Gruesome 7-inch roundup

We’re keeping today’s theme a little loose today. I’ve been thinking a lot about 7-inches, (one of my favorite formats) and their propensity for encouraging controlled bursts of experimentation. We tend to think of the format as the domain of pop singles and hardcore EPs. But in the 1990s and 2000s, 7-inch production was significantly cheaper, allowing more experimentally inclined artists to explore narrow themes and ideas within a constrained runtime. And when you want to make a point in a short runtime, things have a way of getting a little gruesome. Here, then, are a few of my favorite 7-inches with gruesome or off-color themes.

Barn Sour - Horses Fucked Over the Head With Bricks

I was exposed to Barn Sour on a drive to Rhode Island with a close friend. We were heading there to play a show, and shortly after the sun set my friend put on Horses Fucked Over the Head With Bricks, the only 7-inch from horse-centric project Barn Sour. I was not quite prepared for how upsetting it is. As the sky faded to black, the sounds swirled around me: a woman’s manic laughter; queasy droning; horrifying grunts and clanging. For a brief moment, it felt like the world was ending. I mean that as the highest possible compliment. There are very few other things that sound like this.

The Rita & Prurient - Women Pissing

Prurient and The Rita are in some ways diametrically opposed artists; the former is probably America’s foremost practitioner of industrial-influenced noise, while the latter would name a release Keep Industrial Out Of Harsh Noise. But in 2013, the two came together for the collaborative effort Women Pissing. Themed around, uh… well, you can gather, it’s also a high point in both of their catalogues. The Rita brings the expected extreme grinding crunch, while Prurient vocalizes about the subject matter on top. It’s totally thrilling, and is something of a window into what a standing collaborative project between the two might have sounded like. Unfortunately, all we have is this, but there’s enough to chew on that we can’t be too upset.

Skin Crime - Monster

Self Abuse Records is responsible for one of noise and industrial’s most eternally fascinating 7-inch runs: the still-running Murder Series. Each themed around a different serial killer, the artists explore the themes however they see fit. Skin Crime’s entry, (whose founder Patrick O’Neil is also the owner of Self Abuse) is focused on Russian murderer Andrei Chikatilo, who was responsible for at least 52 murders of women from 1978 to 1990. Monster is a succinct exploration of humanity’s worst, and to my mind is probably the highlight of a series with a really high quality threshold. If you want to mire in some really bad feelings, look no further.

Bone Awl - Lindow Man

Bone Awl are one of US black metal’s most enigmatic forces, and have a lot of interesting lyrical themes derived from literature and ancient history. Lindow Man is certainly the briefest entry on this list, a single-sided 7-inch with a 3 and a half-minute ripper on the A-side. It’s a lurching slab of grime in Bone Awl’s typical Ildjarn-indebted black metal-cum-hardcore style, themed around the well-preserved bog body of the same name discovered in England. The final lines of the song say it best: “Old Lindow Man/An Inevitable victim/Of barbarous rite/To worship nature.” Put it on, look at some photos of the leathery husk, and consider how we’re all destined for a bog of our own.

The Dead C - Relax Fallujah — Hell Has Come

We’ve discussed The Dead C on this blog before, but 2006’s Relax Fallujah — Hell Has Come is one of their most interesting short-form works. It’s quite musical, particularly b-side “Bad Politics”, which you might be able to just call “punk.” It’s the theme that really drives the point home, though. Released two years after America’s two devastating sieges of Fallujah during the Iraq War, it’s an angry polemic whose title and devastating art drives the point home pretty succinctly. It’s as vital as ever.