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The Locust - Plague Soundscapes

Chester B. Otch | SLC, UT | 12/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is complete and utter genious. Bottom line. No other band can keep up with the random ever-changing timing changes, key changes and structure fluctuations that The Locust make in this LP. There is a thin line between genious and complete disaster. Take the group Lightning Bolt for instance. They try to recreate what The Locust have made complete asses out of themselves on record with their droll, repetitive and all together boring albums. Very few bands have succeeded in trying to recreate or emulate what The Locust have made and perfected.



The Locust are the band that you love to hate. They are too hardcore for the gay kids and too gay for the hardcore kids. They're not punk, punk is a dead, lifeless horse carcass that kids with tight plaid pants and mowhawks just keep beating with a baseball bat trying to get every drop of life out of it. They're not hardcore, either, which is a genre becoming it's own enemy by selling out to big labels who want them to wear more mascara and black hair dye so they can fit in with the more "emo" bands that they so resemble.



As far as the "Plague Soundscapes" album goes, it is without a doubt, their best work known to date. Although I am a huge fan of the raw recordings on their earlier albums (mainly the EP's), this is The Locust's "Mona Lisa". This will be what people remember them for. For most, "Plague Soundscapes" will just sound like a nuclear bomb landed on a synthesizer shop, and the lyrics are just the screams of the innocent bystanders, but take another listen, (it shouldn't take that long to do so, with 23 songs clocking in at just over 21 minutes). Open up the booklet with all the lyrics of the song try to put the words with the screams. I will say this now, the first couple times I listened to this album, or any Locust album for that matter, I didn't get it very well. I just knew I liked it because they were harder, louder, faster and screamed more than any other band out there. But every time I listened to them again, I got it more and more. I've been listening to The Locust for quite some time now and I can actually sing (not really sing, but scream) along with the songs and actually know the tempo changes and key changes so that I can give my best effort towards dancing to it. But if you don't get it at first listen, don't worry, you'll love it in a week.



If just listening to "Plague Soundscapes" doesn't give you enough of a kick, then I very highly recommend taking the CD into your car with you and crank it at stop lights, just seeing the looks on people's faces when they realize they're at a stop light next to somebody listening to what sounds like a group of holocaust victims stuck in TRON is absolutely hilarious. Also, I very very highly recommend seeing The Locust live. Just watching 4 grown men in skin tight bug outfits having seizures on stage while murdering their synthesized everything is guaranteed to be close to the top of the list of the best things you'll ever witness in your life. If you do go, keep an eye on Gabe, the drummer, he is the most amazing drummer I've ever witnessed, and he also has an amazing mucus problem, every time I see them live he hawks up about 6 loogeys and about 15 snot rockets inbetween songs. Word of advice though, don't go to the show expecting to yell out the title of your favorite song and inspiring them to play it, because they won't play it...especially if it's from an earlier album where they had a different drummer. And I'm pretty sure if you yelled the title of a song on their current albums, they'd do everything they can to NOT play that song just to spite you.



All in all, this album is pure genious. They perfected what no other band could do, which is structure the unstucturable. If unstructurable is not a word, then I don't care because I love this band and you probably don't so therefore I hate you."

It's loud, noisy, fast,, loud and very fast...and I like it?

A. Kohler | Louisville, KY | 03/10/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've just got to say that I am not stupidly impressed by this band like some, nor do I find them pretentious, drooling morons who think they are gods as others do. The Locust play really fast, really short, really loud songs. I don't think they've ever released a song over two minutes, and the longest song on Plague Soundscapes is 1:24 long. Car wreck with vocals, throwing a keyboard in a wood chipper, fast fowarding normal metal songs to break neck speed, there are a million and one comparisons that can be made. Devo meets Dillinger Escape Plan is probably the best way to describe their sound. Let it be said, Plague Soundscapes is a good album. In fact, I think it's great. While it is nearly impossible to decipher lyrics and at some points hard to determine if instruments are even being played, the music is indeed music. It may not be conventional, it may not have structure, but what is structure? Does music have to have a chorus to qualify as music? Can music be loud, fast and posess the ability to destroy, or does it have to contain melody and be understandable? How one answers will determine if one enjoys this album.Of course, one also must have a love for grindcore/noisecore/whatever bands that play loud, fast, hard to listen to music to enjoy this album. Listening to this album is like swallowing glass; for most it's an unpleasnt experience worth avoiding. I have to admit that I enjoyed this album, and still do. It may be like swallowing glass, but it just tastes so good. Plague Soundscapes is good for what it is; a loud, destructive album full of instruments played at break neck speeds with persicion that gets lost in the chaos. The Locust are good for what they are; a loud, destructive band that plays fast, loud, short, anti-melodic, anti-structural, pro-noise songs with talent. I enjoy Plague Soundscapes, and the Locust, and I don't know why."

A collective "whoooosh!"

air rifle | underground | 12/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was discussing the band with a friend of mine, and we came to the conclusion that if William S. Burroughs started a punk band, it would be the Locust. I think that's accurate.



I normally refrain from the "you just don't get it" line of attack, but unfortunately that seems appropriate here. Plague Soundscapes is not complete noise, not even close to it (sheesh, listen to a Merzbow album to put things into perspective). Contrary to the negative and puzzling reviews here (read a professional critic's analysis of the album for an accurate picture of the music at hand), this is an intelligent, cohesive, and overwhelmingly provocative album. The guys can play their instruments incredibly well, the music is wickedly tight and dynamic, it's not rare for a single 45 second song to plow through 10 time signature changes (some excellent drumming can be heard on this record). The guitar riffery is everywhere, ranging from razor sharp thrash cutups to primal sludge from outer space. The keyboards are insectoid and jerky. The tortured singing/screaming from the band members is indeed melodic (if you bother to actually listen) and contains bizarre and surprisingly nuanced rhythmic cadences that flow with the music. Lyrically, we've got some odd, disjointed post-post-modernist ruminations on bodily fluids, political intrigue, culture, wounded animals, the environment, body parts, war, teenage moustaches, etc. The lyrics are always absurdist, fluctuating regularly between profane and profound. The band's got a wicked sense of humor as well, take a gander at the song titles.



The music isn't for everyone, it is intense, disorienting, and violent, but for the more adventurous listeners out there, this is a compelling piece of work that's well-worth examination. The band really does transcend typical genre trappings and creates something new and fascinating. The Locust are punk evolved."