To attempt to describe, let alone make sense of, a Destruction Unit video would be as futile as attempting to replicate their live show on record, yet these things have been done. The visuals for the desert psych punks’ track “Salvation” are as gruesome as the music is unbridled. From the opening shot of a dubiously masked male in a bikini hurling a Molotov cocktail at a wall, we’re taken on a trip through a subhuman world of violence, fire, and ritualistic blood consumption. An unassuming man walks into a hotel room where two grotesquely distorted figures stand waiting, and is then forced to sit and have his face and mouth pervaded with what appears to be blood, while the two “captors” primitively feed themselves (and each other), from a bowl, with their hands (see, it seems ridiculous to try to recount what you’re witnessing). The track itself is a multi-faced ripper with a searching guitar lead that pans across and penetrates and entire soundscape. It’s slower (for them), with spurts of breakneck drum blasts that raze any notion of calm, and Ryan Rousseau’s vocals digging lower than ever in a hellish baritone, grimacing in the chorus, “…you’re a soldier for your own life, don’t waste time.” The grotesque imagery continues with the two weird figures licking their fingers and flicking their tongues, leading up to the climax, both of the song and the video, and the burning of an American flag. A suspenseful build-up of effectual guitar feedback and mysterious pickings set the stage for the brutality of the song’s close, heavier than ever, while the masked bikini-man returns, twirling about with the flag set ablaze in his hands. Hell yeah.
Negative Feedback Resistor is out now on Sacred Bones.
Destruction Unit tour dates:
October
16 Brooklyn, NY at Baby’s All Right
17 Brooklyn, NY at Hand & Detail Carwash (646 Lorimer)
17 Brooklyn, NY at Alphaville
19 Allston, MA at O’Brien’s Pub
21 Ottawa, ON at Dominion Tavern
23 Toronto, ON at Not Dead Yet
