Missouri Executive Order 44 – Salt Sermon
Release Date: 16th August 2024
Label: Learning Curve Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Powerviolence, Grindcore, Hardcore, Noisecore, Sludge.
FFO: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Chat Pile, NAILS, Graf Orlock, The Locust.
Review By: Jeff Finch
With a name like Missouri Executive Order 44, an album that clocks in at roughly 18 minutes over 11 tracks, and being classified as powerviolence / grind, there was no way that I could say no to this one. Upon learning what the bands name actually referenced, the intrigue was raised even higher; though not a history buff in the traditional sense, my thirst for knowledge is strong, so when I realized that the band name is an actual executive order that was enacted in the 1800s, the violence of the music made a lot more sense. And I need to keep it real, this album IS violent, a blistering onslaught that, over the course of less than twenty minutes, packs more punch than some bands entire discographies.
With a name like Salt Sermon, and the background knowledge that this executive order targeted Mormons, that the first track Riding the Rail is, itself, a sermon being given with a wall of feedback, the words going demonic at points, is no surprise. It blends quickly into the first proper track The Unbuckling, and right away we’re met with a simple, fun riff that harkens back to Dillinger, transitioning into unrepentant chaos: frenetic drum fills, schizoid guitars, the vocalist shrieking and then going to lower register where he sounds like he’s lost all hope, and then back again, a breakdown of sorts popping out of the speaker as we’re suddenly treated to blast beats with ten seconds left. The shifts within this song are utterly insane, and impeccably performed, giving us a taste of what the album has in store.
The song titles on this thing have me cackling, like the next track Wear Me Like a Mitt, Romney, hilarious in its absurdity, and the fact that Mitt Romney himself is a Mormon, so the layers to the title just keep peeling. The track begins with eerie, layered spoken word that lets the guitar sneak in just a bit, leading immediately into bedlam; at points it sounds like the band is just doing their own thing, performing technically sound instrumentation with no rhyme or reason, but the chaos is so captivating, the vocalist so purely unhinged, that it feels like we’re listening to the love child of Chat Pile and Dillinger Escape Plan. Yeah…chaos, the same we’re treated to with I Would Kill Anyone for You; though the track takes its time getting going, with the first thirty seconds a spoken word from Revelations, the little hints of guitar feedback that pop in warn listeners of the upcoming insanity. Blast beats, pained shouts, inhumane riffs, they throw everything but the kitchen sink at us, though it wouldn’t surprise anyone if there’s a kitchen sink listed in the linear notes. A brilliant shift into thrash quickly transitions into a headbanging groove, where the title to the track is repeated multiple times with varying degrees of severity, as the ‘anyone’ turns very specific.
A couple of the tracks here strictly act as transitional tracks, typically spoken word or some variation of sonically manipulated words, creating eerie soundscapes that transition smoothly into their follow-up track. Millport’s Demise features a powerful reading from Proverbs that only lasts 26 seconds and acts as an opening to Christian Pornography, a song featuring some of the most punishing riffs on this record, downtuned, chugged, leading to a breakdown barely 30 seconds in. The guitars never lose their heft, the band around them just keeps going at a breakneck pace, the last thirty seconds absolute filth, the vocalist screaming ‘what do you want to feel‘ as the instruments behind him are beat mercilessly, the last few seconds transitioning back into more sermon talk, fitting that it leads directly into Salt Sermon, which is a minute and a half of batshit crazy sermon (the true Salt Sermon, if I’m not mistaken) over occasional riffs and beating drums, the music, feedback, and distortion turning this into a terrifying, though captivating, trip into the past and its conflicts. Finally, our closer, the hilariously titled They Built a Bass Pro Shop in our Zion, is the longest track on the album, the only one breaking the three-minute mark, and it’s simply devastation of the highest order. The most cohesive sounding track on the entire album, that cohesion is what makes the punishment that much more severe; every instrument in pushed to the limit simultaneously and in sync, the band sounds like they’re about to push through the speakers with all of their anger, before we’re quickly riding the end of a long riff into the distant sound of hymns to close the record out.
I…don’t know how a band can sound this unhinged, this angry, this spiteful, and still have everything make complete sense at the end. In 18 minutes, barely the time it takes for me to drive to work in the morning, Missouri Executive Order 44 pummels, punishes, absolutely obliterates our senses into a bloody pulp, purely unapologetically. While it’s an album that one can jam quickly on the way to work, or on a quick jog, it’s not the kind of album that can only be jammed once. You’ll be captivated to come back to this, to hear it in all of its chaotic glory, and you’ll probably be listening to it as you look up the actual Executive Order 44.
(4.5 / 5)
