Pornohelmut — Bang Lord
Composed of seven tracks of frantic, grooving industrial, Pornohelmut adds a layer of thoughtful pop/rock to Bang Lord, which comes in at some well placed times. Lubing up the listener with "Astroglide," the album starts of with an almost breakbeat teaser before opening up some snarling vocal fury. Going back and forth between the calm, robotic dance floor routine and the rage explosion opens up an interesting space for the rest of the album to blossom. "Bell Ringer" follows up and increases the grime and tension. Like a DJ with crusty contacts on his turntable, Pornohelmut brings the rough grooves forth in the second half and continues to challenge the listener. "Mother Duster" acts as a complement to this in reverse: starting with a groove and going gross in the second half. While it might not make David Hasselhoff very happy, "Night Rider" brings out a very different, distant element to the middle of this record. Showing the bridge between sotf and noisy, "Night Rider" gives the listener a bit of a respite before heading back out into the frantic, sonic tsunami. Summoning the fist pumping spirits, "Ultra Mega" gets the album back steaming along in no time. This leads into "Wizard Sleeve," which shows Pornohelmut experimenting with another direction: pop/rock. The evocative vocals lift up out of the noisy muck and give the listener a sense of freedom from this industrial oppression. There is hope, and it is in music. Rounding out the album, "Black Magick Dope Sack" is like a Mister Dibbs mix of metal and hip hop, and certainly helps to tie up any loose end that may have reared its head during the album.
Seven strong tracks of sumptuous sonic slaughter, Bang Lord is a very impressive debut studio outing from Texas' Pornohelmut. Atypeek helps bring Pornohelmut to the masses, although he has been putting quite a push into it himself. Hopefully this album brings about more attention and gets his name across more lips in 2020