by Kurt Orzeck
“Senselessness” is a word that often instinctively falls out of the mouths of newscasters and reporters during their real-time reporting on mass shootings or other acts of random violence that result in a body count high enough to warrant news coverage. There’s no thought put into the word, because the terrifying reality of such situations is that they aren’t really senseless or random — it’s just a way for the media to coddle viewers into thinking that horrors almost all of us prefer not to dwell on can’t be avoided. Because, after all, preventing tragedies such as mass shootings and acts of terror — which always involve tremendous amounts of planning as well as a motive, misguided as it may be — would require social investments in mental health, resources put into community-building efforts and adequately funding social services. Make sense?
So-called “negative” hardcore band Gunner is the successor to another Perth band, Semtex 87, with a similar aim, if you will: to vomit forth music so cacophonous, discordant and abhorrent to most that it will repel and chase them away. The driving force of both Semtex 87 and Gunner is to try to represent the mentality of disturbed Peth locals who were prone to violent thoughts and/or actions — instead of simply reducing those psychological tendencies as “senseless.” Because, in case you haven’t noticed, the most disorienting senselessness that exists in our world is the reality we suffer through each and every day.
As much as the vast majority of us would not only prefer not to hear the sound of reality but block our ears with our palms with such force that we might squash our own skulls like melons, Gunner buck up and administer the soundtrack of everyday life with Reality Soldier, an eleven-and-a-half minute brutal assault that leads you to re-evaluate the question, “can I hold my breath for that long if I submerge myself in water?” For those brave enough to confront reality — and the adorable masochists who are always game to come along for the ride whenever such opportunities to venture into the heart of darkness present themselves — this seven-inch is a symphony compared to one of Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s records but a record Pete Hegseth would gleefully rubber-stamp for usage as binaural beats at Abu Ghraib.
To analyze the aural blitzkrieg that is Reality Soldier on a song-by-song basis would be akin to conducting forensic analysis of the area where Willem Dafoe’s character Bobby Peru successfully ended his role in Wild At Heart by discharging a shotgun under his chin. Both cases consist of splatter, impulsivity and execution. But not senselessness. That would discount the deliberation that went into the carrying out of both atrocities. Chalk up what appears to be haphazardness to haphazardness, and you’ll never get the point, and history — like war — will be doomed to repeat itself again and again.