Search - Turbonegro :: Hot Cars & Spent Contraceptives

Let there be death punk

Sacco | here there and everywhere | 06/30/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Hot Cars & Spent Contraceptives" is brutal. There is no other word for it, its the aural equivilent of being smacked in the head with a piece of 2 by 4. That said its not terrible experience, it just leaves you feeling a little dazed afterwards. Now not a warning but I'll just mention that this sounds very little like later Turbonegro, there is no Euroboy so no spectacular Euroboy solo dotting the land scape, the vocals aren't as clear, and there is a distinct lack of melodies. The album opens with a girl talking about how much she likes having sex, it sounds like she's describing a bad porno, and it now (because of the bonus tracks) closes in a similar way, a 24 minute cop rape scence. The music its self suits the death punk (the album comes with a sicker calling it the birth of death punk) than later albums, its got a doomy metal feel of Venom or even a much faster Metalica, but with hardcore punk drumming. The vocals are pretty much inaudible and while it does suit the music sometimes it just seems to grate your nerves after a short time. The strong points of the album are its sludgy brutal guitars and its flow. The latter is surprising because the bonus tracks on the reissue are interspresed throughout not tacked on at the end, but its obviously done with some care because it flows really well. The songs them are all pretty good, there are no spectacular ones but there is only one really bad one and thats " A Career In Indie Rock" and only because its all spoken word and goes on for way too long, though the concept is sort of funny i guess (link what goes on to the title). The best songs are "Armed And Fairly Well Equipped" (Bonus) , "Kiss The Knife", "Manimal" and "Zonked Out(On Hashish)". Its somehow more heavy metal and punk than any of their later stuff but not as good. Fans of "Ass Cobra" might like it more than others but really it just doesn't have the tunes to compete even with "F*ck The World". However it rocks, rocks hard, this is music to smash things up to."