No Love Deep Web

Death Grips

Death Grips were signed to a major label, their debut received critical acclaim, their internet savvy was already amassing a large and loyal following; the band's trajectory was about as ideal as you could get for the mysterious, outsider hip-hop collective. Then some personnel changes over at Epic Records left the band floundering, leading the band to go nuclear in perhaps the most legendary fashion. They leaked the album with minimal notice. The album cover was a hastily taken, erect dick pic with the album's titled scrawled across it. Epic's correspondence objecting to the band's behaviour and requesting that they act in accordance to their contract were subsequently shared on the band's social media. The cancelled tour that originally soured the relationship and the band's open defiance proved to be too much for the label to handle and they ultimately relented, dropping the band after only one album. All of this is pretty important context considering that No Love Deep Web is just as volatile as the image the band was emitting. The instrumentation, compared to The Money Store, is much more minimal and all colour has been sucked out. The vibe is bleak, dark, dim, and pulsing with electricity. Not in a fun, thrilling way, but rather in a "Danger! Danger! High Voltage!" way. The lyrics are even more unhinged and violent without provocation; "fold a man into nothin' for nothin'" Ride raps a little too comfortably on Black Dice. The lyrics also suggest that the seed of distrust and paranoia previously planted back on a few cuts from Exmilitary has bloomed into a full-on nihilistic anarchy. No Love Deep Web by design is an exercise in futility, although, thanks to the band's incredibly strong hook game, inventive rhythms by Zach Hill, and the primal, blood-pumping performances by Ride, it turns out to be very worthwhile.

Wasting no time, album opener Come Up and Get Me busts right in with these overwhelming, hollow bass synths that phase, warp, and rev all across the stereo field. The beat is also a creative choice, made up of flat, punchy kicks and hand claps. It's enough to propel the song forward, but inconspicuous enough not to distract from the all enveloping synths. Ride sounds like a cornered animal on their last ditch effort to make an escape from their pursuers, although the method of escape Ride is now considering is dying by his own hands as opposed to the hands of others. It's one of Death Grips' most visceral tracks and it is an amazing tone setter for the rest of this album. Lil Boy brings down the energy a little bit, but is still very unsettling. Everything about this track is very rhythmic. The round, tuned percussion the track opens with is really cool, the deep kicks paired with the ominous glockenspiel-type synths unexpectedly take things to a setting that is almost too quiet if you know what I mean, and Hill shows his brilliance with a great drum beat that has a lopsided, triplet feel.

No Love brings the intensity back with a vengeance. The nightmare synths on this track are absolutely harrowing and the lumbering beat feels like a march to one's doom. The synthetic snares have a deafening crack to them and when Hill layers the beat with a double-timed groove using acoustic instrumentation, the cymbal wash adds a great deal of heaviness. Contrary to the opening track, Ride portrays the merciless predator on this one. There are so many sickening lines about his subject learning the "proper meaning of a beatdown," beating his victim into obedience to the point that they will beg for the abuse to continue, and carelessly checking his phone with the sounds of whimpering in the background. I don't think anything else in the Death Grips discography matches this level of demented horror. The album later plunges into apocalyptic chaos on Lock Your Doors. Every sound the band uses helps make this track feel like the end of the world: synths sound off like distant explosions or foghorn alarms, the sounds of frenzied crowds shortly follow, raising the hysteria, and the disembodied instructions that are transmitted add just a touch of dystopia.

The aggressive energy begins to taper off in the second half, but still maintains a very off-putting aesthetic. Even at its most minimal, like the percussive Hunger Games for example - the trio still manages to pull off a compelling song. The off-kilter beat, the witchy embellishments, and Ride's esoterically cryptic lyrics are pretty entrancing. Whammy brings The Money Store levels of earworm catchiness right off the top. The chopped and manipulated vocal sample, the resonant and busy kick drums, those freaky skittering hi-hats, and the "wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-WHAMMY" individually are strong enough as a hook to carry this song, but putting them all together is just a massive flex. We end on Artificial Death In the West, a cold and cavernous cut thanks to the tremolo'd and modulated string sounds, the trance-flavoured synths, and the spring reverbed drums. The band relents at the end here, not because they are going soft, but rather because after such a tumultuous record, they simply have no fight left in them. Really brings a sense of discomforting finality that is perfect for this record.

No Love Deep Web is not really for the faint of heart. The instrumentation is quite oppressive, Ride comes off even more manic and unhinged, and his lyrics are the ramblings of a madman who has absolutely lost his mind. Despite this, however, the sound play is still top notch as you would come to expect from the band. They manage to pack in many memorable hooks even within the context of this unlikeable album. And Ride's words, as insane as they are, are no doubt poetic in nature. In the wider Death Grips canon, this record is significant because it further demonstrates that the band is not interested in copying themselves. After The Money Store's success, they could have easily given us another helping of that. But Death Grips is always forward-thinking, ahead of the curve, and no matter what sound they go for, you can count on them to deliver at the highest quality.