload Mowerviolence cassette

Pandemic-born solo noisecore from New Orleans. Emphasis on the noise. Oppressive, distorted and violent. Someone sowed seeds of powerviolence and then got locked in their bedroom…shit got pollinated by stench and filth and noise. Choice cut: “Just Shut Up snd Wear Your Fucking Mask.”

Shitload The COVID Sessions cassette

New Orleans noizecore project. SHITLOAD takes elements from all different kinds of extreme music and kinda mixes them all in together. The mid-tempo grimy riffs are pretty catchy, and I find myself wanting more of that. Tracks that stay in that realm like “Hang On” are super cool and I dig a lot. However, whenever it kicks into grindcore speed, the “drums” just sound like a non-stop machine gun. Twenty-one tracks of that is a lot to digest in one sitting, but tons of respect for how busy this dude’s been to crank out this much stuff all post-COVID.

Shitload Flatten the Curve CD

Primitive, one-person thrash-crust with a drum machine and a quarantine theme. This is the kind of solo act that proudly declares their total incompetence in musicianship, recording and especially drum machine programming, but still must rock their bedroom closet studio into rubble. Sure, it’s kind of terrible, but it made me chuckle a little. It’s worth a spin, but probably just one.