Word: metallize
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...REALLY QUITE IRONIC that some of the hardest, most uncompromising music in the current rock scene should also be one of the most conservative. Like its fellow hardcore bands--Black Flag and Minor Threat--Husker Du, on its new EP, Metal Circus, adopts a stance which firmly opposes the revolutionary ideals of the punk movement. This stance--which is basically, think for yourself, without paying attention to all the unrealistic talk of violent and anarchic revolutions--might seem a strange message from a band whose music appears so angry and nihilistic. The band's commitment and sincerity, however...
...might oppose the punk ethos, they use a very similar musical style. With Bob Mould's blazing, distorted guitar, and his hoarse, throaty voice angrily trying to shout its way through the dense wall of sound, this sounds like a souped-up har her hybrid of punk and heavy metal. Thus, just as the punk movement revamped the rock of the 60s and early 70s while taking their inspiration from the spare, fast style form 50s rock'n roll. Husker Du in turn revamp the punk format deriving their inspiration from some of the heavy metal...
ALTHOUGH THIS VIOLENT, angry music doesn't seem to "fit in" with Husker Du's message, the band not only recognizes this, but also deliberately highlights this contradiction on Metal Circus. Thus, it is no mistake that the lines "I don't rape and I don't pillage other people's lives" appear on the same album alongside the line "I think I'll just rape you and kill you instead." Instead of attempting to hide this dichotomy. Du deliberately exposes it as something which both the band and its listeners must face...
This contradiction also serves to highlight Husker Du's major message: don't trust or look for answers in any music (even in Metal Circus), but rather look within yourself. For instance, in the first song on the EP, Mould states, "You can sing any song you want but you're still the same," thus denying the idea that music can or should after people's lives. In fact, this song reveals Husker Du's message and ideals more clearly than any other on the album. Behind the fast, clean guitar line which draws the listener into the album...
...gave me a completely new perspective," says junior John Williams. "Most students at Harvard are from relatively affluent backgrounds. We went there, and went through the completely allen process of being searched, going through a metal detector--all the things you do when you're in a maximum security institution. Here at school, sometimes we fell like we're in prison because we have papers due and lots of deadlines to meet. But you begin to realize that it's nowhere near like what other people have to go through. It was a really enriching experience...