Eoin Hennessy | Music Editor
It’s hard to know where to begin when talking about Death Grips. For most fans, it’s been a delicate love/hate relationship balanced by a mixture of good music and cancelled live shows. Over the past twelve months the band have been in a number of news stories, most of which have had nothing to do with their music. In November of last year the band were dropped by major label Epic Records when they released their album, NO LOVE DEEP WEB, for free online after Epic had put obscene amounts of money into its production. Then in August of this year the band failed to show up for their Lollapalooza after show. All this would have been slightly more acceptable if it wasn’t a planned ruse by the band. Aside from this trick, the band have also cancelled an outragous number of shows since they first started touring in 2011. While cancellations may annoy the paid-up concert goers, the rest of their fans cannot be annoyed at their output of free music.
Death Grips have continued to offer music for free with their most recent album, Government Plates. Released with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever, it is a pleasant return to what the experimental group do best; a savage assault of hardcore hip hop and beats. Although their drummer, Zach Hill, said he’d be taking some time off from the band in May in order to direct and soundtrack a new feature film, he obviously found some time to record eleven tracks with Andy Morin and vocalist MC Ride.
A breaking of glass is followed by thirty seconds of screeching that eventually turns into a bass rumbling beat with MC Ride shouting verbal abuse at the listener.
The result is an amazing album full of experimental sounds and harsh vocals. The album starts with the insanely titled “You Might Think He Loves You For Your Money But I Know What He Really Loves You For It’s Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat”. A breaking of glass is followed by thirty seconds of screeching that eventually turns into a bass rumbling beat with MC Ride shouting verbal abuse at the listener. While it may not sound like the nicest introduction, this sheer brutality is really what makes Death Grips shine.
That’s not to say that Death Grips haven’t tried to calm things down a small bit on Government Plates. “Birds” contains a fantastically smooth guitar line but with the insane MC Ride lyrics we’re so used to hearing; “FUCK THIS BIRD BITCH DRINK THIS BLEACH”. The track “Anne Bonny” is also surprisingly calm for the band. Other songs such as “This Is Violence Now (Don’t Get Me Wrong)”, “I’m Overflow” and “Government Plates” should remind the listener of the rawness heard on the band’s first album Exmilitary. However, some parts of the album do seem kind of thrown together, like last track “Whatever I Want (Fuck Who’s Watching)”. Despite this, Death Grips have yet again released an extremely compelling experimental album. Love them or hate them, they’re certainly doing one thing right.
