Apartment 213
Cleveland Power Violence
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Maybe the Browns should change their nickname...
Charles Manson references in extreme metal are like the "Funky Drummer" break in hip-hop, like steel guitar solos in country, like melismas in contemporary R&B. They're flourishes that signify the genre, and they'd be egregious clichés if they weren't an indelible part of the musical landscape.
Oh, who are we fooling? They're egregious clichés. How about we declare some sort of moratorium on Manson samples, samples talking about Manson, and basically anything to do with Charles Manson? I know, I know, it's really too much to ask. But can we at least ban Marilyn Manson?
Apartment 213 open the straightforwardly titled Cleveland Power Violence with a song containing a sample about Manson, but you know, they're kinda an exception to all these rules, grandfathered in almost. Besides, they quickly pull themselves out of the gaping hole that such a move digs. (The second track closes with a baby crying, a sound effect that was corny when Lou Reed used it on "Berlin" in '73.)
A mitigating factor: This is a beyond-unexpected return from this band, who embodied Crossed Out-style extreme-o-core to the Midwest in the '90s. Blending powerviolence's downtuned hideousness with are-those-power-tools-or-what? industrial mayhem was a boss move, and 213 haven't lost a step; they've merely upgraded the production budget a smidge. The final track, "Freak War," is just that, an overdriven noise collobo between 213 and OG powerviolence mack Eric Wood of Man Is the Bastard. "This is gonna hurt/ I'm gonna make it hurt," howls singer Steve Makita. Well, I should hope so, dude.—Joe Gross
