Baxter Stockman-Punter

Ektro
2013

Looks can be so deceiving. If I had to guess about this one I would have gone with "heavy rock" or maybe "80's-infleunced hard rock". Neither answer would be correct although this is a form of rock I guess. After the title-cut, which opens this debut-album from the Helsinki, Finland-based three-piece known as Baxter Stockman, tests the boundaries of even my patience before things get a tiny bit more "Even Steven"...although, it's not by that much admittedly. Baxter Stockman*, which was founded in  in 2006 (and has a name that sounds like the title-character to some 80's comedy about an adventurous teenager!), find their inspiration in the likes of Swans, G.G. Allin and Rapeman (a group that feature Steve Albini of Big Black). If your looking at those three influences and you find yourself saying "Well, that looks like one hot-mess of psychotic inspirations" then you are pretty much correct! The vocals are bizarre (going from almost raw punk-like moaning/murmuring to eery cries) and the actual music is the sound of rock and roll as it's getting raped by Frankenstein's punk-rock obsessed monster! Is it tolerable? Well, that just depends upon what your ears can endure. These guys founded the band with the aim of making intense rock that was harsh and hammered into the listeners eardrums with the surgical procession of a circus strongman drunk on his own power and filled to the brim with rage and cheap beer! In that regard this one is a success! But if your squeamish and don't like the sound of screeching guitars and drums that sound as if they are being played by a out-of-control, one-armed robot then you would be best served to just keep on walking, no, make that running, away from "Punter" as quickly as your tiny feet can carry you! 

 

 

*In reality the group is named after a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.