Portrayal of Guilt - Christfucker Music Album Reviews

Portrayal of Guilt - Christfucker Music Album Reviews
Channeling slasher flicks and Dante’s Inferno, the Austin band’s second album of 2021 is a roiling cauldron of scorched-earth sludge and hardcore that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Previous Portrayal of Guilt album titles contained words like “pain,” “suffering,” and “alone.” Not this one, which slaps together the poles of holy and profane into something a rebellious middle schooler might carve into a desk. Christfucker doesn’t wholly abandon the band’s preferred subject matter, but as its title suggests, the agony depicted within is more campy than bleak. The music, uglier and more reliant on brute force than the rest of Portrayal of Guilt’s discography, follows suit. The result is oddly refreshing: an artsy, accomplished band turning their second album of the year into a pulpy slasher flick.

January’s thrilling We Are Always Alone had its fair share of blood, flames, and death, but its comparatively existential concerns—“I am trampled by thoughts, weighed down by memories,” “I think about my life and begin to cry”—are like Thoreau to Christfucker’s Dante. After a brief, noisy intro, the band careens into “The Sixth Circle,” a song every bit as hellish as its Divine Comedy namesake: “Pale bodies line the floor on the night of this ritual/Lured by lust, poisoned by fear/Tortured and beaten.” Ensuing songs tell of tongues caressing wounds, “euphoric pain” inflicted by devils, and sick fantasies of unending suffering. Christfucker wasn’t billed as a concept album about corrupting the messiah through sadomasochism, but it could be.

Meeting vocalist and guitarist Matt King’s lyrics at their repulsive subterranean level are the band’s most earth-scorching compositions to date. It’s always been tricky to define Portrayal of Guilt in terms of genre: Are they screamo? Post-hardcore with sludge and grindcore leanings? They further muddy the waters here, splashing noise, industrial, and black metal into their roiling cauldron of influences. But perhaps more indicative of Christfucker’s character are the elements the band have drained out: The space or gentleness that balanced out past highlights such as “Daymare” and “It’s Already Over” are gone, as are all traces of screamo’s traditionally epic guitar leads. The spindly guitar tone that opens “The Sixth Circle” and “Dirge” and pops up in a few other mid-song transitions could be described as “clean,” but take one listen to that twangy skronk and tell me it isn’t the most ominous sound on the album.

While Christfucker may not be delicate or even very intricate, it’s clearly still the work of a band capable of operating in those modes. Drummer James Beveridge remains one of the most fluid players in heavy music, his finesse apparent when he manages to outfit even the most knuckle-dragging beatdowns with flurries of ghost notes. The more orthodox grooves and song structures give bassist Alex Stanfield a chance to slam the strings like he’s in a D-beat band, and while King isn’t granting us his customary full palette of guitar tones, his riffs are the only thing keeping Christfucker in the realm of melodic music. Contributing to the album’s jagged edges is producer Ben Greenberg (of current tourmates Uniform). He and noise expert Mack Chami fully flex their chops on the intro and the booming “Bed of Ash,” and an undercurrent of their harsh static courses throughout. In an era when so much music sets out to address “these troubled times,” which feel hellish enough, Christfucker envisions a more cartoonish garden of sin and punishment, one deserving of ridiculously fun breakdowns and a “horny” tag on Bandcamp rather than solemn, joyless observations of societal decay.
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About Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera

Hey, I'm Perera! I will try to give you technology reviews(mobile,gadgets,smart watch & other technology things), Automobiles, News and entertainment for built up your knowledge.
Portrayal of Guilt - Christfucker Music Album Reviews Portrayal of Guilt - Christfucker Music Album Reviews Reviewed by Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera on November 17, 2021 Rating: 5

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