Album: Just Fucking Destroy

Artist: Christopher M. Carrigy

Welcome to the weird world of Christopher M. Carrigy; a land of funky bass, ambient synth and poppy darkness.  This album is an 18 track oddity that moves between dark bass driven rock music, synth interludes, some improv jams and a whole bunch of fucking around.  Personally I would only consider the first 10 tracks to be the actual album, with the final 8 being more of an unscripted and honest look into Chris’ own special brand of humor.  In that regard this album probably reveals the most comprehensive spectrum of his musical tastes and capabilities.  The only thing that is missing from the mix is the sheer fury and aggression of Chris’ previous (Fetal Syndrome) and current (Ashes Within) projects.  And I suppose that is the point of all this, to make music simply for the fun of it and to exorcise all those other demons that haven’t had any space in the aforementioned works.

The album opens with “Burn Your Southern Skies” propelled forth by a driving distorted chugging bass line and tortured sounding vocals.  The track is pretty indicative of   what to expect from most of the first 10 tracks; a melodramatic dreary mix of rock inspired by the likes of Korn and Devin Townsend.  “Premature” follows in the same trend, but with a more somber tone reminiscent of the slower tracks found on early Slipknot albums.  Then you have the track “Just Destroy” which builds with ominous synth swells before settling into a groovy almost Taproot-like mid tempo jam before fading out with more synth effects.  These 3 tracks comprise the conventional Verse-Chorus song structure element of the album, with the remaining 7 tracks being a mix of drum and bass jams or synthesizer interludes.

The jams are funky and tight, but not necessarily my cup o’ tea.  I also find that they are somewhat out of place in the overall context of the album, but again this whole project seems like it is purely a reflection of Chris’ desire to do whatever the fuck he wants without boundaries.  On the other hand I felt that all the interludes between songs have been perfectly composed and make for smooth transitions between tracks while keeping the dour tone of the whole affair.

I can’t even begin to comment on tracks 11-18 because I truly don’t know how to make sense of them in the context of the rest of this album, but if you really want to get a great sense of Chris’ sense of humor I would suggest you take the time to check out “Ragdoll”.  I guess it’s an ode to cheap whores or something.

In summation, I don’t know what to compare this to, but maybe that’s a good thing.  There’s definitely a great sense of songwriting ability on display here and I imagine it could be harnessed into something more cohesive  and poignant, but I doubt that was the point on this project.  Mostly this album will serve as a great introduction to Christopher M. Carrigy, beyond that I’m still puzzled about what it’s all about.

Check out some of the tracks right here.