Combatwoundedveteran - I Know A Girl Who Develops Crime Scene Photos

We are almost there

What’s a girl to do? I have 14 minutes until the next laundromat hardcore set is done (they just started) and am being harrassed by a portly Canadian to shit out a review. So here it is.

I’ve always loved how production values during recording can really emphasize the moods and atmospheres portrayed through music. The initial choices in gear, the number and range of microphones, even the way a room is shaped and furnished has a direct impact on how a finished record will sound. It’s important to capture the performances in a way that will translate through the mixing board and into the master cohesively. Sound engineers will spend countless hours carefully crafting a mix and master to be proud of, something that can stand the test of time as the industry grows and develops.  

That being said, I Know A Girl Who Develops Crime Scene Photos sounds like shit. It is a brutal, suffocating experience. The guitars are muddy, the feedback is piercing, the drum levels have little coherency. Near indecipherable riffs grind along underneath a cacophony of snare rimshots and cymbal crashes, vocals are presented shrieking and wailing in psychotic frenzies. A blistering twenty minutes is just enough time for the band to get in, perform as if they were doused in gasoline and lit on fire, and get out. Beautiful.

Combatwoundedveteran’s debut is one of my favorite examples of just how “lo-fi” you can take a recording before it becomes unlistenable. This specific blend of emoviolence lends itself really well to low quality production values, putting the strain not on the actual music composition or theory but instead accentuating the chaotic, uncontrolled, violent emotion. I Know A Girl Who Develops Crime Scene Photos remains a personal benchmark in my “low quality audio, high quality music” collection, a golden standard to refer back to.