A Life Less Necessary

"I had a dream last night
It wasn't a nightmare, something sweet
Someone rewound this fucking movie and gently pressed delete
I'M NOT KIDDING
I NEVER HAPPENED
I woke up thinking there might just be some hope after all..."

With this album (their latest as of this writing) the pugnacious Swedes calling themselves The Cumshots abandoned any trace of the sardonic wit that punctuated the depressive rage of their previous works and made something altogether darker. Considering that Just Quit Trying was already a pretty damn harrowing album beneath the bemused, self-deprecating humor, that is certainly saying something. Ejected along with the sense of good fun is the whole 'roll' part of the 'death 'n' roll' equation in favor of incredibly gritty, grimy death metal that leaves you soiled, bruised and bleeding in its wake. If I had to describe the sound of this album in a single sentence, I suppose the most apt metaphor would be that listening to it is like being beaten to a pulp by a gang of leering, rotten-toothed delinquents in a seedy, soot-caked back alley somewhere. Even if you do make it out the other side the stains, both mental and physical, will never quite come clean.

Essentially, where the previous material from these guys charmed its way into the heart with a mixture of addicting grooves and a pervasive, jeering cynicism, A Life Less Necessary is more concerned with crushing you, both mentally and physically. Pummeling riffs comprise the meat of each of these songs, thundering through the speakers to maul you mercilessly as Kristopher Schau's sickeningly grimy vocals intone surprisingly potent lyrics full of disconcertingly real despair. This is the kind of stuff you hear in your head at 3 AM, when the distant piercing cry of a siren signals something horrible happening somewhere just out of sight, when the last drop of Jim Beam has been drunk and the final decisive round has been loaded in the chamber, the click of a cocked firing pin the final critical piece of your life's equation. This isn't the abstract depression of most doom bands, this is the sound of a life that's been broken and can never be repaired, of the painful knowledge that your own weakness has brought you to a place where a bottle and a gun are your only friends.

"We all have our demons
Mine is sobriety
These four walls... that's my society
A toothless dog, don't need a bone
I'm sorry mom
I still drink alone"

Despite the increased reliance on powerful riffs and an emphasis on the death metal style, this is also very different from any conventional album in the genre. Guitarist El Doom's clean vocals are still utilized to great effect here as a mournful counterpoint to Schau's vicious growls and songs like "I Still Drink Alone", which has just enough in common with its predecessor in terms of catchiness but ramps up the desperate feeling of hopelessness, or "And the Sun Pissed Red" with its disturbingly soiled harmonics in the verses culminating in a completely unexpected and yet amazingly catchy clean chorus that reaches a powerful crescendo replete with a wailing female vocalist a la Great Gig in the Sky, serve to effectively break up the sheer bludgeoning punishment of bare-knuckle boxers like "What Bleeds Must Be Butchered" and "This Dog Won't Hunt". While the claustrophobic production is not the strongest element of this record, it effectively communicates the reeling disorientation of suicidal depression that permeates the album and forces you so close to the wretched vocals you can positively smell the alcohol on Kris Schau's breath as he sprays caustic lyrics like:

"They fuck you up, your mom and dad
The may not mean to, but they do
...
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some just for you

When I look into the eyes of a child
I see nothing but my inherited misery
Whether mine or his, it's obviously there,
generations of failures and fear

Man hands on misery to man
It deepens faster than the nation's coastal shelf
Get out as early as you can
And don't have any kids yourself"

The band's mastery of the fundamentals of the death metal style mean the album is never anything less than incredibly solid, and yet their tendency to deviate from the conventional traits of the genre makes for countless moments of unexpected and all the more potent emotional power. Perhaps my single favorite song is the absolutely hopeless "Tiny Crosses". Opening with a dirge-like death metal riff that trudges onwards towards an inevitable funeral, Schau's wretched lyrics lend a suffocating atmosphere to the affair before suddenly... it all stops. A sudden hush falls over everything, with only the faintest melodic chiming audible in the distance, like the vaguest memories of hope and joy before everything in life got so impossibly fucked up and complicated. And then the silence gathers itself, everything swells and the song surges at you, blissful and completely unexpected orchestration blasting the remnants of your life and mortal form away as you realise why this sounds so sweet and welcoming: this is what dying feels like.

"The feeling that it's over
Finally something to be savored
My every fucking heartbeat
Like a bullet being chambered...
LIKE A BULLET BEING CHAMBERED
There comes a time when you can't hide
All the tiny crosses of your life"

I could go on at length about any of these songs, from the heart-wrenching closer "Existence Should Be Singing" with its powerful, climactic chorus and mournful subdued piano outro, or the disintegration of a relationship chronicled in the brute force of "This Dog Won't Hunt" (Anything I can do to make you feel alright?/Sure, engrave me onto history, white on white/If you were to be any worse we'd have to be twins/I'll race you to recovery, last one wins) but really, this is an album that simply has to be experienced. It's truly a shame that this album isn't more widely recognized (although I supposed the band kind of handicapped themselves with a name like the Cumshots) as this is one of the most daringly unconventional death metal albums I've ever heard. This is not for the faint of heart and may not be the healthiest record for a depressed individual, but it is a work of singular honesty and a testament to just how underrated these guys are. 'Intense' doesn't even begin to describe this thing.

"Nothing ever gets better
Not for anyone
It never gets easier
We burn in the sun
Don't tell me that given time I will cope
'cause THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN LIVING IS HOPE

So let the sun break through the fog
And PUT ME DOWN LIKE A RABID DOG"

I didn't really expect much from this band when I first stumbled upon them. With a name like The Cumshots I couldn't help but think that this is gonna be one another of those cheap and half-assed efforts without any direction. While this band may have started as such, it sure came (no pun intended) a long way. Founded in 1999 by (in)famous Norwegian TV personality Kristopher Schau and Ole Petter Andreassen aka El Doom, The Cumshots are a five piece band that play a violent combination of hard-hitting rock and death metal.

Their latest effort A Life Less Necessary continues in the same vein as Just Quit Trying. If I were to use one word to describe what this whole album is about, it would be "suffering". Rather than being based on abstract themes or external issues, it is directed inwards. The lyrics have a very personal tone. They are full of self-loathing, regret, violence and every other thing that would land you straight into a therapist chair.

Of all the emotions that run wild on this album (and there are many), anger and sorrow are the most prominent. There is nothing fake or forced about these guys. Their delivery is brutal. It is all straight from the heart. They revel in their own fucked up-ness. The fact that they are not even afraid of showing their own humane side only makes everything so much worse. Hell, I haven't heard something this defeatist and unhealthy in a long time. If you find yourself resonating with it, you probably have your own fair share of demons.

Given the album's combination of rocky nature and ugly down-to-earth metal, you won't find overly complex song structures or showoff solos here. Members of the band instead opted to express themselves through sheer intensity. That is not to say that this album is dry, quite the opposite, it is very melodic, featuring some very sinister and unique riffs along with occasional keyboards.

What surprised me the most about the whole thing though, are the amazing clear vocals (sung by El Doom and to a lesser degree, Schau). They actually make the album sound graceful at certain parts, further defeating my previous assumptions about the band. How they managed to pull that off while maintaining their disgusting demeanor at the same time is beyond me.

The atmosphere of this album is arguably its strongest point. It is introverted, menacing and utterly oppressive. If by any chance you happen to get entangled in it, before you know it, you'll find yourself mentally being pulled down the shitter wondering where you went wrong in life.

Quite honestly, I can't find a single weak song on the album. My personal favorites are This Dog Won't Hunt and When in Hell, Pray For Rain. The only downside of the album I can think of would be its arrangement, which sounds a bit sloppy at times. In some specific instances, this makes it hard for a listener to discern Schau's aggressive vocals from the rest of the noise.

A Life Less Necessary is best being appreciated in solitude, preferably with a good dose of alcohol. There is a lot going on it, so it can be a little hard to digest at first. However once you do and the hooks sink in, you'll find yourself returning to it over and over again.