Album Review: The Locust - Molecular Genetics From The Gold Standard Labs

When San Diego collective The Locust burst forth on the scene in a deluge of bile and duct tape back in 1994, adorned in body costumes and deliberately long and obtuse song titles, it threatened to be an unhinged indulgent mess. Yet the brutality and aggression they display, mixed with frenetic dexterity and off-kilter interplay, means their back catalogue is littered with grindcore gems that soar due to their propensity for aural assaults without the baggage of pomposity or pretension. As far as entry points go, it's bizarre that a 44-track collection of odds and sods would be a good start. But as intimated, The Locust is anything but conventional.

Molecular Genetics From The Gold Standard Labs is a compendium of their early years that encompasses their EPs, soundtrack spots on John Waters film, Cecil B. Demented, and split releases, with the occasional unreleased track and the entire 1998 self-titled LP thrown in for good measure. It's a brutally extended listen, yet one that never lingers for too long (only one track breaches two minutes). Underneath the insanity and weirdness though is a clear focus on crafting short, sharp yet inventive slabs of noise, so that tracks such as Moth Eaten Deer Head and Hairspray Suppository stand the test of time, easily digested by the uninitiated. Even the weirder moments, such as Flight Of The Wounded Locust, with its synthesised sounds emulating insects, make sense here, thus proving Molecular Genetics… is a biography, the growth of a band presented as a journey in which the listener is invited to partake. An incredibly bitter and twisted pill, but well worth the trip.