PAINKILLER — Guts of a Virgin (review)

PAINKILLER — Guts of a Virgin album cover EP · 1991 · Eclectic Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
Thirty-three years after their original founding, John Zorn-led jazz-core trio unexpectedly reunited last year. To date, the reunited collective announced already third new album to be released in April. Two other original members are bassist Bill Laswell and former metal band Napalm Death drummer Brit Mick Harris.

Back in 1991, Painkiller sounded like an extremely radical (at least for the jazz scene) hybrid of free jazz, early punk and death metal with screaming vocals.

"Guts Of A Virgin" is the trio's 24+ minutes long debut, containing twelve songs- two minutes long each in average, very much in punk tradition. All pieces were pure improvisations, just recorded in the studio, with a lot of energy, loud and dirty. Guitarless trio with Zorn's soloing sax instead of expected solo guitar and two vocalists(?) - John himself and Harris screams by its aesthetics is much closer to the punk-rock scene of the late 70s than to any form of jazz. Zorn's interest to Japanese brutal avant-rock is obviously an important influence as well. The songs themselves are quite monotonous, far not memorable, the main attraction here is an unbelievably high level of energy and rage.

It's interesting to notice, that the original band was founded in the turbulent times for the world after the fall of the Soviet Union - and the end of the Cold War, when all the world's political architecture has been destroyed and changed to the new one. The revitalizing of the band happens during the first similar tectonic breaks in today's world architecture, the first such a monumental change from the year 1991. It looks like the free world is becoming smaller, and all the world's dictators are trying to take the whole world under control. "Guts Of A Virgin" was an illustrative soundtrack to the year 1991, probably re-united Painkiller is recording loud and screaming soundtrack of today once again.

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