Zoophilia / Rosebud Rhapsody

It should only make sense that in their heyday, CBT would record a split with another German goregrind tyrant. However, since Gut was in a deep hibernation, it would fall to one of the member’s side projects to pick up the slack: Libido Airbag. While Libido Airbag was nowhere as metallic as CBT ever once was, the pair went together well due to their innate sexual lyricism and macho music tendencies. The result was a satisfying enough split with a decent number of songs from each band. It’s par for the course, the album strewn and painted with graphic and tasteless images of latex and goatse.cx that would make any sane person cringe with embarrassment purchasing this at a record store.

Beginning with CBT’s side of this fuckroast, aptly titled ‘Zoophilia’, each song is themed after the fetish lovingly so. And for such a gnarly and perturbing sexual act to name itself after, the music is nothing but a filthy testament to the subject. CBT was always changing up their staple pitchshifts and the ones used here are akin to a rabid beast, an unnatural, inhuman rip-roar of guttural sludge. Bordering on mechanical, but still organic enough to not come off as cheap or overproduced. The songs are also a varied lot of dynamic bestiality. The songs shift from slow, drawn out, deep grooves to blistering beatdowns of bulldozing goregrind, with a healthy dose of mid-paced moshing thrust in for good measure. The split draws a lot of strength from Sascha’s drumming, vocal performance, semi-technical death metal chugging and mosh friendly attitude, all one expects from the great Cock and Ball Torture. If I were to pick on one aspect of this side, it would be the production, which is substantially flatter than some of their better works. You could give them the benefit of this being a 16-minute split, but that doesn’t excuse the guitars from sounding dull. Overall, ‘Zoophilia’ hits the notes a CBT release should and not much more. Had they changed up their instruments sound as much as they did their vocals, then it would be a hell of a lot more notable.

Moving on to Libido Airbag’s ‘Rosebud Rhapsody’ side, the German cybergrinders tackle the topic of drugs in a very serious and mature manner. Just kidding, it’s a belligerent, rabid rollercoaster that channels the midi metal spirit of old-school ‘DOOM’ over the course of three tracks. Though I own most of their material, Libido Airbag hasn’t been my favorite band, grindcore or not. I can say that this split is a perfect taste test of the band in their earlier days. The tracks are an atmospheric, drone heavy cybergrind extravaganza, with predatory passages and riffs. Aggression is the name of the game, and these songs bite and gnash at you with their distorted gurgles and thrumming electronics, all highlighted by bright, techno keyboards and breakdowns. This may sound alluring; however, this is all at the cost of nothing of note writing wise. Everything is 100 miles an hour and nothing sticks out except the out of place and “comedic” samples used to bridge portions of these songs. It’s also dated sounding, as is most cybergrind from the early 2000s. It’s not too egregious in this department and could possibly pass as a caveman’s rendition of extreme electronic music.

Cock and Ball Torture is the obvious selling point for this split and the only reason I would ever come back to it. It’s a solid enough quartet of groovy goregrind tracks and a fun, dumb way to waste 9 minutes. Libido Airbag isn’t without its spooky merits here, just too primitive for my tastes. ‘Weedwhore’ is the only track worth a damn, and only a few steps above the other two tracks. Regardless, both sides of the split are perfect for respective fans of each band, textbook tracks to the tune of sexual sadism.