The Comedy of Errors appendices: Splintered - Kill the Body So the Head Will Die [Peel Session] (29 May 1992)

When it comes to noise-rock, it pays to strike while the iron is hot.  When I first heard this session, I slated three tracks for inclusion, but the time it took for it to turn up online allowed plenty of time for second thoughts.  As with Revolver’s Peel Session, I oscillated between including 1 and 3 tracks.  Eventually the Fantastic Voyage-like noodling of Judas Cradle and the stomping thump of Godsend both missed the cut, so we’re left with the cacophonously, enjoyable funk metal of Kill the Body So the Head Will Die.  It’s central riff sounds like a shamanistic call to arms while the incantations of the title line and vague, echoey exhortations bellowed urgently but distantly under the riff beseech us in the style of someone declaring their last will and testament from the far end of a five-acre field.

The supercharged thrash playout from 3:15 onwards is a nod to the Donington Park crowd, but I found myself thinking that it sits closer to Nu metal than heavy metal. And while, I will happily stand in any crowd that wants to diss Linkin Park, I find that while listening to the track I’m projecting forward to Take the Long Road and Walk It by The Music, one of the more under-rated bands of the early 21st Century, who in that one track managed to marry the groove and the thump to briefly brilliant effect.

The full session can be heard here.

Video courtesy of Vibracobra23 Redux