Contraception

I think it's the mark of a smart metalhead to recognize that a lot of extreme metal sounds the same. At least at first. While a lot of the more aggressive strains of this genre we love contains a lot of the same elements, I'd be lying if I said there weren't also an abundance of nuances and subtleties that help give colour to the leagues of metal out there. We're lucky, as a community and as a fandom, to be able sit down and enjoy ever-evolving approaches to the sound we worship, to know that among the Death clones and raw black metal tapes there are always new and interesting things at work and being developed. But I'd still be lying if I said that, at face value, a lot of it sounds similar. Aggression and heaviness always have similarities that make heavy metal easy to mock. Nothing wrong with a few defenders of the faith and die-hard adherents, there's enough going on on each side to keep things interesting.

So here's a band who keep it so simple it's almost a joke.

Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair (who will be called Wheelchair 4x going forward for brevity sake) are a Scottish grind-violence duo who have a very straightforward approach to making their stripped down brand of musical noise. All they need is, evidently, a guitar, drums, and some vocals. This pair of bonnie punks, after whittling out some EPs and a split, put out their debut full-length Contraception back in 2011. I'll be honest, I would never have remembered these guys if it weren't for their absurd name (which I do find hilarious). And recently, I felt like giving these guys a listen, just for a lark.

Wheelchair 4x, as I mentioned before, are a simple band. Their songs are short, their riffs sludgy yet blisteringly fast, their vocals screamed with amateur charm. Truly, the peak of music. But for real, this is like Weekend Nachos except even more stripped down and designed to sound like gut punches through an overdrive pedal. There's no nuance here, despite the one-off saxophone solo, this shit doesn't move even a milimetre beyond its ugly noisecore formula. It does get to a point where all the songs do blend together unless you're paying close attention. Which I admit isn't easy in this case. As for the actual songwriting... I dunno, it's powerviolence at its most hardcore punk, it sticks so close to the blueprint that analysis is a joke. You get what you came for.

The overarching theme of Contraception's lyrics is such that anyone familiar with Anal Cunt's Picnic of Love will probably get the most fun out of it: despite the crushing powerviolence, every song is about courting girls and being polite to them as you do so. There's even a song about meeting the mum. Coming from a band who appeared on a split called Your Scene Means Fuck All certainly raises eyebrows about their thematic targets, let alone their sincerity. Nevertheless, it's kind of funny, I gotta admit. Even if the joke doesn't stay funny for long.

Wheelchair 4x are, most likely, just two friends with a grind band who like to have fun. Does that show on Contraception? Eh, kinda. This album was like a cheap no-budget horror movie: marginally entertaining, not entirely deserving of attention, but fine for a spin late at night when you're half asleep and not all there, mentally speaking.