Last time we met, I told you a long story.
About how the band Death Grips was founded.
Explaining the members' past, function, and role
they took in the meeting.
Each one being essential to the formation, obviously.
But I promised you more to come.
So now's time to discuss.
What happened after the foundation of the band.
Join me.
As I document their road in the music lane.
Innovating and shocking all the way,
through the path
of Death Grips.
After the group was formed but not yet solidified.
Death Grips went on wait to release another project.
While Zach kept on doing his workaholic stuff.
Post release of the previously covered EP wasn't groundbreaking,
despite the sound they've introduced us with.
Zach could only get promotion so far with an EP
which content is so polarizing and boundary challenging.
The other members had even less promotional aim.
They needed a full project.
A showcase of their potential put in a full length release.
And so they did.
As Exmilitary was released in April 25, 2011.
Its method of release was to simply drop a .zip file,
with track listing this time around.
In their official website.
ThirdWorlds.net
Previously a Bandcamp sub-directory.
Despite being planned for its release to be handled by Deathbomb Arc,
which were pushed to refuse over certain issues.
These were mysterious times.
As most of the members weren't even named back then.
And the band included Mexican Girl as a member,
As well as Info Warrior.
Who participated in co-music and video production.
Both weren't mentioned by the band in any other release.
The cover contains a shirtless man
sharing many similarities to Stefan, but not being him.
Some other pictures happened to be found by the Death Grips sub-Reddit.
And claims to know the man's identity.
Regardless. This picture was held by one of Death Grips' members for years,
as some sort of symbol of power or luck.
And it certainly fits the jungle, primitive sounds the project bombards the listener with.
Their most famous song,
Can't really see why.
Maybe due to its different style, or just the song itself.
This track holds a interesting story to it,
due to the music video.
A while ago, the music video to this track featured a tombstone
with porn playing in it.
With a weak effect blurring it out of YouTube's radar.
Which didn't work very well.
As the video was striked for sexual content a while back
And that's how it works with them.
They'll feel like adding some abstract message under a porn video playing on a tombstone
and upload it to YouTube?
They fucking will.
One thing is certain.
Death Grips is not accessible for everyone
That's not a discussion.
But
Considering how their music varies in genres and styles.
There is a Death Grips track for everyone.
This being the punk rock lover,
Takyon being for people who enjoy loud, energetic rap like M.O.P.
or DMX.
Only amping that energy up to a couple of thousands.
And many other examples can be mentioned.
Showing how Death Grips maintain a certain control of their own sound.
And this project sure showed such control.
A powerful breakthrough,
and that's just scratching its surface.
Sampling, just like the previous project. Remained sinister,
Obscure
And very random.
But now at a even bigger list,
which makes this album almost impossible to get cleared
due to how many samples were blatantly used.
Examples goes as follows.
A extremely supportive reception,
to such a forward thinking, innovative piece of music,
that for some listeners
became quite expected.
But Death Grips started as they would continue.
Inaccessible.
It's certainly not a band for the masses by any means,
that's not their intent.
Outsider music is the best description.
And although multiple pieces were written in regards to why Death Grips should be heard
and appreciated.
The people needed a smoother introduction,
one that could push the ignorant ears
into giving it a chance.
And in June, 20 of 2011.
Two Death Grips' tracks were uploaded to Deathbomb's Arc Singles Club.
And sold separately as a tape, limited to 600 units.
Named, Live from Death Valley.
Both tracks amounting to almost 3 minutes.
But really outstandingly energetic 3 minutes.
Titled to be perceived as a live recording,
its sound quality makes it seem like it was recorded in a studio,
without proper mastering.
Heavy bass overtakes Ride's vocals in the track Fyrd Up.
While the other track features production very reminiscent of their upcoming album.
Maybe foreshadowing,
or just made in the right time.
In September 8, 2011.
Listeners met with a new vision of Death Grips' music.
After their release of the Black Google.
A collection of instrumentals, vocals, effects, drums,
and other audio pieces that altogether.
Constructed Exmilitary as we know today.
Now available for everyone.
Which opened a whole new method to advertise their work.
Often called mashups, remixes or memes.
Death Grips was in other people's material,
and such a mix of creativity gave them an advantage
on having anyone being able to deconstruct their art
and reconstruct it, as they wanted to.
And advertising the band's material at the same time.
Here are some examples of mashups that came out of Black Google.
Leaving the jungle into the Matrix ghetto,
we enter the bank of digital madness.
Named
The Money Store.
Teased with the music video for Blackjack in February, seventh.
Then Get Got in February 27.
As well as the news that Death Grips signed a record deal with Epic Records.
Major record label.
Owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Being the label that gathered artists like Michael Jackson,
Outkast,
Mariah Carey,
and many more.
For a label of such size to accept Death Grips with open arms
and such interest like they did,
it was surely surprising.
And damn, it paid off.
Released in April 24 of 2012,
the cover features art by Sua Yoo.
Depicting a couple, seemingly BDSM lovers.
Just standing awkwardly.
As the badly shaved girl takes a breath on her cigar,
her naked partner just holds a bag of sticks,
Chained by the smoker.
Death Grips scratched in between her breasts.
I wouldn't call this a proper picture for the album it covers
Maybe just the same level of weirdness,
but not the same weirdness.
As many people thought they've got the best of what Death Grips could offer with Exmilitary.
The Money Store blows their minds and the minds of everyone
who can't get a proper grip
of the bass drop in Get Got.
Or the ongoing, echoing alarm
preparing you for a nuclear blast.
In The Fever.
And it doesn't stop there.
Heartbeat too fast?
I can hear it.
Ride's voice echoing inside a brainless mind
as if it was being reversed and overlaid with the original.
The weird mix we didn't know we needed.
To comfort you in this extremely weird album,
I've Seen Footage brings a more common, head bobbing rhythm to it.
Free from most of the unorthodox noise coming from the other tracks.
But certainly, keeping it Noided.
It's a wild ride 'till the final track,
and Death Grips surely doesn't let you out without one of the most confusing,
Abstract,
Random,
Catchiest,
and hell of a goddamn fucking amazing track.
Hacker.
Exmilitary had a weird but cohesive and repeated sampling method
of pulling a classic tune, repeating that noise throughout a track,
and that was it.
This project, however.
Has some of the wildest sampling ever.
A whole video about the tracks this album samples could exist,
and it does exist.
Still, here's some examples.
Have your expectations set high by Exmilitary,
and see Death Grips mercilessly stomping on them
The Money Store found its way into setting the new benchmark
for industrial, experimental rap.
Way higher than it ever was.
And pinned the best quality to such style of music of the second millennium.
And critics sure didn't held back at giving this piece the praise it deserved,
and a bit more of it.
Remarkably,
a man that was known for his reviews stepped on,
set an easel for this magnificent piece of art.
And reviewed the project.
Giving it his first
10/10
In the history of theneedledrop.
Such a moment cannot be understated.
After the release of The Money Store
Death Grips found itself in the leash of record labels.
Promoting the album,
and preparing to tour its way into getting the news wide spread.
Surely, a band like Death Grips wouldn't like to be the dog from the cover of The Money Store.
Specially once they felt like doing something else.
So after adding dates to their world tour in April 4th.
They attended the first dates in The Glass House and Coachella.
But failed to show up on the rest.
From the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival, in the 5th of May.
To Triple Rock, in June 21st.
Interviews deemed a waste of time,
Specially on the absence of Andy.
Why?
For the sake of No Love.
According to their post on Facebook,
The upcoming album the band planned on releasing in Fall, 2012.
as the sticker in The Money Store shows.
Was Priority.
The ARG started in August 12,
and it ended in August 16.
Discoveries?
A unmastered copy of The Money store in FLAC format.
And all instrumentals from the album.
Time was wasted,
But rewards made it worth.
As for the resolution,
Non-existent.
It leaded to nothing,
Only rewarding those patient enough to wait for the Tor network to download
all those files in its slow connection.
It ended as quickly as it began.
@deathgripz was released in September 10.
As part of the Adult Swim Singles Program 2012.
The last track in the program.
Ending it with quite the interesting song.
A dancy, space sounding track with lyrics that implies perverse acts
amongst many other things that ends the program,
in a surely memorable way.
Exposing their Twitter for everyone who saw the title,
In a nice way to promote themselves.
In September 29.
A curious soul from the /mu/ board was lurking through the file directory of Thirdworlds.net
And he found 2 eerily interesting files.
True Vulture Bare 1, and 2.
As anyone,
no hesitation was taken upon downloading those tracks.
Death Grips claims we weren't supposed to see this,
but we did anyway.
The tracks themselves were almost exact copies of one another,
Almost.
Starting up with this sinister alarm before going to the fast paced beat.
And Ride takes no time to start his performance over it.
Behind the scenes,
the band wasn't happy.
After narrowing 20 tracks down to 13.
No Love was ready and so was the band.
The time was chosen and the label knew that
Death Grips wanted the album to come out Fall, 2012
Wanted so hard that a month of tours and promotional shows
were thrown in the trash bin for the sake of the album's completion.
But the label didn't felt like it's something important, as they put it.
The release was better for next year, sometime.
Remember those shows you fucked off from,
all enraged fans you disappointed?
All for nothing.
The leash was torn apart in October 1st.
When Death Grips posted on Twitter and Facebook that the label, and public.
Would hear the new album simultaneously, at midnight.
Everyone at once.
In October 1st.
Midnight.
Pacific Standard Time.
Zach Hill's erect cock was exposed to every single fan around that time.
As Bittorrents and third party downloads were leaked by Death Grips themselves.
The album.
Free for everyone.
A recipe for disaster,
And such is what followed as the world vibrated with the heavy bass and breathless screams
of Come Up and Get me!
Spacey intro to inferno.
Deep Web serves its title as the track embodies every bad shit that can come out of the internet.
With lyrics personifying the villain behind the screen that surfs the dark web,
pure paranoia filling his mind as he feels like his lines been tapped,
and that there's a surprise attack coming to him.
And then, the last track.
Artificial Death in the West.
A memorable song,
ending this album in a somewhat different tune it had throughout.
Lyrics about artificial interactions with the internet,
and confusion over which nipple is his'
A remarkable end to a remarkable project.
From cover to content.
But with severe acts, comes severe consequences.
While all of us enjoyed the premature release,
Epic was staining the carpet as each download meant a lost sale,
and thus, lost money.
Death Grips defied their position as decision makers,
and this brought costs to both parties.
But as they themselves put it,
I roll the nickels,
the game is mine.
I deal the cards.
Thirdworlds.net crashed with the overwhelming traffic coming for the download of the album.
Death Grips, however. Accused Epic of taking the site down to stop the downloads.
Most likely not true, just vilifying the company.
Times went on,
shit was done and there was no coming back from it.
So they moved on calmly,
to four days later. Having a couple of "Beautiful"
Huh.
Saying that to a Death Grips track is hard.
Beautiful remixes of Björk's work released.
With the tracks Sacrifice and Thunderbolt.
Sacrifice clearly sampling the old Full Moon track from the Death Grips EP.
That in itself, samples Goofi Respect from Zach Hill.
And in October 17.
Having their collaborative art project with artist Galen Pehrson released.
A animation over the sounds of Death Grips
And it really fits that description.
Only instance where I'd call the dog mask from the The Money Store
Cute.
But things can't be forgotten, can they?
October 31st,
Death Grips posted a image on Facebook with the description.
And a screenshot of an e-mail sent 30 days prior to its leak.
The e-mail is extensive.
Corporate.
Written by a Epic Senior VP of Business.
Mad about the leak of No Love.
Stating upset and disappointment from Epic towards Death Grips.
And requesting the album to taken out of the websites its been uploaded to,
as they plan on quickly putting the album up for sale.
Huh.
Now's a time to do things quickly, huh, Epic?
I wonder what happened to "Next year, sometime."
It's worthy noticing how the e-mail contains a disclaimer on the bottom that says :
"Any distribution, dissemination or reproduction of this e-mail is strictly prohibited."
That is, of course. If Death Grips ever gave a fuck.
Outcome was not surprising, as in November 1st.
Epic stated that they were working on dissolving our relationship with Death Grips.
"We wish them well."
And for some reason, Death Grips deleted their official Twitter account.
No clue as to why.
In November 20.
To the surprise of no one.
Death Grips claimed that getting dropped from the label was intentional.
Explaining that some things aren't interesting.
And that they're strict as to who to work with, in the basis of being as independent as possible.
Either way, the year is over.
I am willing to take my own life,
Many bad experiences led me to this dark void I am locked in.
Maybe by my own hands?
I don't really care anymore.
Entering 2013 with a slow start for Death Grips,
as only in March, new material was released on the band's channel.
Starting in March 15, the short video named No Hands
starts with notification noises from eBay, and a soft pulsing sound effect.
With two hands shown on the video,
Two hands in No Hands, huh.
Ironic.
We're then greeted by a video of a drone flying around,
with flashing rotating lights displaying the name : Death Grips.
As the drone loosely beats itself against the wall, window and pipe several times.
Echoing some noises, before crashing into the ground.
Replaying the same intro, but with some characters under the hands.
Then, No Hands 2 comes along.
Same intro, but a extremely loud sound coming after the intro
and a terrible quality camera recording.
As the video goes on, tho.
It becomes clear that it's just Death Grips practicing a song to play live.
Interestingly, the song and album it featured
wasn't released until 2 years and 16 days in the future.
This is also the video with the lowest intro and outro.
A nice touch, getting people to raise their volumes just to have their ears broken like mirrors.
Then, No Hands 3.
Featuring Flatlander, talking on the phone with a lady on a monitor.
Apparently renting a car.
Also, caressing the lady on the monitor, naturally.
And once a beep plays,
the outro comes.
No Hands 4.
This time, we're taken to the eyes of Zach Hill,
as the band practices Lil Boy from No Love Deep Web.
And nothing much more than that.
Outro.
No Hands 5.
The Most Mysterious.
Weird visual effects are presented in black & white,
as a seemingly unfinished instrumental plays.
Sampling Ride's voice, saying something, maybe. We'll never know.
Now, before we jump in the last episode of the No Hands series,
some context should be given.
No Hands features videos the band recorded on their way into
South by South West.
SxSW for short.
Their first person perspective recorded through the lens
of tech similar to Google Glasses.
Hence why, No Hands. As they weren't used to record the videos.
The outro text is DxDG on the font Giddyup STD.
Referring to the band going into South by South West
with their own initials.
According to YouTube metadata,
all videos, except the last one. Were uploaded mere seconds after each other.
Lacking 1 minute to 3 PM of March 15.
Just to then, reach the end of the series. In March 20.
A montage of a music video to the track Lock Your Doors from No Love Deep Web.
The video is recorded in the perspective of every member,
As Ride and Flatlander are on stage,
Zach is on the comfort of his set, playing drums through a Skype call.
Before the destructive bass drops and the studio version takes over.
It mixes the video formula from Guillotine with green static on Zach's perspective.
And some filters reminiscent from Takyon.
Adding a lot more than that, obviously.
Jumping ahead to what it seems to be a movie in the works, a idea by Zach Hill
that'll include Death Grips in the soundtrack, not being about Death Grips tho.
Even then, Death Grips being on other people's material isn't really news at this point.
Despite having their music used broadly, serving as great advertisement.
Death Grips had a major issue that any band wouldn't want to face
The lack of a music label.
They stayed this way for months,
only in July 8
9 months after being dropped from Epic.
The band created Third Worlds.
An Orphic egg.
A record label created via a very unique relationship with Harvest/Capitol,
to be distributed by Caroline.
As they word it themselves.
Regardless, they had their own label and were completely free to do their stuff
with no leash around their necks.
Consequently, having a future release not far from here.
But before, the fans have to suffer a bit.
As in August 3rd.
Death Grips never attended Lollapalooza's aftershow,
Instead.
Fans were greeted with fully prepared equipment for the performance.
A iPod playing a megamix of tracks.
And a huge suicide note as backdrop.
Reading through a man's final words as he wishes to be able to hear the band in the afterlife.
Death Grips fulfills rage on people through music.
But if they're not where they promised to be,
the rage is fulfilled regardless of their presence.
While some fans protested on social media,
others walked up to stage and destroyed a drum kit.
And speculation claimed that Flatlander's keyboard and Zach's drum kit
were mere toys, not professional equipment.
Further proving how this wasn't a momentary no show.
But rather, a planned move from them.
This followed the next day, with Osheaga announcing the cancellation of their set.
Then Boston, New York.
People still had hopes,
but everything was cancelled.
I-It appears to us that,
Despite having a signed contract,
they never intended on performing last night.
And instead, they wanted to leave a room with disappointed fans.
Bottom Lounge marketing director, Erin O'Neal said.
People were not very happy.
But maybe, it was time to chill out.
As in August 21st, a video was released to the Death Grips YouTube channel titled
Birds.
A dark picture that can be cleared if edited.
Showing Ride, and not much more.
The song features guitar samples that were by Twilight star, Robert Pattinson.
Which brings a lot of context to these pictures.
And the overall track is something weirder, more experimental,
weird rhythm and vibe comes from it.
And that would only go worse, as in November 13.
Government Plates was released, freely.
A download link on their website, shared on social medias,
alongside the entire album being released in music videos on their YouTube channel.
And there's a lot to say about this album.
The cover is simple,
A plate with the word Death in it.
On vinyl, however. It's way more interesting.
Many 3D assets were used on the cover, even on the back.
As well as a amazing real life replica of the plate seen in the cover.
For collectors and noided fans.
But such thing was only available 15 days after the digital release.
Now, to the album.
Released 13 months, 13 days and 13 hours after No Love.
Government Plates was uploaded on SoundCloud, but most notably. YouTube.
Wherein every track had it's own dedicated music video.
We start off with a eery title which real Death Grips fans have memorized.
Glass shattering brings us to a very close view of Stefan's face,
displaying a series of emotions, from serious, to happy, to angry, to straight up menacing.
All around maniac looking.
And this goes on for the whole music video.
The track is considered the heaviest Death Grips track ever.
With heavy bass and synths being majority of the noise generated.
Drums have a take in shoving that insane intensity on the listener.
Ride's lyrics come slow but hit hard.
And the couple of words.
Hit harder than most lines in their discography to date,
and this track is one of the most memorable.
A remarkable introduction,
to what some consider to be the good, not perfect Death Grips album.
Next music video features Third party 3D rendered objects
like a yellow skull, a grey sperm looking worm,
meds and pills falling into a black void, and a security camera.
All credited on the model license link in the description.
And moving in ways that don't fit the song they're being played to.
And gives this absolutely unsettling feel to it.
The 3D rendered objects go on till the last track. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The track has a spacey intro, with Ride repeating some verses until the real bass drops.
A intense performance and lyrics faintly hinting towards the use of drugs to take him out.
As he states.
Hinting towards the theory this album portrays,
That'll be explained once we reach the end.
Two heavens,
the first sign of what this album turns into.
A sinister intro taken into a drum based instrumental, and other sounds further on.
Repetitive lines and a lack of vocal input from Ride.
As the lyrics are very short.
Causing most of the song to consist of a hook, and the rest? A total of 13 lines, not a lot.
Don't get me wrong, it's a trippy, interesting track to listen to.
But the lacking vocal performance makes it repetitive and kinda boring to go through.
Well, if that's your mentality.
I'll let you know that the next track. This is Violence Now.
Consists of the title being repeated, however with bombastic production from Flatlander.
With fast paced laser synths
dominating over a heavily distorted bouncy beat
Overly instrumental, but a great instrumental.
Problem comes with the fact that the next tracks are overly instrumental
Only featuring some vocal samples from Ride or other sources.
And as some felt like turning off the album, but decided to stay since it was almost over.
Whatever I Want, said. Fuck Who's Watching.
A memorable track, featuring one of their weirdest instrumentals,
and somehow catchiest tune with the synth.
A confusing mix that gives a amazing result.
Lyrics exists, and are all about being watched. And the paranoia behind it.
This album wouldn't be much without a theory.
Every previous release had a character and personality described through lyrics.
This one however, has a simple concept to go through.
It's clear through simple observations.
Firstly, the first video you see. Ride is acting extremely weird.
Furious and energetic.
Which is common on people who use certain drugs like LSD.
The rest of the album is played through 3D rendered incoherent objects.
They're unsettling,
makes you uncomfortable,
and hold no sense to their existence and presence.
The music doesn't help bringing them together, as much as it does otherwise.
Leaving the listener even more confused as to what is happening and why is it happening.
Much like a bad trip of acid, a attempt on recreating such a feeling of unease and discomfort.
And as we reach the final track.
A random person is lurking through the wild with a flashlight and a hoodie covering him.
As he finds a guy with his jacket open, wearing a yellow skull mask and a pillbox hat.
What a coincidence.
This guy catches your attention and while aggressive once you come too close to him,
Seems to be leading you somewhere,
And him being the only living thing in this place, you follow his lead.
Coming too close to him will cause him to push you back, giving you a nauseous brief trip.
And sometimes, broken sentences that seem to try to be comforting comes out of him.
But only when both get to a house, is when things go South.
As he leads you to a door, you find Ride, laying in a state of trance. Static.
Not reacting to his surroundings.
The guy, then says. "I told you, I told you."
This guy is Death, and has come to take Ride. And leaded you, the lurker. To his corpse.
This is how the story ends. And this is how the album ends.
It wasn't met with much appreciation.
Many were unhappy with how Ride took a back seat and let the rest build the album on their own.
Only serving mostly as sampled vocals for a instrumental.
And it's even clearer once you realize that this is Death Grips' shortest album to date.
Some claimed that this album worked as some sort of soundtrack or b-sides, not a proper album.
Defended by this e-mail from a fan to Ken Weinsten. Death Grips' press agent.
Where the album claims to be "Where they are right now."
Quite the vague description. But what would the press agent for a band like Death Grips know.
While not up to par with their previous releases.
Government Plates received its fair share of attention and praise.
Recognizing what they were going for, how addictive the album gets and thinking that it's good.
But their work is not something to be labelled simply "good".
Starting 2014 off well, with Government Plates being on iTunes and Spotify on January 14,
Zach saying that a new album is being recorded,
as well as a movie being written in 19, same month.
But only in March 15 is when good stuff was announced.
As a tour with Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden
going from July 19, to August 25.
Quite the sight for Death Grips fans.
2 months of touring in various places,
reaching everyone capable of buying a ticket to see the madness up close
alongside Nine Inch Nails.
As fans were hyping themselves, in June 8.
Death Grips announced a release.
The first half of a double album, entitled.
The Powers That B.
With the first half being named a sentence that most Death Grips fans are not allowed to say.
Niggas on the Moon.
Announced on their social media, other sources.
And many took the task of exposing Björk's major role in this project.
Having all 8 tracks sampling her voice in one way or another.
All bringing together this beautiful half of a mess.
The cover of the double album features a street floor light of some sort,
with the name Death Grips terribly scratched on its surface, barely readable.
It was, however. Present in the music video for I've Seen Footage
Foreshadowed by 2 years of distance.
Not surprising,
once Death Grips has a lot of leaked material claimed to be early works of songs,
like Hacker.
Metadata claims for this to be made in April 21st, 2011.
Exactly a year before the release of The Money Store.
Earth Angel (Androgynous Mind) was leaked in a Megazord MP3 collection.
Megazord was a visual artist with certain connections to Death Grips.
And with this, we can see how the band plans their moves way before they make them.
The first half of the project has a simple cover.
A monochromatic picture of Ride walking in a cemetery.
Something not new to him.
The project's name,
disclosure that it's disc 1,
and the band's name.
Simple.
If the cover is uninteresting, let's get to the noise.
And this, is easily Death Grips' most experimental and unique album.
Following formulas that challenge the boundaries we thought were destroyed by them already.
This was quickly addressed as the most inaccessible,
glitchy and noisy Death Grips album.
And it becomes clear just from the first track.
Up My Sleeves.
A bit of repetition, not to be considered bad.
Just letting you prepare yourself for the explosion about to come.
Pure electronic noises backed by faint vocals,
a slow beat with clicking snares opening the door for Ride to invade,
with what you've grown to expect.
But with more cohesive, understandable lyrics about suicide,
being temporary,
nonsensical.
The beat shifts sometimes to even weirder tunes,
and it's sure as hell to catch you off-guard on first listen.
Only fitting preparation for what's about to come.
The track smoothly and instantaneously transitions into the next,
making a almost invisible bridge if not for the different file names.
Maybe the different drum scheme, upbeat instrumentation and Bjrk's sampling
gives you more of a indication that the track playing now is
Billy, Not Really.
Have a Sad Cum BB
Works more like a spacey, weird instrumental.
Something that sounds like it came straight out of Government Plates.
But in the midst of all the repetitive phrases and electronic voice effects,
there are some weird lyrics to be unraveled.
A lust driven act is morbidly displayed on Fuck Me Out.
A uncommon structure and rhythm to go along the song.
Until the outro comes when almost every line in the song has Fuck included.
Big Dipper.
Weird shit bout to come.
A intro about some kind of Las Vegas lifestyle.
Pull the slot.
Strip mall hollers.
Yatch.
Then a hook where Ride claims to be everyone.
All throughout this simple yet complex beat.
And that's all the track becomes 3 minutes in.
A whole 2 minute segment of Death Grips playing with Björk's samples
and distorting it in all the ways they want to.
*Björk noises*
Sorta giving us this feeling of having a flashback of every track on this album, until it finally ends.
A unfinished project.
Only half of it available,
and already blowing minds who limited the level of experimentation Death Grips could achieve.
Proving that boundaries are not only non-existent,
but deemed beyond useless in the hands of this band.
Some people were quick to share their thoughts on the first half.
But what is a opinion worth once the project is unfinished?
July, second.
The imminent tour date became closer than ever.
Expectations?
Skyrocketed.
Sweat drips only a dozen napkins could dry off,
but it was only needed one
to make everyone go even crazier.
One with a message.
We are now at our best and so,
Death Grips is over.
Our upcoming double album will still be delivered
worldwide later this year.
Death Grips was and always has been a conceptual art exhibition.
Above and beyond a "band" to our truest fans.
Stay legend.
Madness sparked,
Trent expressing disappointment towards the band,
Fun Fun Fest mocking their napkin announcement with one of their own.
And fans raging unlike ever before.
Twitter account : Deleted.
Continuation to the Powers That B : Promised.
Tour : Cancelled.
This was no mere prank by the looks of it.
Death Grips was over,
and the only surviving fragment of it was a promise.
Disc Two, of the Powers That B.
It better be worth it.
Silence reign.
Mystery overtook Reddit.
In the midst of it,
Fans found the opportunity to gain followers by
luring Death Grips fans into their accounts.
Fakes surfaced like wildfire.
All under the same bullshit;
Edgy pictures serving as profile pictures,
banners,
illusions for a date,
or other fishy posts.
Awkward attempts at reacting the real deal,
making a fool of themselves once suspicion raised over bbpoltergiest.
Who were posting some interesting things at the peak of chaos.
Evidence 1 - August 9
JPEG
A picture of a room with a bed
with someone laying on it but keeping the blanket somehow tenting a bit of space in there.
Lightened by a mysterious source,
Flashlight, cellphone. Inconclusive.
What is conclusive are the goggles laying on the floor.
Extremely similar to those used in Death Grips' South by Southwest Performance.
Evidence 2 - August 9
JPEG
A picture of a seemingly 3D rendered basketball court,
sponsors everywhere,
with the Death Grips hoodie logo over the scoreboard.
Nothing much to see here.
And lastly.
Evidence 3 - September 4
TXT
a Tweet with the simple, objective phrase :
Everyone thinks we broke up
but we didn't.
Simple.
But does it hold enough substance to be classified as canon?
It would take a while for us to discover.
December 9 started with a weird sensation,
a Inanimate Sensation.
That started with a pitch climbing grunt from MC Ride.
Slowly being sided with a background synth.
For it to later take full control into a full on electric madness of a buildup,
complete madness being displayed on the fallen jumbotron into the melted court.
And, it began.
Madness in the beat, vocals, and video.
All around a warning, for one of Death Grips' angriest releases to come.
Even the whispers wouldn't escape the anger present in the track.
More than an amazing experience.
This song revealed bigger heights to the intensity that Death Grips could achieve.
Alongside confirming the authenticity of the bbpoltergiest Twitter account.
Name of the upcoming release in the description.
Jenny Death.
And ultimately,
made the second half of the Powers That B,
a relentless wait.
And one that we should be dressed for.
January 4th, as Fashion Week came by.
Despite it being partially leaked months prior to its release
with a couple of extra tracks.
A collection of instrumentals,
described as a soundtrack.
Pure showcase of the potential in Andy's and Zach's hands in work.
With Sua Yoo as the picture to represent this album.
No Ride to guide you through,
and. Damn, is this a weird experience.
Being a 14 track voiceless album that works as a hype holder.
Each track named Runaway,
with the corresponding letter being part of the phrase :
Jenny Death When,
which the tracklisting spells out.
It really challenges the hard to entertain.
But some of the tracks themselves are extremely weird
and hard to believe it's even Death Grips material.
But yeah, you do get your occasional reminder.
Worth noticing that the previous leak,
While not having all the songs in the release,
Has two extra ones named Darko Drums.
And Day Loop 06.
A overall weird experience.
But a comforting one, nonetheless.
Since it existing meant that Death Grips was still a thing,
at least, for now.
Now. Artists tend to find good ways to advertise their albums and projects,
like. Billboards, fucking benches and shit.
Death Grips replies to a random Tweet with their name in it,
announcing the date of release,
pre-order,
tour announcement,
Ironic.
And tickets availability.
It doesn't get any better, Krystal.
So, concrete info was laid on the table,
it only needed wait.
And 6 days after,
the fans received
On GP.
Filmed inside a echo chamber, with the members laying on the floor.
On GP is the rawest performance the band ever gave,
not because of the simple video,
loud guitars,
nor the pure drums.
But becase it reaches a personal side of the band that we've never seen before.
With some of the most depressing lyrics,
as Stefan says :
He's fucking tired of all the perks.
And halfway through,
we get a orchestral synth,
alongside raw drums and background guitar sounds.
It's been a pleasure, Stefan.
Is a line sure to remembered in the minds of every fan to ever come across this track.
And it surely took a tool on Reddit,
as fans began to distress their feelings with how uncommonly personal the track is.
But one thing it did better
was hype the fuck out of Jenny Death.
This was a historical release for any fan.
Even if it didn't met with the expectations,
the presence of Inanimate Sensation and On GP,
would be enough to make it a huge thing.
But the question remained.
Jenny Death When?
Well, closer than ever.
As 4 days later.
Another track from Jenny Death was up,
the title track from the double album.
The Powers That B.
And really, is yet another extreme to the experimentation.
Considered to be the loudest Death Grips track ever.
A hell of a song.
Private mode isn't really that private,
as in March 19.
Someone,
somehow.
Obtained a copy of the second half.
Accessing the whole album.
And sharing it with the world.
But the boys were smart about it,
so instead of patiently waiting to release an album
everyone's listening to already.
They publicized the album for everyone.
So that the attention from the unaware would be brought directly to them.
Rather than to an unfortunate leak.
And thus, we received the full Jenny Death experience.
The happiness over the gift of anger starts off well,
with the fitting title of :
I break mirrors with my face in the United States.
These lazy ass guitars are getting me Turned Off.
Why a Bitch Gotta Lie?
And after On GP.
Death Grips showed that they never really broke up nor reformed,
but rather.
Updated.
Uploaded over leak,
and in March 31st,
sold physically, as it should.
Critical reception mixed,
overly positive.
Embracing the abrasive and unorthodox sound of the first half,
and loving the bombastic, electrifying noise of the second half.
A double album that fails to mirror each half.
But succeeds in making a hell of an experience,
for anyone to come across.
We've been waiting a long time for that,
and now we're back at waiting.
What will be the next main entry in the band's discography?
A question that would soon be answered.
But sometimes,
Our main projects may need a break for our creative input to shine.
And with that in mind,
a collaborative creation between Flatlander and Zach Hill was titled :
The I.L.Y.'s
And a release surfaced in June 5th.
Named :
I've always been good at true love,
awn.
A softer sound, comparable to Zach's previous solo material,
with a more laid back production and low vocals to fill the songs.
A nice and relaxing experience to go through
especially once acknowledged the creators behind it
Being the same people behind Death Grips.
It's a surprise to see them going a bit softer,
surprising but somewhat expected.
Back to focus, however,
as in October 21st.
A video was uploaded to the Death Grips YouTube channel, titled :
Bottomless Pit.
Context immediately given on screen, something surprising coming from them.
The video features late actress Karen Black,
reading a long transcript written by Zach Hill.
Planned to be featured in his movie.
And really, the clarification that the lines were written by Zach
are just clear from the lines themselves.
With the passing of the actress,
the video was repurposed as an announcement for the upcoming album.
Zach does not fail to impress us as to how weird his stuff can be.
A simple yet long video to announce the upcoming album,
covered with layers of dialog voiced by a late actress.
Shit that only Death Grips would do.
And that marked the end of the year,
for fans to ask.
How Bottomless would that Pit be?
It wasn't too deep into 2016 that we got a track out.
Hot Head.
Uploaded in the band's YouTube channel in February 6st.
It's a showcase of madness that wrecks and rips apart every logical sense
inside the mind of a Hot Head.
Audible through the reckless screams of :
After that, however.
The track goes on nicely,
Slowly,
and then.
Oh No.
In classic Death Grips fashion.
A instrumental album was released to tease fans prior to the release of the full LP.
Interview 2016 was released in March 13,
and unlike Fashion Week,
the instrumentals in here are way more industrial
and go through various styles in each track.
Having more variety to them.
And adding to the visual aspect,
the EP features as a cover, a simple picture of Matt Hoffman.
Host of Tuesdays with Matthew.
But the real visual representation of this album comes in form of the video
released in the band's YouTube channel.
Which has what seems to be a VHS recorded private performance made only for Matt.
As the band members shakes hands with the interviewer,
then all hell breaks loose.
What is worth noticing is that Ride is actually in here,
Participating and perfoming.
Which indicates either lyrical input over the instrumentals,
or just other songs from the band being played for Ride to rap over.
By the way, an actual interview happened here.
But it's not accessible for us.
Perhaps a critique of the fanbase's morbid curiosity.
Advertising an interview but only giving us music as content.
Fucking amazing.
And five days later,
in March 18.
The band released the cover and back cover of the upcoming album.
Which displayed a women,
disputably Mexican Girl.
Smiling behind a couple of circle white spheres.
Balloons, light bulbs,
it's up to you.
Maybe balloons over the remaining of what seems to be hot glue.
And in the back, the words "Very shallow listening."
Alongside tracks like Trash, Spikes and Eh.
Signs for a release not far from the current date.
But it wouldn't be till next month,
April 19.
That we got the release date confirmed,
alongside a lyric sheet and pre-order options.
Hard to hold back the offered lyrics
and have the experience spoiled.
But seeing some of it wouldn't hurt,
it's not like we'd understand them being shouted by Ride.
The lyrics worked beyond the gruesome and cryptic lyricism that every album was shrouded in.
With the track Trash name dropping things like Vevo Ads and Comcast
in a way unseen since Hacker.
Maybe an indication of what many would label this album upon its release.
We had the cover, back cover and lyrics.
Now we just needed the sound which was scheduled.
Not that it mattered for the person who noticed that there were more tracks listed
than tracks public in the band's SoundCloud.
And somehow, managed to ha-
And entirely leak the private scheduled tracks into the public.
Free for everyone.
Another fail to the band,
this time,
under the hands of phalę̷̨̗͍̤̠͙̩̻̤̯͖̝̈̔̅̓̔̇̇̄̾̑͊̾͂̑͂̆̇̊͂̽̍̿͐̈́͆̑̕͘͝͝͝m̶̳̬̗͈͔̮̼̻̆̋̽̄̾̒̇̔͒̅̇́͂̀̀́́̽̍͆͆̽̊̓̉̉̃̈́͊̐̇̎̍̇̿̍̇̕͘̚̚͠͠ḁ̵̧̢̡̡̧̛̛̝̪̠̗͓̘̦̦̘̮̜͖̘͙̜̫̮̣͖͇͍͇̹̺̬̬͍̮̱͍͕̮̟̦̤͉̥̺͇̈́͒̌͐̍̽̋̈́̿̿̅͐̒͌͒̏̓̎̀̈́̆̍͗͋̍͂͐̒̎̌͒̀͆̈́̏̊͒͑͑̈́̍͑̉͋̎͗̂̇̐̄͗̄̈́͋̈́̆͆́̇̀̐͛͌͌͂̓́̑̅̒́̊̈́̒̌̓̒̌̑́̏͐͆͗̇͂͆͆̈̊̈̇͒̅͑̐́̐͗̉͒̏̎̒̈̄̇̔̈́̽̚̕̕͘͘̕͘̕͜͝͝͝l̵̨̨̧̧̨̢̡̧̨̨̨̡̧̡̨̛̛͎̖̪͇̣̥̦̗̩̲̪͙̲̩͎͓̬̠̺͔̪̥̬͓̲̼̠̜̣̰̲̣̖̪̥͈̗͉͓͔̣͇̯̼̝͍̜̙͍̖̻͖̱̤͍̣͚̱̜̣̱̘͕͕̮̲̼̠̤̲̼̗̯̱̳̤̮̠͔̠̥̭̩̞͓̯͓̥͎͕̹͍̥͕̖̥͙̪̦̥͍̝͕̺͖̻͈̖̯͉͖͇̱̥̣̀͛̈͊͂̌̄̿̆͆͑̐̃̄̓́͒͌̑̔̏͊͗̋̋͑̉͂̋̎̎̄̇̇̄̑̈́̀̀̓̓̏̊͐̽̎̇̌̈́̓̓͌͆̍̾́͑̌͂̄̆͑̃̏̽̂̾̊̀͛͒̀̈̈́̽͊̂͆͌̑̽̓͐̀̔̉̓̀͗̄̓͒̀͒̀̃̓̽̄͌̔͒̿͊̐̄̎͌̾̈̃̽̓̾̃̀̈́͑̑̈́́̉̚̚̕͘̚̕͘͜͜͜͝͝͠͝͠͝͝͠͝͠ͅͅe̸̢̨̨̨̨̨̧̧̡̡̨̡̢̨̧̢̢̨̡̡̢̛̛̛̛̤̥̺̯͚̮͙̹͚̪̟͓̖̩͈̬̠̬͖̹̜̳̺̗̳͇̠͚̘͚͎͙̠̙͖͙̠̯̘͖̯̘͍͈̰̹̦̣͇̻͕̲͔͙̥̬͖̘͔̯̻̺̫̝̳̺͚̲̜̥̪͇̩͇̟̱̯̟̳͓̤̹̹̺̮̩̲̥͔͎͎͈̥̼̼̻̭̟͓̖͙͙̘̝̺̠̪͔͍̭͕̙̱̟̻͖͇͈̟̫̘̩̦̘͕͓̠̻̦̱̥̠̤̫̼̦̼̫̦̱̙̜̻̱͚̮̣̰̫̯̻̤̙̞̰̯̗̞͎̤̰̺̱̯̠̞̭̬̤̹̰̭̥͍͓̬̠̩̖͉̎̉͋̀͛͌͋͆̔̓͛̃͒̍̓́̅̽̆̌͗͛̋͌͗͗̍͗̄́̇̅̂̽̀̍̀̈́̈́̋̓͛́̿́̅͋̿̈́̾̃̆̐͋̈́͒͛̔̐͒͆͊͛̽̂͑̆̅͐͌̀̆͗͆̏̌͛̂̎̿͌̋͐͘̚̚̕͜͜͜͜͜͜͠͠͝͝͝͠͠ͅͅͅ
Seems like Death Grips can't hold their songs for the date announced.
As almost all of their projects post No Love have been targeted for premature enjoyment,
and disregard for scheduled dates.
But unlike with Jenny Death.
Releasing the album shortly after the leak didn't seem like an option.
Since the date of release was held.
No tracks were held back from being leaked.
And the pre-orders could listen to the album even earlier than they thought.
But some thought it was worth waiting for the official release.
And the people on Reddit sure tried not to spoil the experience even more.
Their patience,
Questionably rewarded.
After all that wait,
in the fifth of May.
A drooling tongue filled the subboxes
as a Bottomless Pit was revealed.
With every single track uploaded to the band's YouTube channel.
Free for everyone,
officially, this time.
So what does this release has to offer?
Maybe the relentless drumming in the first track ;
Giving Bad People Good Ideas.
Explains what is to come.
Or the epileptic synths of Spikes.
The pure nihilism in Eh
with even Ride's delivery representing his carelessness upon everything.
We upload shit in a daily basis,
and such shit gets its place in here too.
With the proper titling of Trash.
But if you think this isn't trash enough,
you can call a phone number and press 1 for a trashier Trash.
And to end things up,
the title track has no mercy on finishing this as loud as possible.
A door to a new era where the goal wasn't simply to make good sounding art,
but to make it sound even better.
Bottomless Pit showed such feature.
And it was more than loved by most listeners.
Considered a redefined sound of The Money Store,
brought with even more intense lyrics and high fidelity instrumentation,
which was more than an achievement for the band.
Something sure of an update.
Later in the month, in May 30.
A single was released into their SoundCloud and YouTube.
More than the Fairy.
Featuring Les Claypool on the bass.
A fast paced, insane track that dares to elevate the pitch in Ride's vocals.
Also, a feature?
This is new,
Not something we see, really.
Besides Rob's guitars in Birds
and Björk in Niggas on the Moon.
We haven't seen many direct features.
A few remixes, however.
Like Prodigy's Firestarter,
that uses the beat from No Love's World of Dogs.
And for Death Grips featuring in other people's works, officially.
Only in The Bug's Fuck a Bitch, for his album.
Angels & Devils.
Of which,
upon request from The Bug.
Received a reply from the band rapping a verse from Skeng,
alongside : Fuck Yeah.
A trio not dependent nor in need of being in other people's works and projects.
Lone wolves in an industry filled with collaborative efforts for wide spread attention
Minor chance of success,
if not for their uniqueness.
Content with the album,
the boys left social media once more to work on whatever's next.
But Stefan went alone for a few days to prepare and feature in his own art exhibition.
Being present with the crowd of fans and appreciators that came in for the event,
forming an enormous line on the sidewalk.
But the fanbase as a whole wouldn't be left alone for the time being,
as a whole project was released in May 22nd.
Steroids,
(Crouching Tiger
Hidden Gabber
Megamix)
Interesting title fond of interesting theories.
It is, however. Just a little appetizer while they work on the full project.
Filler work,
but work of quality.
With no tracks to go through.
A listener is subjected to a mandatory sit-through.
One straight forward experience,
with smooth transitions that further improve the enjoyment of the project as a whole.
A continuous, aggressive attack against the listener,
Daring many into organizing the tracks separately,
for individual enjoyment.
Ride's flows in here are noticeably cohesive,
rhythmic and more rap alike.
And so are some of the instrumentals,
yet maintaining and raising the experimentation and anger inducing loudness,
as the aspects of gabber entice the speed
and sense of urgency of every track.
Almost reaching speedcore or extratone in certain points of the mix.
Hits you must be ready to endure.
It's 22 minutes long,
And it took no time to be loved by everyone.
Fighting to be the best of the short EP like releases from the band,
going directly against the self titled.
A hard decision for any fan.
But the year was still going,
and nothing was being said asides for the new I.L.Y.'s album.
but on the band's front,
silence reigned.
But once used to silence,
any sound that comes,
comes way louder.
And as of September 4th,
inspired by a random user,
the band started a brand new meme by simply posting a phrase on Twitter,
and sharing the echoes of everyone who repeated it.
The phrase is simple.
Death Grips is Online.
A spree that took 2 days to reach Twitter's tweet limitation.
An interaction from fan to band,
and one that marked the lack of action with a lot of it.
Holding 4 days of torture for those with tweet notifications turned on.
Holding meaning for a while, as such event wouldn't go off for no reason.
Murdering the silence as loudly as possible.
Not that such silence would go for long,
as 16 days later,
the band announced a collaborator for the upcoming project,
Lucas Abela.
The man who makes music by eating glass,
not literally.
Just rubbing it on the lips to the point of intense bleeding.
Such glass is connected to various parts of equipment that are manipulated during his performances,
Shifting the sound generated on contact.
Crazy stuff,
perfect for Death Grips.
Can you turn up the volume, just a little bit for me, please?
And some interesting similarities in volume preferences.
Ensuring further hype for the release of whatever's to come,
but what came after was the announcement of 2017 US Tour
the band released in October 4th.
The announcement was narrated by a text-to- speech
as an electronic drum solo was being played in the background.
Which was fully uploaded 7 days later, in October 11th.
The video shows the band performing live with various laser lights in their gloves.
Making a hell of a light show in the rehearsal room,
so imagine it live.
And if this video taught us anything.
Then comes silence, once again.
But, well.
November 1st was met with yet another session of retweeting as much as possible.
Something that would become expected but extremely random,
as fans would only know once it started.
Returning once more in December 6th,
with a fore posted tweet wherein the band printed a sticker using their own font,
However with the text saying :
"Diarrhea G"
Huh, yeah.
Last words of the year from the boys were :
"I don't have enough power."
Nothing new from the band to post abstract or random tweets
when the audience seeks for anything concrete.
Just to be dealt with meaningless words.
For the moment, that is.
But the first words to open 2018 came in form of
Death Grips promoting an app,
a powder game.
It's really good.
The fuck?
Jesus Christ, what the fuck, bruh?
What in the fuck?
Gonna put a torch in here,
U
What the fuck?
Alongside part 4 of the retweet spree,
but more intense as whoever used the band's account defended the relentless spree
against a guy who complained about it.
Surpassing the feat of September 2017 wherein another complaint of the meme
was set as the account's profile picture
for mocking purposes, presumably.
Once over,
a chilling wait for updates or news arrived,
lasting 2 months for it to be announced, in March 15,
that yet another collaborator would be joining in this release,
Andrew Adamson,
the director of Shrek and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Pause,
Nah, whatever.
They also couldn't wait to announce yet another feature in the album,
as mere three days later,
Justin Chancellor,
bassist for the band Tool was revealed to partake in this project.
Making the current timeline go from two direct album features,
and a single feature for someone else's project,
alongside some background collaborators.
To having three people directly involved in the making of a single project.
Well, if so. It's probably for the best.
As the band showed not to waste time with insignificant collaborations.
Rather handpicking only the best for their efforts.
It's weird,
After years of keeping the fans on the low,
silencing and saving the words upon any release.
They now, overwhelm the fans with the direct interactions and constant updates
on a release yet to have its date published.
Small details left through rapid a rapid pace,
with the change of the A2B2 website in March 20,
which even if nothing new,
speaks to a time of uncertainty and discomfort as the rules and norms seemed to have changed
so abruptly.
It's almost as if they got tired of being quiet everywhere besides their music,
and decided to invert that.
Maybe the result of the action of someone, or something.
Maybe the result of the action of someone, or something.
Someone snitched.
And thus, we enter.
Year of the Snitch
Finally,
Announced and confirmed.
2 years in the wait.
with a short appetizer to calm the fans down,
finally let public.
Not only that,
but the next day,
getting word from Lucas that he'll release his recording sessions to the public as well.
An amazing hype was established,
and the fans could peacefully go back to phase 1,
waiting.
So many faces to include in this upcoming release,
so many changes to be reckoned,
in comparison to everything else in their discography.
What the fuck is coming?
Perhaps the cover art,
released in April 6th.
Has something of an answer to that.
A table filled with what seems to be cock thirsty glory holes.
With tongue and lips reaching as far out as possible,
waiting to be fed with whatever's thrown in there.
Grotesque is a compliment for something this weird.
Even with the catalog of surrealistic cover arts Death Grips has.
This definitely pushed the envelope.
Bizarre,
Disgusting,
Perfect.
Year of the Snitch Tracklisting was released in April 11th
Year of the Snitch Tracklisting was released in April 11th.
Using a very creative method of screen recording the tracks being sent as messages,
while looping cryptic gifs play in the background.
With the first track notably named :
Death Grips is Online.
Wow, what would that sound like?
Also, the sinister poem at the beginning.
Material for the theorists to get busy,
alongside the Manson references.
Not that theories weren't being thrown around without official releases like these,
as a full scale ARG was happening behind the curtains.
But with this official tracklisting released,
it was quickly concluded that the ARG,
despite its complexity.
Was fake,
and should not be regarded as cannon.
And then, the burst of announcements ceased for double its length.
As only 13 days later,
we got yet another Death Grips is Online spree.
So far,
although we've received a lot to conciliate in our hunger for the music.
Actual music is yet to be released.
May 5th changed that,
as track 8,
Streaky
was released.
With a sound that callback to the currently 6 year old release.
An accessible funky tune,
as well as the rap alike flow from Ride.
Fresh from Steroids,
but not as fast paced.
A laid back track,
with a vibe we haven't heard for a while
Nothing spectacular,
but great nonetheless.
but great enough?
Fans began to wonder if the album was going to end up like yet another accessible release,
as Bottomless Pit showed itself to be.
while fans of Niggas on the Moon and No Love
would be left with no boundary challenging sounds to enjoy
Discussions in regards to the need of abrasive music,
and if it'd be better for the band,
and the fans.
Happened often during the hype.
Everyone would be thankful for the album, for sure.
But wouldn't it be better to be thankful for an album with a more unique aesthetic to it?
Angry face,
angry face.
Another track out,
May 15th.
All that discussion in concern to the experimentation,
torn to shreds as track 3,
Black Paint dropped.
Distorted riffs,
distant chants,
raging drums,
this was something else.
A relentless hard rock piece,
filled with an intense vocal performance
and an amazing jam for the middle section.
Added with satanic lyricism, to push the edge of the track even further.
Blasting with bass and punchy kicks,
alongside Ride's Booms throughout the track.
And ending it incredibly with a keyboard piece.
Damn.
Could anything top this?
Well, maybe.
But what came after wasn't really trying to.
As seven days later, in May 22nd.
A music video was released to track 2,
Flies.
Clearly another less abrasive one,
but finally showing visuals edited by the band.
Ride constantly changes flows and delivery as the track goes.
Shifting from angry shouting to Eh'ish like rapping.
But maintaining the Eh flow on the hook.
And visually, it calls back to the Exmilitary music videos,
With certain parts of it fitting a 4:3 aspect ratio.
Like most of their old music videos.
Flashing photographs of Ride jumping around an Ying-Yang symbol in a parking lot.
Flashing like Full Moon.
Certain portions of it filmed in 16:9,
but inside a box with a loose camera recording a screen of a recording of Ride.
Perhaps a call back to Spread Eagle?
And just before the track is over.
A recording of a beach with a black sky
and sinister additions to such footage.
Guillotine like removal of the background,
boys been feeling a bit nostalgic, I guess.
One thing that was weirdly noticeable
was various instances of blatant DJ table scratching in the track,
which was contextualized the next day,
as the band revealed yet another fucking collaborator to the project.
DJ Swamp,
who would be participating in most tracks of the album,
Year of the Snitch has a total of 4 outsiders.
Something unique is surely coming.
So unique
that theories were thrown left an right,
overflowing the Reddit,
one more ridiculous than the other,
and mostly just mocking the stupidity of attempting to predict a release
rather than just wait for it to happen.
A state of consciousness or a feeling devoid of sensory components.
Indeed.
Once in June 7th,
Confusion reigned once a new single dropped
but only on Australia and New Zealand.
Why?
No one knows.
Definitely not a planned move from the band as only in the next day,
the single was properly released worldwide.
Ha ha ha.
Wherein everyone wondered if there was something wrong with their audio setups,
As the track has some questionable mixing and samples of variable bitrates.
Once discarded the laughable fidelity of the track,
it's pretty enjoyable and feature what was called some of their happiest and most fun lyrics to date.
Even including a Sonic, the Hedgehog reference.
And hey,
the Tweet announcing the release of this track feature a release date for the album.
Finally confirmed,
after all this hype building and teasing,
we could now wait knowing when it would come.
Although it'll still take a while.
June 22nd,
a video uploaded in June 10th.
To let the YouTube audience know when it's coming.
It's just Ride playing with toy cars.
And for those who wondered what the features would contribute to the sound of this album,
Dilemma,
uploaded in June 15th.
Showed what Andrew would be doing, sonically.
A quick interlude,
followed by a weird but intense buildup,
using weird synths and horns on its way to start the rock like track.
Beyond different.
What was before still in the same genre,
Death Grips were pulling influences from more accessible and known rock,
experimenting beyond the industrial sound we're familiar with,
and it shows the difference in this track.
A weird flow from Ride,
a lighter delivery that's esaier to understand on its own,
and when said easier,
still hard without the lyrics.
And the riffs in this makes for a enjoyable jam.
But now, what?
We were given the industrial hip-hop track,
a hard hitting arena rock
and now, a lighter rock jam.
Was this the thrive for innovation,
Leaving the accessible sound for left field experimentation that the fans wanted?
Once so far,
we've already heard two tracks from the band that depart far from their previous efforts ;
the ones that made them
who they are.
Would it be good to just abandon them?
In the night of the same day,
the physical aspects of the album were published,
to questionable reception as the back cover looked like a meme,
a thought that was further pushed by the emojis in the vinyl design.
Let them have their fun.
And then again, somehow.
A single was released to New Zealand and Australia,
lucky cunts.
Although files we're shared for anyone to listen,
the track was, just as before,
released the very next day, in June 18.
Shitshow.
The title does justice to the track.
Often called the "Trash" of this album,
which is questionable,
once Trash actually has two cohesive and interesting verses,
while this track is just succeeding in being as loud as possible.
With no cohesion or substance.
The Exmilitary samples in the beginning further push that nostalgia thing.
And the absurd music video you're seeing was posted 2 days after the worldwide release.
And it's easily Death Grips' nastiest music video.
So nasty, in fact.
Not even YouTube could bear it,
as they striked the video for sexual content,
which mostly includes Zachary's ass being in plain sight.
At least not the first time sexual content got the band a YouTube strike.
The band re-uploaded the video on Vimeo after that,
so such sight wouldn't have been lost.
And to add to that shitshow,
another retweeting session at the night of June 18.
And in June 20,
the date of the music video.
Another retweeting session.
Perhaps the last one,
As the release date approaches,
and 2 years of abrasive absence comes to a close.
But then,
as the 21st came.
We're reminded what awaits before most of their releases.
Yeah,
a leak happened.
And it was directly addressed.
Not that it mattered as a single day wouldn't hurt even the most hyped of fans.
And thus, came June 22nd.
And the album was released in various platforms.
And it all starts,
with Death Grips
is Online.
Linda's in Custody,
a track that's on a constant crescendo of different events that push the energy of the track as it progresses.
Before fading such energy into a clam transition to the instrumental of
The Horn Section.
The track that prides in showing off the Lucas samples,
alongside Zach's typical insane drums that carry the track through its length.
The first album to break the band's norm of only featuring Ride as the voice,
once Zach had his voice mainly included in Little Richard.
Although the track received a bad reputation for its weird vocals and messy progression,
despite featuring a interesting lo-fi and futuristic sounding instrumentation.
Thus comes The Fear,
with instrumentation focusing on piano chords and Zach's drums,
before flowing into a jammy hook with chill riffs which quickly turns into harder notes.
Along with Ride amping up his screams which are traded for what almost sounds
like a poem reading for most of the track,
with a faster pace.
A track to bring its title to the listener.
Outro,
something that sounds like the recording of a radio,
but still,
not really the outro you expected.
They saved the best for last.
Disappointed,
a quick return to the screams in anticipation to the reception of this album,
and the band's decision to distance themselves from the industrial sound for this one project,
and maybe others ahead.
Despite that,
it has been mostly well received.
an experiment that was appreciated,
and one with various qualities to it in contrast to their previous efforts.
An album that ties each track in with transitions that are still easier to enjoy standalone,
making even the worse flops flops feel smooth on a sit through.
A weird album from a weird band,
a good lane for them?
Questionable.
But certainly one to go along,
as to see what awaits in the future.
Whatever they want.
Years in the game,
and yet to disappoint.
The underdogs of the industry held and left many surprises.
And for years of existing,
the real surprise is their consistency
to surprise us.
Ground breaking is an understatement,
and what is to come is nothing to be guessed,
as they've shown how futile it is to attempt a prediction upon whatever awaits ahead.
Desensitized from the start,
and still creeping fear in their sound.
A grip upon death,
and a neglect for it,
as they remain relevant for the 7 years of road.
An unclear road,
but a long one that they've taken,
a lane of chaotic occurrences,
innovative discoveries,
and amazing results.
A long way away from their past.
MXLPLX,
A2B2,
Scuzzy.
All left behind for a trip,
together as one.
All left,
for The Path
of Death Grips.
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