Bring Down the Curtain

“…the meatwagon drowns in all of my thoughts…it floats over the country and sets me off…”

There’s a sticker on the front cover that totes some guy named Mark Senasac as the producer. After one side of this nine-songer, it’s apparent it is all the record has going for it, and the production is hardly anything to parade around town with. Even with a Queen Mary of mix jobs, the music still has to accomplish something, but what I hear is mostly aimless, unremarkable hardcore trying to sound thrashy. Of course there was tons of this going around at that time, but usually those bands went unsigned, mostly unnoticed, and forever opening for the likes of The Crumbsuckers and Ludichrist.

A track-by-track account of Bring Down the Curtain would be so droll I’d have to drive to a carnival afterward to suck the boredom from my system. Its tedious rhythms and unceremonious breaks in structure seem like ballet compared to some of the drum tracks that can be as single-minded and basic as a hardware store invoice as witnessed in the title cut, “Set Them Free”, and the 10+ minute dead elephant “When Violence Breathes”. What’s even more surprising is that it’s Mark Edwards behind the kit, crushing credentials earned with touted Jack Starr’s Burning Star, Steeler and his own self-named project in ’85. Customary speed breakdowns, timing shifts, and stillborn vocals actually romp compared to the cover drawing that’s a fourth grade art show runner-up.

Instrumental “Snake Charmer” is punkier and even a bit laid back, but also features some of the album’s most melodic interludes, including a 7 Seconds-ish jangle-riff that comes off deviceful without harming the track. “Pitch Black” merges a slower pace and some sappy melodies, raising ordinary spectres even when the usual speed kicks in fleetingly. The most diverse track, “World Within A World”, with its semi-acoustical gloss and usually pedestrian pace is also the most lackluster, meanwhile album ender “Threshold” is the speediest, most cohesively aggressive, and despite its simplicity, probably the most interesting.

Okay, so maybe half a play-by-play account is manageable, but it’s still like crawling through a drainage pipe. There’s one, maybe two things this lp is good for: 1) with its characterless features, stumping crossover/hardcore aficionados, and 2) I’m still looking for the second, but I can see the peak of the Ferris Wheel from here.