Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Trapping The Taker, Turning The Tables

The first tremor comes and goes, and in an endorphin haze, you stand grasping the doorknob for escape. Giddy with brain chemicals and the absurd thought of your naked and aborted evacuation, you return to bed. When the calmness of the night finally returns, a jolt of paralyzing proportions throws you bodily. The bedpost seems your only anchor to solid ground, to which you cling with primate imbecility. It's only when the gentle, rolling quakes come that you can relax your grasp. But your blind faith is rewarded only by a convulsion three times the intensity of the last. Thankful the floor was still there to break your fall, you dust the ceiling cakes from your eyes and scramble for the darkest spot you can find; some subdormatory where you might pass the night... This is the sonic Hell of Inept, but instead of begging for it to end, you'll wish it never to stop. Like a string of aftershocks, it's more terrifying for its apparent randomness of interval, and its complete disregard for your cries for mercy.

If you're dying for classification, Inept played some kind of bastard fusion of modern hardcore and grindcore. The bass-heavy gloom of One-Eyed God Prophecy and Welcome The Plague Year stands out to me, along with the slow-meets-fast mindfuckery of Systral and the like. Maybe throw in the outsider nuttiness of Kisses & Hugs and Three Studies For A Crucifixion, and you're getting even closer. The lyric sheet is like a catalog of all topics the Ebullition school obsessed over, but upon reading it seems these guys were pretty sincere about it all. If you disagree, at least you have the insane musical delivery, which I think will smooth over any hang-ups.

A big thanks to Geno for introducing me to Inept's LP, which I ripped below...

"Images of Betrayal"

11 comments:

RyGar said...

Great write-up on this one. Now that I'm in the midwest, I kind of miss the earthquakes. This should do nicely.

{captcha: noodraw} ha!

Batguano said...

Hey Ryan. The Midwest, eh? How the hell did that happen? I guess now you have tornados or blizzards to contend with...

That last bit... was that your word verification or something?

lloyd said...

Yes! Such a killer record, totally underrated band. Funny how the guitar player went on to MRR and more or less denounce this style of hardcore.

P.S. Glad to see you back at it!

RyGar said...

I won't go into the sordid details, but I moved back to Minneapolis, MN (MPLS!) in April. I lived here from 2002- Dec. of 2006. It's a great city with good art, bars, bands, and some of the best people I've met. A lotta douchebags, too, because it is a city.
Yup, the cool down has started, so we're outta tornado season, and headed for blizzards. I'm going to attempt to get through the whole winter on my bicycle, too. According to some notable sources, this is supposed to be the most bike friendly city in the states. I don't know about that, but it is pretty great riding. Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm all settled in and sorted, so some new posts should be happening over at my spot in the very near future, so stop on over.

Oh, yeah, that was my word verification. I think the term for them is "captcha." I could be wrong.

Batguano said...

Captcha. I like that. Adding to the lexicon now. Well, that's good that you're in a nice town. I've heard good things about it, and I've never liked LA much anyway. Good luck to you, and, yeah, get a blog post up already!

Lloyd! Nice to see you haven't jumped ship. Once again... your taste in music is unparalleled!

I did not know this about the guitarist. Punk hearts can be fickle, I guess...

RyanG said...

I just picked up the "49th Parallel" comp, with them on it. Do you, or anyone reading, happen to have the CD version of this comp? It was released on Diffusion Records before Old Glory Records put out the lp, and I'm pretty sure the CD version has more tracks. I want those tracks!

RyanG said...

Er, I mean Disillusion Records.

RyanG said...

Ack, nevermind. I figured it out. That Three Studies track is really a three-part song or something (as listed here: http://www.discogs.com/Various-49th-Parallel/release/1535690). I was looking for those other two songs.

Well, here's everything by Three Studies for a Crucifixion. http://www.mediafire.com/?e25on7pz6ny20it
if you want it.

Batguano said...

Great! I'll check that link; Thanks.

brian said...

thanks for posting this, i grew up in columbus and know inept well-- the members' other bands are rad too. the awesome cover art was done by my friend austin baxter's brother eric while he was a student at CCAD. austin and i had a powerviolence band together in high school and the whole columbus scene was about this kind of shit-- lots of awesome stuff.

Batguano said...

Hey Brian, thanks for sharing your insights into the "scene." I agree the cover art is pretty badass.