"I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We know things are bad, worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.'"
-Network (1976)
At the risk of once again overstating the obvious, we all know the world has found itself lamed from its current anomalous and pestilential state of affairs. People across the globe are still reeling from the fallout of Covid 19 and its disastrous affects on modern life: unprecedented death tolls, civilizations in isolation, state sanctioned violence, supply chain breakdowns, vapid social media addiction, technological dependence, civil unrest, corporate monopolies, fascism, warfare, riots, fear, despair, disease and anxiety have all gutted the human psyche. And the corrosion of mental health is just the latest pandemic on the horizon for mankind. I highly doubt that I would be remiss in assuming a lot of us had a rough past couple of years and got a firsthand look at the cold face of melancholia.
So when it came time for the Indonesian grindcore veterans, Proletar, to name their latest full-length, they could not have picked a more appropriate title than Depressive Disorder. The band's Southeast Asian home in the national capital of Jakarta is a large populated seaside metropolis and a culturally diverse economic mecca. The people of this industrialized cityscape know all too well how the pandemic has strangled the modern world as well as the criminal elements, wealth inequality and varied other common hardships that accompany life in any behemothian city. Not to mention that this urban jungle amidst a literal jungle is sinking. Like actually sinking. Into the ocean. There is a good deal to be stressed about and many sources of depression. Both mentally and incrementally through subsidence.
Proletar has been a band since 1999 and have released more EPs and splits than I was able to accurately count, frankly. So it's safe to say that the Jakartan three-piece are a consummate and seasoned band that are proceeded by their own volume and stalwartness. A large portion of that volume is collected in the 2007 early semi-discography, Back to Hatevolution CD released through To Live A Lie Records which showcased the band's progression through the better part of their first decade. Right from the start Proletar established a sound that incorporated both an affinity for the old school style of grindcore as well as a healthy obsession for crusty riff worship. In earlier releases, such as the 2004 split with Extreme Decay, Proletar came off as a raw, blasting punk-grind act that only slowed things down long enough to exhibit their thrashy mosh proclivities complete with youthful belligerence and gang vocals. While over a decade later the band's 2016 split with Department of Correction revealed a chunkier, better produced and more metallic death-grind. Over time the band dirtied up their earlier punk-grind predilections with a beefier crust grime. Very much in the vein of Agathocles and their mincecore clones.
2021's Depressive Disorder marks Proletar's first new record since the aforementioned 2016 split CD, if I'm not mistaken. Depressive Disorder's official release is also being bundled together with a DVD documentary, Grind For A Better Life which has been in the works for years and focuses on the band themselves. I was not privy to the film, but I did get a chance to review the album. An album that doubles down on the metallic crust punk and offers up a more mellow make of mince. The blast beats seem to be used more sparingly on this release. The drummer instead opting for long double bass trots, mid-tempo grooves and cymbal catching build ups that seem to be designed as filler for the catchy, palm muted riffing that is the real core of the album. There's also a subtle blend of grindcore and sludge metal. Almost as if the band was channeling some influences from their stateside creole counterparts in the American Louisiana Gulf Coast (another geographic location that is also sinking into the sea, by the way.) Bands like Soilent Green and Eyehategod immediately come to mind. However, not to fear, songs like "Teknologi Menghunus" and "Hoax" bring back the aggression and tempo that listeners might be expecting from past records. Given the twenty-one tracks on the album we are treated to a pretty decent mix of the mosh inciting, headbang inducing, chug-heavy songs and the more hawkish, blast beat filled numbers. There are even brief instances of the use of Nasum-style melody thrown in for good measure.
Tempo isn't the only notable modification that is apparent on the album. There is a kind of experimentation in the minutia and periphery of the record that we haven't really seen the band explore to this degree. Track "Bentala Bernyawa" features an ambient intro overlaid with spoken word. Likewise, "Muda Yang Murka" implements a clever use of Muzak and radio chatter. Vocally, we hear the usual back and forth between death metal lows and highs, but the album also features a goregrind-esque range of gurgles and inhaled pig squeals that are manipulated and layered. The band obviously took full advantage of their time in the studio.
All things considered, Depressive Disorder is a stout and solid record that excels in many ways and is a high water mark for the band. The production is the best they've ever had in their over two decade run. There was clearly an emphasis on the "heavy" over speed as the entirety of this record is absolutely crushing. And while speed freaks might find the album lacking, it more than makes up for it in headbanging thickness. Again, fans of mincecore and crustcore will not be phased. In fact, as a crust album, Depressive Disorder would be untouchable in the realm of 2021 or 2022 crust punk releases. It might even help to think of Depressive Disorder as Proletar's version of Warcollapse's 2007 masterpiece, Defy!. Yet in that regard it would really all just be a matter of semantics. In spite of all of this, the album is not without its faults. Even though the riffs are fun and catchy, many of them seem a little too similar which can come off as repetitive at times. Especially with how stripped down the riffs are to begin with and even more so when some of those riffs are grouped in back-to-back songs on the track listing. Regardless, Depressive Disorder is a hard-hitting album that shows a broadening of Proletar's horizons as a band. At the very least, the album provides something for almost everyone. From the blue denim sporting metalheads to the foulest smelling crust punks to BPM worshipping grindheads or even any French grindcore loving goats.
Listen to a track from the album:
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