Bulwark Bazooka - Wumpscut
Casual reminder this was written earlier in the
month and I just had horrible writers block and didn't finish it
until now...
I
really wanted to review this a while ago but school kicked me in the
butt and I was way too stressed to form any sort of opinion on this
album other than my original fangirling response. It's been almost
three weeks since Bulwark Bazooka was released and my general opinion
has not changed much. I really enjoy this ten song album and the
stuff I don't like isn't that bad.
"Bulwark
Bazooka," is not for the faint of heart, which is why I've come
up with alternative meanings for most of the songs on here. I have
the lyric booklet, fought iTunes tooth and nail for it and all it did
was make me question life. "Rubber Corpse," has two of the
most horrifying choruses out of any song I have ever heard in my
life. Yet if you listen to the the catchy beat, don't have the lyric
booklet, and can't understand some of the words because (insert
reason here) that fact wouldn't be known. Curious as to what the
lyrics are well here are the verses:
"I
got a deal for you, I got a clue. I got a dead one oh yes it's true.
I
got a corpse down there with a bad smell.
I
reserved human flesh oh I can tell."
"Downstairs
at Eric's I put it in wax, upstairs at mommy's I erase the tracks.
Of
my latest fancy of my latest joke.
To
late to revive it to late for evoke."
That
is set to a catchy beat and chorus, but the chorus is addicting as
all hell and it is why I decided "Rubber Corpse" is about
taxidermy... clearly forgetting about "upstairs at mommy's I
erase the tracks," and the fact that someone might have murdered
someone as a joke and the person thinks it is funny.
In
all seriousness, "Rubber Corpse" is on my list of Wumpscut
songs new listeners should listen to. Lyrical content aside, it's not
too crazy musically and it's catchy. If you're new to Wumpscut, it is
definitely a song to check out. Also if you're new to Wumpscut, how
the heck did you find this album first and how are you not scared out
of your mind?
If
the first song didn't scare you, then "Furunkel Lolita,"
will probably make you feel a little weird... Because most people
know what the term Lolita means. But I don't know how Furunkel fits
into the meaning of it. It means boil. Those two words can not mean
the same thing thrown together in this song's context. It can not be
a person who looks like an underage child, or is underage with boils
being found sexually attractive. That's horrifying, the giggling
children in the beginning don't help either. This is also my favorite
song from "Bulwark". It grabbed my attention and kept hold
of it with just a short piece of the last chorus all those weeks ago.
It was this song that made me determined to review it.
Tress
means a lock of a woman's hair.
"Hell
is what awaits me if (when) I touch (all) your tress." Not hell
is what awaits me if I touch your dress, hell is what happens if and
when this persons touches someone's hair. Their hair is that
tempting, not the dress, the piece of clothing that would be most
tempting to touch or maybe their cheek, the tress. This isn't meant
to fit a rhyme either.
"I
can not resist your young charm, come to me to find my true warmth.
Heaven
is what your young body flesh promises, Hell is what awaits me if I
touch all your tress" or "Hell is what awaits me when I
touch your tress."
The
hair has been touched okay, and this is weird. I am not okay with the
weird. But this will never stop being an awesome song. Nothing about
these lyrics are okay. But it has to sound amazing, it has to have
the amazing electronic horns happening, and the crazy nature of the
chorus with a small throwback to "In The Night." "Furunkel
Lolita" is creepy, intense, and it is my favorite song. The
struggle is real.
Skipping
Cross of Iron, Atrocity Dancer, and Heresy, because "Supergurl"
"Vienna," and "Flesh Trench" need to be
discussed. "Supergurl," is growing on me. This song (and
"Rubber Corpse) features vocals by Aleta Welling (she's credited
on a bunch of Wumpscut songs, one of them being "Death Panacea"
from Woman and Satan First.) I had mixed feelings about this. I
thought it was kind of annoying as well as "Flesh Trench"
and "Vienna," but with time I changed my mind and now I
like it. The lyrics aren't up on websites yet which is strange, and I
am terrible with hearing lyrics and understanding them without the
words in front of me. If I understand anything it's in pieces and I
can't make sense of it, sometimes not all the time. This song was one
of those cases, and the lyrics are sort of sad at first and then it
gets dark, really dark. This is song almost reaches Furunkel Lolita
levels of not okay, but it seems to be the most obvious song out of
all the songs with actual lyrics. There is a woman, out of someone's
league, and I'm guessing she's an independent woman who don't need no
man, and she ends up killed. Or... it's one of the songs that is 'if
I can't have you (no matter what the reason is' no one can have you,'
and I am not okay with this fictional premeditated murder being
thrown in my face.
"Soon
it is too much how you thrill me,
With
a touch too much, you will kill me,
Soon
a glancing touch, it will thrill you
With
a lethal touch I will kill you."
With
that out of the way, "Flesh Trench," is confusing as all
hell and I decided it is about discovering a kink you didn't know you
had before with a partner that enjoys said kink as well and they both
think they are nothing and they want to share the nothing.
"You
are nothing, I am nothing, you are nothing, let's share."
You
can't share nothing, nothing is just... well nothing. It isn't a
physical thing. You'll just be left with more nothing and how does
this relate to having a strange kink?
"Come
be a flesh trench only a sex mensh,
Come
and submit to me."
That's
the first chorus of the song. A mench is a person. Urban dictionary
says so. The word is spelled wrong in the digital booklet?
Anyways,
I thought this was annoying at first as mentioned before. I can't put
my finger on what changed it for me, maybe the way it sounds like
he's growling the verses, or singing into a fan that is silent. Also
as strange as the chorus is, I love it, the music is perfect, and his
accent kind of comes through in certain spots and it's kind of
attractive...
"Vienna"
is a song made entirely of samples from things I can't find because I
don't speak whatever language it is in. It might be German, it isn't
mentioned in the digital booklet where any of the samples come from.
And to be honest this was a very boring song until it got stuck in my
head. That is the only reason I can tolerate "Vienna," and
the one sound effect that happens at 1:48 is pretty cool.
Pagan
Crusade is the one song I was COMPLETELY wrong about originally.
There are lyrics, and Rudy is singing said lyrics. It is not
instrumental like it seemed to be. I feel silly for thinking it was
completely instrumental. Other than that, the song is just kind of
there. It doesn't really stand out it never grabbed my attention like
"Furunkel Lolita," or "Rubber Corpse," did. I
don't listen to it as much as those two songs either.
And
then there are the songs I don't particularly like or feel like I
want to like but can't seem to care for. "RTL Hariti" the
song
about is an Iranic ogress and Bactrian (Peshawari)
mythological figure who eats your children or then feeds them to her
own children, then one of her kids goes missing and she converts to
Buddism when a monk shows her the error of her ways.
And she vows to protect them as a result. There are not enough lyrics
for this song to be nearly seven minutes long and have the same music
looping once the lyrics end. Something has to change in order to keep
me interested but nothing changes drastically and I quickly lose
interest in "RTL Hariti."
Don't
ask me what the RTL means, I'm still waiting for some sort of answer
to all my annoying questions I ask Wumpscut in his facebook fan page.
"Atrocity
Dancer" and "Heresy" are the other two songs I don't
care for, but they are far from terrible. All I can say about
Atrocity dancer is that it is the only song I found the source of one
of the quotes. It is from the movie AI: Artificial Intelligence. Also
why is the C-bomb dropped for the sake of a rhyme? For real though
that word always makes me uncomfortable... but that's just me being
weird. I feel bad for "Atrocity Dancer" because I really
love Rudy's vocals on the verses, but I hate music and everything
going on in the chorus.
Heresy
has a great start but it gets boring halfway through. There are no
set lyrics and Google has no idea what the quotes are from so I'm
back to where I started. The sad part is the audio clips are in clear
English for the most part. "Ejected from the communion of
(something like a holy mother charged) as a disciple of Satan."
Google has no idea what I'm talking about and I don't understand why,
it's not hard to hear at all except for a few words. Anyways, The
song feels too long and boring for how many times it loops without
something different. The song goes until 2:47 before "What's the
difference?" is repeated a few times and then it just kind of
ends awkwardly after the quote from the beginning of the song shows
up again.
If
anyone is curious I just wasted four pages getting this silly review
out. So here's a brief summary of what I actually thought of the
album. Wumpscut's always been creepy but the creep meter was cranked
up on this album and I like it. If you're already a Wumpscut fan
you're well aware what is in store for you. If you're not, this is
not an album to listen to as your first exposure because it probably
will scare you away before you realize how awesome some of his
previous stuff was, unless you like creepy, then this album is for
you.
