Leper - End Progress
Creepcore
Black/Grind/Ska
10 songs (42:00)
Release year: 2009
Official Myspace, Official Website
Reviewed by Charles
Archive review
“Nuts and gum, together at last!” Thus declares the comically ill-advised fusion snack eaten by Homer Simpson (in that episode where Lisa invents a Malibu Stacey doll, I believe). If the extreme metal macadamia was ever to find its chewy, mint-flavoured companion then perhaps it would be ska, that offbeat-worshipping jazz-derived dance music of Jamaican descent. Fortunately (is this the right word?), Leper have arrived to reunite these two long lost cousins in a roughly incestuous dancefloor embrace.

The sound here is difficult to fully describe, but perhaps it is best to imagine first an aggressive alloy of crusty grind and pummelling blackened death metal. Fast and relentless blasting is married to a punkish delivery with barking hardcore vocals. But then add to this a sweaty, groping interloper in the form of fuzzed-up ska, which doesn't just peer through the window but smashes through the patio doors and cavorts muddily on the rug. Grimy Caribbean-influenced bass lines (synthesised now through decades of intermingling with European and American punk) and jumping off-beat guitar twangs should in theory have to be wedged in awkwardly, but in fact the two are oddly complementary.

So by way of an example of this in action look to Wild and Free. A blasting, Dissection-like introduction gives way suddenly to skanking after a few bars without skipping a beat and then reverting again- no awkward segue or change in instrumentation, simply a mid riff flick from one to the other until the black gains decisive hold for the crashing climax. And ultimately, whyever not? Both of these are energetic, up-tempo beasts and in the absence of a horn section or raft of backing singers emerging to ape The Specials, all that is really happening is a series of shifts between rhythmic styles. The manically shifting Destroy What Destroys You is the purest statement of this unity. Different ideas blur together into a frantic, rabidly fast avant-grind tune in which distinct elements are lost in the overall clatter, like a Rastafarian Dillinger Escape Plan.

Perhaps an explanation of why Leper stumbled across this particular combination can be found in the presence of two members of radical blackened crusties Iskra here. Whilst forcing ska into black metal would probably seem like a fool’s errand to someone reared on the icy purity of the European scenes, it tends to make a lot more sense when approached from the multicultural, anarchic angle that has characterised that band and ideologically-comparable projects. As with Iskra this is politicised music, spewing hate on the modern industrialised world much as Discharge or Crass did. It’s an ethos that provides a coherent unifying force to the proudly mongrel music found on End Progress.

Killing Songs :
Sedition not Sedation, Destroy What Destroys You
Charles quoted 86 / 100
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There are 4 replies to this review. Last one on Tue Jul 27, 2010 6:40 am
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