| CD REVIEW Pitbull Terrorist |
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Band : Pitbull Terrorist Disinformation is a highly appreciated form of communication for this quartet of musicians, who claim to be “an ensemble of true freedom fighters of the early 21st century”. Of a variety of nationalities and backgrounds, they do share an affinity for active activism, which has led each member in the band to become very sought-after subjects for criminal proscecution. According to the info they give of themselves, frontwoman Ursula is a former Russian soldier whom worked in the Media & Communications Department, where she managed to keep in touch with foreign government agents in order to misinform Russian troops during their activities in the Chhechnya conflict during 1997 to 1999. Last seen in St. Petersburg, she finally managed to flee to “free” Europe where she ended up leading the Pitbull Terrorist pack. Until being arrested in Madrid, Spain, in 2003, drummer Herald Finck was known as a freelance German music manager. In that capacity, he happened to do drug trafficing, and with the spoils funded several civil activist movements across West and Middle Europe. Managing to flee authorities, he now continues his non-armed activities as an underground fighter in the Pitbull Terrorist pack! Guitarist/ backing singer John Keu, a known drug adict and soldier in the US Armed Forces for seven years, decided to flee from his assigment in Afghanistan and make a change in his participation in the world war of today: after working as informant and mole to several anti-American activist organisations, he now stands accused as an arms dealer, and continues his work for World Peace through the Pitbull Terrorist pack. Bassist Jorma 22, was formerly a high lebel athlete, until getting a serious drug addiction following an almost lethal sports injury in 2001. He would be linked to 3 bomb attacks against the pharmacy industry, perpetrated in January 2004. Since, he would be in the top of Finland’s most wanted criminal lists! To further disinform the authorities in their pursuit, the band announces Burgundy, France as their homestead on their MySpace page, then announces having relocated to Finland and/or Estonia (in the case of the drummer). Whatever…who cares whether this background is actually true or not! The thing which interests us most, is the exhilerating music which they make, right? Stylistically, you might categorize this band under “Thrash Metal with plenty of Grind elements”! Themselves dub it “Terrorthrash”, with Ursula and John obviously performing vocals in a way which makes ‘em as un-recognizablle as possible (there àre a couple of songs during which you càn hear some more female-tinted singing though). Problem is…if there IS a message, you cannot discern it in all that screaming and growling, most of the time. A first audio onslaught by the band occurred when Sakara Records (euhm…ain’t they French?)issued the band’s 12-track The White House Tapes EP in early 2009 on a limited rotation of 1,000 digipack mini-albums. Nuclear Blast’s new subsidiary Anstalt Records is now giving that same material (only the track “Maus” missing) a wider distribution, adding 7 new tracks to the original recordings to make for a 25 ½ minute album! Full-length, is what they cal that these days. Hey, well you know, with a maximum track length of 123 seconds (in the case of the track “In Confidence”), you dó get a total of 18 songs after all! To get a whiff of what this band sounds like, check out the meagre two tracks posted at myspace.com/pitbullterrorist. I know, it’s a bit thin, but what’s posted is fairly representative…and you can watch the video for one of the tracks as well! Personally, I’ve always been a buff for bands which incorporate Grind into their music, and the fact that this quartet combines it to high-intencity Thrash (which is not devoid of some degree of melody throughout, in spite of the brutal approach) makes me love C.I.A. (short for Contraband International Audio, and not for the American intelligence agency) even more! Hence the “Best Albums Of 2009” nomination! 98/100 Tony. |