There must be another rebellion on the rise, and if not, there will be when the masses hear this end-all or instigate-all riot. Invigorating rhythms, destructive industrial beats, and dictating spoken-word lyrics with the liberated spirit of slam poetry pave the way towards insurrection. Last City Zero is the first full-length album by drone-doom rebels Corrections House, a supergroup containing members from Eyehategod, Arson Anthem, Bloodiest, Minsk, Tribes of Neurot, Neurosis, Yakuza, and other projects. Think they have enough material to work with in these other bands? Wrong, these guys never stop the madness. Producer/keyboardist Sanford Parker, lead-vocalist Mike IX Williams, guitarist Scott Kelly, saxophone-maestro Bruce Lamont, and lyricist Seward Fairbury construct chaos through this belligerent experimental-metal manifestation.
Saxophones are undeniably badass, and Lamont proves it with his jazz-blues-metal forte. In “Hallows of the Stream,” the low-keyed resonating tones of the sax set the heart trembling. Conversely, pieces like “Bullets and Graves” are rousing with the rocking sax in ploy with the raving William. This hectic piece also demonstrates their eccentric and derisive use of sound effects with an agitating eight-second intro reproducing the sound of shooting bullets, emphasizing the song’s conceptual content.
It’s impossible to disregard the boldly underlined cryptic rhyme in “Serve or Survive” with the repetition of the first verse eight times before reciting the next, all in all forming an idiosyncratic a(8)-b(1)-a(1)-b(1)-a(1) scheme, ironically never uttered again throughout the song. Sharing the title and attitude of the album, “Last City Zero” is five-minutes of deliberated outlooks and perceptions presented like slam poetry. All poems throughout Last City Zero are subversive, radical, and anarchic. The rallying “Dirt Poor and Mentally Ill” addresses a whirl of social issues, ironies, and concerns such as “innocent until proven retarded” and “work: the real capital punishment,” as well as other protests, propaganda, and conspiracies.
Corrections House is a communal of musicians among a cult of consciousness and expressional freedom. So to all the (and soon to be) anarchists and nonconformists, time to defy the system and dismantle your manners, because insubordinate metal is the groundwork to a revolution.