7000 Dying Rats - Fanning the Flames of Fire

7000 Dying Rats are something of a fragmented supergroup (whose lineup has included members from Lair of the Minotaur, The Flying Luttenbachers, & Cattle Decapitation) that demands their music be taken seriously...all-while shedding off layers of ironic/obvious humor that has come to be associated with the grind scene.

The band basically represents a crucial reminder of humility in the music world of handshakes and pretentious artist bios, and in the world of "comedy grind" (*shudder*) represents a band that isn't just about mucking about (I'm British now) -- they can actually play their instruments.

Nay good reader, if you were expecting a blast-beat'N, snare-snap'N, throw in an ironic hip-hop sample'N, you'd be...partially wrong.
I mean, if your album cover has armed clowns (holding their units, so to say), it's easy to ascertain that humor is there -- just make sure you listen close enough to hear that 'Fanning the Flames of Fire' is more than that.

This is my favorite of the 7000DR that I've heard (the latest full-length 'Season in Hell' is pretty good too, and features a wonderfully odd spoken-word segment from Scott Kelly)...the album strikes such a nice balance of 'take us seriously'/'join in on the joke' that any fan of not only grind (because really, this isn't a grind album, aside the scattershot format) but really just anyone willing to be entertained as much as they are enlightened should enjoy this album.

Fanning the Flames of Fire [1998]
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mind the graves