Krum Bums
As the Tide Turns (TKO)
Sporting a T-shirt-ready cover reminiscent of MDC’s Multi-Death Corporations, the Krum Bums’ first domestic album is 33 minutes of ear-splitting, lightning-fast hardcore filtered through the British steel lens of Iron Maiden and Motörhead. In a genre of minute delineations, their intensity is truly remarkable. From screech one of their introductory instrumental, the Austin quintet floors it on a one-way death race toward oblivion, showing no mercy for the wicked along the way. It’s tough to hear vocalist Dave Tejas screaming his way through plate-glass-smashing broadsides like “Disregarded Youth” without imagining him coughing up bloody bits of esophageal tissue. The aural necrosis continues on black-hearted anthems like “In Sickness” and “La Plaga.” Yet even as the Krum Bums spew forth demotivational gems like, “Torn from the motherfucking womb/One second closer to death/Sliding down the unforgiving razor of time,” their dystopian tribal thunder remains a life-affirming, gape-mouthed thrill to behold. (Friday, March 16, Emo’s Jr., 8pm)
This article appears in March 16 • 2007.
