GBH – Perfume & Piss

Sweet and Sweat in Equal Measure

Opening with a cough is normally a sign that something is wrong. Perhaps the album wasn’t recorded correctly, or maybe it was just something that was forgotten when the editing was done, but with an album title like Perfume and Piss, a cough is the least of your worries. It is wise to be nervous or hesitant when you see the cover, which looks like a group of geezers trying to either impersonate or relive their hardcore youth. You’ll soon learn, however, that these men are nowhere near their golden years. GBH have done it once more, giving all our pierced souls something beautifully foul to thrash to.

The title track opens up with an incredible guitar riff that pumps you up long before the lyrics start. Disgustingly astonishing, with lyrics like “…It’s a city on fire, doesn’t get any better than this, all I could smell is the perfume and piss” it almost beckons you into a darkly lit basement with mold while the band plays and the pit rages. This track alone is a testament to hardcore, and should be on every punk’s list of thrash songs.

With a fierce drum and guitar power combo, “Polytoxic” is the power hitter for the album. This track’s lyrics talk about saving someone from drugs and a possible overdose if you care to read into it that much. The chorus contains the line “why is the question, of such a pointless death,” which emphasizes the overdose interpretation of the song.

If anything negative can be said about this album, it’s that it didn’t go on forever. GBH have brought us another mind numbingly putrid album to add to our collection, something that will fill our tattooed minds with hardcore insanity. “Time flies, then it stops” is a point made clear while going through this album, but you’ll savor every sweat dripping moment of it.