Monsignor Meth – (EP)
Now, when I hear the name Monsignor Meth, I think of two things- religion and drugs (religion is the opium of the masses). And I think, gee, those are two streets you don’t wanna travel. Mainly, ’cause they lead toward unreality and escape. I’d recommend you stay away from them.
I remember drinking sacramental wine as an alter boy. After the mass I’d see the older alter boys drink it instead of pouring it back into the bottle like they were supposed to. One day I drank it also and that was my first buzz off of alcohol. Crystal Meth I snorted much later (also, the name of my second wife), walking down Boylston Street during work with Eddie, the jazz drummer, in the bright spring sunshine.
Now drugs and religion and booze and cigarettes and gambling are bad. Not bad, just things that can get a hook in you and sometimes stop you from your goal.
This is a quote from Monsignor Meth’s bandcamp:
“Our lyrics are about real world issues such as political corruption, religious brainwashing and drug addiction. Our name is the nickname of a Catholic priest that was running a meth empire while he also ran a sex toy store and cross dressed.”
So though I do cross-dress when I work my job as a janitor at an adult sex store ( I clean out the stalls) I am against anything that stops anyone from “the goal.”
And if your goal is having fun, much like mine, the music is more fulfilling and more important; leave the drugs for the Phish fans and techno dance parties.
Punk, metal and hardcore is real and true. Just like Art is. Just like you are. Have a few beers but keep your eyes on the goal.
I think Monsignor Meth do so and do so quite well. They mention D-Beat, I had to look it up, seems to be associated with crust but they also mention grindcore, hardcore and thrash. This is heavy, in your face, potent, powerful hardcore- let’s check out some tunes.
“Faith Disease” starts out with feedback and some heavy chords sustaining like slabs of sonic concrete slowly lowered upon your skull. When the song does kick in we’re thrashin’ away with death/hardcore vocals up in your grill, screaming in your face. “Word of God/ Book of lies/ Bloodshed in the name of Christ.” The rhythm section starts doing cartwheels, the vocals are grabbing you by the throat and balls, the guitar stabs you hard with electric bolts of power. “Your faith is a fucking disease/ I will never fall to my knees.” I believe this song is pure, intense and strong and I have faith that you will also.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/04 Faith Disease.mp3|titles=Faith Disease]
Some slashing metallic chords and some rolling drums set the stage for“Outlast Outlive” to begin and mayhem to ensue. Once the song arrives we’re off on a hardcore rush with venomous vocals ripping hard. “Religious right, socialist left/ All deserve a slow death/ Corporate CEO’s/ government mind control/ Martial law on patrol.” The instruments pound a swirling, controlled chaos of sound while the singer matches the power and passion with his potent proclaiming. “I will outlast/ I will outlive.”
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/06 Outlast Outlive.mp3|titles=Outlast Outlive]
“Behead The Tyrant,” starts with a roar and some powerful chords spraying out over a heavy, ponderous but powerful beat. Then the songs explodes into a headlong thrash hardcore rhythm that obliterates everything in its quake. “They want silent/ Sedated, compliant/ Arm yourself, be defiant/ Behead the tyrant.” This is music that rushes, pushes, defies, explodes and ignites. “Over and over fighting rich men’s war/ While the innocent are dying in scores.” Just as quickly this song implodes and ends like a decisive, definitive declaration.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/08 Behead The Tryrant.mp3|titles=Behead The Tryrant]
“The Blindfold” ends this cd and No! It’s not a gospel number but an out of the gates thrashing hardcore onslaught against the Catholic religion. The guitar and rhythm section build a pounding intensity to keep pace with the emphatic, in your face vocals. “Father, son, holy ghost/ I don’t know which one I hate the most/ Choke on the cracker you call a host/ Drunk on the wine with which you toast.” This song is a fitting end to an intense, powerful batch of spit and venom and powerful emotion they choose to call songs. “You call us guilty right when life begins/ Guilt branded upon our skins/ The great deception where no one wins/ Remove the blindfold.” And witness a great cd.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/09 The Blindfold.mp3|titles=The Blindfold]
Father MacDonald was a young priest at my church when I was a young boy. At one point some parish teenagers harassed a local Jewish family marching outside their home chanting “Heil Hitler.” He was so outraged at this that he started his sermon by coming off the pulpit saluting and screaming at the top of his lungs “Heil Hitler” several times and proceed to scream the tale. I was, maybe, ten years old with my father. It was the most interesting sermon I ever heard.
Several years later I heard he eloped with one of the parish girls and a few years later after a night of drinking in a carload of guys, I pissed on the side of the church (Andy was driving).
You don’t need no recollections or reflections because this CD is truth, guts and passion stuffed down your throat and inoculated into your bloodstream. So take this holy sacrament and shatter pieces to love and rock the world!
This is the type of serious, socially conscious lyrics along with heavy hardcore rhythms and crushing, destroying music that I’ve been reviewing lately with bands I love like No Tox and Neighborhood Shit. And believe me to mention them along sides those bands is a compliment as those two bands have the best CD’s I’ve reviewed this year. And I think M.M. ranks pretty damn close with these bands.
But God doesn’t love you- if he did he wouldn’t put you in a life as corrupt and cruel as this. The government doesn’t care about you- if they did they’d make sure you were truly educated and promoted a healthy lifestyle for you to exist. Stay clear of the traps of drugs, cigarettes and alcohol. The latter has ensnared me well and I hope it doesn’t happen to you.
The instincts that brought you to this page is what you should believe in. The outcasts, the misfits, those thinking for themselves, what makes up the punk community is what I believe in and you’re a part of that- that is you.
And Monsignor Meth is another part, another part of the community that I believe in. That I believe you’ll believe in, too.
(Slimedog)
