Today we’re taking a look at the debut album from Liquid Jesus, a band from Brno, Czech Republic. The record was released on vinyl by Virtual Death Records. The band have already been around for eleven years, so they certainly took their time getting their first full-length out. I don’t know the band’s history or how their sound developed over the years, but I’d say the wait was worth it. Liquid Jesus mix rock’n’roll, hardcore punk and thrash metal into an entertaining blend that gives us ten tracks with a total running time of roughly half an hour.
The record contains an intro and nine proper songs, and the guys clearly didn’t give much of a shit about what style they were supposed to play. Instead, they simply made the music they enjoy. The result is mainly built around dirty rock’n’roll mixed with hardcore punk and thrash metal. It’s basically what happens when you put a bunch of fans of heavier music in a room, let them argue for hours about what they should play, and then everything suddenly gets settled when Lenny Killmister walks in and, for the first time, everyone agrees on something. Certain styles naturally take over in individual songs or sections, such as the thrashy guitars in Zombie Factory or the hardcore punk drive of The Spirit’s On. Personally, I enjoy the songs that really keep things moving, such as Skate Or Die and Lola Rent, but there are also some calmer moments, like Mr. Breastman.
The whole record is tied together by a distinctive vocal style that brings all the different elements together and gives the band a recognisable identity. The lyrics also maintain an ironic edge, moving quite amusingly somewhere between detached observation and nihilistic, biting commentary, as in Proud To See You. There are also a few pop-culture references thrown into the mix. Liquid Jesus don’t really come across as a strictly subcultural band to me. Instead, they sound more like a revival of the kind of ’90s rock bands that decided to have fun crossing genres and using satirical lyrics. That sense of humour and lack of self-importance is actually one of the things that makes the record stand out from a lot of similarly heavy releases.
The record has great sound quality, and the packaging is equally well done. It also includes all the lyrics, which I always appreciate. With a record that relies quite heavily on wordplay, irony and humorous observations, it would be a shame to leave the listener guessing about what is actually being sung. Fortunately, that’s not an issue here.
Liquid Jesus are a band capable of entertaining fans from several different musical backgrounds, with enough potential to appeal across different scenes. They don’t do it in an obvious or calculated way; you can simply hear that they enjoy playing around with different influences and combining things that might not necessarily seem like an obvious match at first. This is ideal music for a club show, for blasting at parties with your friends, or for playing on a boombox while skating around the local skatepark. Basically, it’s a record that doesn’t need to be squeezed into some perfectly defined genre box. Just put it on and let Liquid Jesus make their noise.
TOP TRACKY: Skate Or Die, Rotten Town, Lola Rent
