Detestation

GISM’s debut album ”Detestation” has all the elements that ”metal punk” as a genre would cherish today and they had it in 1984, the same year Bathory and Voivod released their debuts. Without a doubt this band is ahead of it’s time but once you put on this record for the first time you will probably question why would anyone like this album. Or if you’re like me you listened to it three times in a row laughing myself to death but at the same time thinking it’s brilliant.

The music here is what you would describe as ”metal punk” today: hardcore punk-style chord progressions, speed metal riffs, crazy good soloing and some experiment guitar work here and there. However the guitar sound is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. Once I was told that it sounds like a microphone inside a beehive and I don’t really disagree. The bass and the drums are pretty well recorded and played so the beehive guitar gives the sound a charm that no other album really has.

The songs are brilliant and have tons of variety. The opening track ”Endless Blockades for the Pussyfooter” starts with an energetic speed metal riff and from there jumps into a hardcore punk verse that’s followed with a heavy chorus part. Those are the building blocks of the song, yet it sounds like a jam with solos and parts going here and there. It’s probably the most well known song by the band and it introduces the style of the record perfectly. The second track ”Death, Agonies and Screams” is more of a hardcore punk track that still has a metal feel to it even when the riffs are actually not that heavy.

One might ask if it’s so good, why was I laughing then? Well, now we come to the element that makes this album the weird gem it is. While Randy Uchida’s guitar playing here is enough to make this record stand out and make it a classic there’s another element that makes the record a memorable experience for anyone listening to it: Sakevi’s vocals. He screams, growls, grunts, mumbles, whispers and makes animal noises and it is weird and hilarous. There are some lyrics available for some songs on the album and they seem to describe war and violence in various ways. However sometimes the noises he makes don’t make it seem too serious. Majority of the vocals are not fooling around though. The sound Sakevi makes is far more extreme than any bands vocalist that comes to mind from 1984. The insane growling and shouting is perfect match to the music that is played here. It is just a weird how once he starts making sounds in the songs he doesn’t stop pretty much until the songs are over. In the beginning of the song ”Nih Nightmare” you can hear him clear his throat a bit and it doesn’t take long for him to start singing.

So this record is definitely not easy listening and for first timers can be hard to focus on because of the extra ”vocals” delivered here. However at the same time there are no bad songs, the sound and the performance are unique and the lenght of the record makes it easy to listen to many times without it becomimg boring. GISM is truelly a one of a kind band and Detestation is one of those albums every metalhead that are into Venom or Celtic Frost shoulf definitely check out.

Highlights: Nih Nightmare, Document One & Endless Blockades for the Pussyfooter.

I discovered G.I.S.M. recently, thanks to a live video posted by Reaper Metal Productions. I'm a huge punk fan and like most extreme metal fans, I especially enjoy the stuff that just skirts the border between punk and metal (Discharge, C.O.C, D.R.I, English Dogs to a certain extent) so i decided to give G.I.S.M. a listen.

To brutally simplify it, it's like Massacre Divine-era Discharge but actually good. It's quite a schizoid album, jumping from traditional crust/crossover, to more thrash/speed-ish territory, with little warning in advance. The musicality of the band is solid, with the guitarist Randy Uchida as an especially standout component. His effective solos on songs like "Endless Blockades for the Pussyfooter" and "NIH Nightmare" are impressive, especially considering that even in 1984 guitar solos were not a given in any punk band harder than The Clash (if you consider those synthesized posers to even be punk, that is.) Not only does Uchida deliver in this regard, his leads also bring a melodic quality to the music which is highly metallic, and quite unusual from anything done in punk and crust before or since.

Frontman Sakevi is apparently quite a piece of work if the information on the band page is correct. Nevertheless, I find him to be a competent vocalist with a grunty style, reminiscent of Gezol or Joel Grind. His lyrics paint chaotic and oppressive pictures of war and violence, wich fits quite nicely in tandem with the equally unsettling and chaotic music. Apparently, this was sort of Sakevis thing, as his fanzine P.O.W would often feature pictures of corpses after an attack with WMDs, interviews with convicted terrorists, etc. A far cry from the juvenile wank material found in the cloudy imagination of say, Sabaton.

The rest of the band does a fine job, with the drumming being the most standout instrument in the rhythm section. Some speedy double-kick patterns pepper the otherwise ubiquitous d-beat, which is also highly unusual for punk.

It's hard to know who to recommend this for, but fans of Shitfucker might find many reference pools in the music of G.I.S.M. Those looking for especially hard-edged crust, metal with a labelless sense of integrity, and proto-grindcore would also do well to check out Detestation.

The best way I can describe this album's sound and GISM's sound for those who haven't heard it is a strange fuzzy mess of Japanese hardcore punk and melodic heavy metal with a little tiny bit of harmony. It really is a great and unique sound by a very strange band for fans of metal and punk alike.

GISM's sound on Detestation is the best of any of their albums in my opinion. The guitar's high-end is really fuzzy and treble-driven, sometimes sounding like a Nintendo game. Most people would say this is detracting for an artist, but it really fits in the music strangely. The low end of the guitars is again fuzzy, and very very dirty sounding, which is great for Sakevi's sick vocal delivery that reminds one of a modern (non-growling) grind singer. The low end does get to show, listen to the beginning of "Nih Nightmare". The best part of the guitars are the brilliant harmonies played in true classic heavy metal style throughout the album. The bass is usually in the background, but when it comes out, it makes harsh dissonance that sets the dirty, weird mood GISM evokes.

Sakevi's vocals vary from a harsh delivery on "Endless Blockades..." and "Death Agonies..." to an almost sing-song (but very operatic) voice near the end of "Nih Nightmare". He also has some strange watery-type effects warping his voice on "Syphilitic Vaginas", perfect for the twisted song.

Overall this release is a mish-mash of genres and strange lyrics, but a very solid, dirty heavy metal release. One may fall in love, or one may be completely baffled as to why anyone would listen. GISM is an anomaly in extreme music.