Death Grips Disappointment

There are some albums and songs that feel like events. They seem to carve out a place not just in the musical landscape, but in the personal lives of the listeners. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Exmilitary. In hindsight I feel pretty naïve about this, but I truly felt like in a few years people could measure time by what came out before and what came out after. By now it seems pretty certain that, 2011 was not 1977 and Death Grips are not the Sex Pistols.

You could potentially blame this on external factors. Its obviously harder for anything to have such a large impact in the Digital Age. But I think the difficulty of this is overblown and I still believe that Death Grips could have spurned the 21^st century’s equivalent of punk (in fact, the first piece I ever wrote on music was about this very topic). The biggest thing standing in their way is Death Grips themselves.

For me, and many others, the group had an unexpectedly dominant 2011. Exmilitary came from pretty much nowhere. I listened to it more than any other album, and it was ranked highly on a number of year-end lists. They weren’t getting widespread radio play, but there was something for the hipster music press, hip hop heads, and college frat parties. Despite a sound that was brash and even nihilistic enough to put off many, it really seemed like they were one crossover hit from spreading like wildfire. Unfortunately, 2012 was full of disappointments musically and publicly.

The year started on an exciting, if unexpected, note as the band signed with the major label Epic and announced that they would come out with two albums. At the time, it seemed like they really could take over.

Their first album of the year, The Money Store started things off on an ambiguous note. There were positive signs: the cover was maybe needlessly crass, pornographic even. But it seemed to be the band’s message that their vision was singular as ever and that the major label signing wasn’t going to change anything other than how widely they would be distributed. It also contained some excellent songs, including closer “Hacker,” possibly their best song to date.

But as a whole, the album doesn’t work nearly as well as the debut. For one, while I wouldn’t remove a single thing from Exmilitary, there is a decent amount of filler here. On a few songs it sounds like the band is just going through the motions and following a formula without any real vision. The album also just isn’t that fun.

That may not be the first word that comes to mind when considering anything by Death Grips, but its a crucial piece of what makes them work. Exmilitary is downright vicious. At times it seems like they’re beaconing the apocalypse. But at the end of the day, you can sing along to just about everything. Perhaps the biggest difference between it and subsequent albums is the fact that they leave no room to breathe. Nearly every song is filled to the brim with a sonic assault. Admittedly, this is probably an intentional choice by the band and it does up the intensity. But ultimately, it just makes the listener care less.

Soon after the album’s release, Death Grips cancelled all dates on their scheduled international tour. They justified the cancellation by claiming that they needed time to finish their second album of the year, but this was the beginning of a frustrating pattern of the band’s disrespect towards both their label and their fans. In many ways, this fits the image that Death Grips cultivate in their music, but it’s a huge reason why they will never take off to the “next level.” In this day of Kickstarter and instant information transfer it is necessary for bands to cater to their audience, at least to some degree. Maybe this is a bad thing for music on the whole, but it’s a fact and it likely won’t be changing any time soon.

Perhaps if the band’s next album had been a huge success, all probably would have been forgiven. Unfortunately, No Love Deep Web committed a couple of sins. Its sound was unremarkable and it brought with it even more off-putting controversy.

In isolation, it is a very good album. I prefer it to its predecessor, though broader opinion seems relatively split.

The worst thing about it musically is that it sounds pretty similar to The Money Store. It’s far from an exact copy and for a lot of bands this wouldn’t be a problem at all. But Death Grips has always promised innovation, and putting out a recycled album is one of the least innovative things a band can do. In the long run, it probably would have been better for the band if they put out a horrible album that sounded nothing like their previous recordings.

Perhaps even worse was how the album was released. Epic wanted to push back the release date, but the band refused and after some squabbles leaked it on their own. In a nearly unprecedented case, public opinion seems more in favor of the label than the artists. This was likely because of the band’s earlier poor PR. And the fact that the cover was literally a photograph of a penis only reinforced their image as childish wannabe punks.

After this fiasco, Epic unsurprisingly dropped the group from their label, and 2012 ended on an unsure note. To be fair, the band is still in a pretty strong position. Both albums were critically acclaimed and the Epic stint did raise their profile somewhat. And they are still one of the most unpredictable groups currently working. But their potential to be a landmark group is quickly fading. Its hard to see them putting out anything better than what they’ve already made, or at least anything more exciting.

Worst of all, at this point its hard to divorce Death Grips from their non-musical stunts. For many listeners they’re defined by obscene album covers and petulant whining. When Exmilitary first came out, the group was shrouded in exciting mystery. Outside of drummer Zach Hill, the members were unknown, furthering their “coming out of nowhere” aura. It seemed like they could do just about anything.

But by now the curtain has been lifted. Unless they turn around and do something completely different (which, as stated, is entirely possible), the rest of their career will likely be a series of pretty good to very good albums that don’t really mean anything.