Wednesday 27 June 2012

Review: Swallowing Shit - Anthology

Swallowing Shit
Anthology

Track Listing:
 1. Lyrics That May Offend the Honkys
2. Burn Winnipeg to the Fucking Ground
3. If Assholes Could Fly, This Place Would Be An Airport 
4. Pro-Abortion, Anti-Christ 
5. A Dying Hope for a Gender Exclusive Scene
6. I May be P.C. (whatever the fuck that means), But You're a Goddamn Poseur
7. More Lyrics That May Offend the Honkys
8. You're Not Old School, You're Just Old
9. Christian Metal = Nazi Reggae
10. Riel
11. I Heard Songs About Animal Rights Aren't Cool Anymore
12. Ruins
13. If They Hated Me, They Will Hate You
14. Scathe
15. Overcome By... plus additional, shittier sounding tracks



Hailing from Winnipeg, Swallowing Shit was a side-project for many of the city’s punk/metal elite.  Featuring past and future members of bands like I Spy, Malefaction, Head Hits Concrete, and Propagandhi, Swallowing Shit became the logical conclusion of a hyper-political, metal-obsessed city whose main concern was the political messages carried in their music.  Whether you call them grindcore or power-violence, this group took everyone to task in their brief and chaotic songs.  From “Burn Winnipeg to the Fucking Ground” to “Pro Abortion, Anti Christ”, Swallowing Shit welcomed controversy and discussion about their lyrics.  What I doubt they expected was the enacting of a century-old ordinance prohibiting challenges to the church that barred them from playing within the Winnipeg city limits, but that’s exactly what they got.

I mentioned living in a musical bubble at the beginning of this review, and what I meant by that was this:  Swallowing Shit meant the world to me. I mean it.  I would listen to their discography for hours on end, deciphering and memorizing lyrics, reading liner notes, and playing them for everyone I knew.  That being said, they honestly didn’t seem to make that big of an impact outside of my inner circle of friends.  I know that they’ve been praised for their releases to a certain degree, but I honestly thought they were within the top 5 most important metal bands of all time.  Now, I was 17 and prone to hyperbole, but that was my honest opinion, and that opinion still holds true to this day.  I may be way off, but when it comes to things like this who is to say.

So if you are an impressionable, politically active teenager I can’t recommend this release highly enough. If you are a fan of grincore, power violence, or aggressive/atheist/intelligent lyrics, then this is also the record for you.

...but if you don’t at least smirk at the lyric “Your god is dead, we ate what we couldn’t fuck!”, then you sir/madam, are probably going to hate this album.

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