What's more exciting and appealing than professional wrestling? From Mexico's lucha libre to Canada's Hart Foundation, the cowbell kickoff of clean kayfabe competitive combat is for some the height of entertainment. It's a modern amalgam of clashing gladiators in a crowded coliseum and a Greek tragedy holding spectacle in an encircled amphitheater, brought to life in your home's living room like an in-ring telenovela. The conflict between larger than life baby-faces and sinister heels embodies the timeless morality tales of good versus evil via the most electrifying television programming in sports entertainment. Yet professional wrestling is not real.
During a three-day period between the days of June 22 and June 24 of 2007 the former Heavyweight title holder of both the World Wrestling Federation as well as World Championship Wrestling, Chris "The Canadian Crippler" Benoit, murdered his wife and seven-year-old son before taking his own life by means of a lat pull-down machine. After a twenty-two year career, it's theorized that chronic head trauma induced brain damage led to the murder-suicide. That was real.
Real life isn't the shiny family-friendly choreographed superstar mill that companies like the WWE and CMLL would have you believe. It's an ugly billion dollar marketing machine that chews up muscle and spits it out.
Wrestler Owen Hart fell to his death during a botched stunt on a live televised pay-per-view event in 1999. Darren "Droz" Drozdov suffered a neck injury in a 1999 match which left him as a quadriplegic. In 2019 skeleton clad luchador, Jesús Alfonso Huerta Escoboza, better known to the world as La Parka, was paralyzed and later died after an aerial maneuver went bad. In 2015 Mexican wrestler, Perro Aguayo Jr. died in the ring after what would become a fatal trick move from current WWE Superstar, Rey Mysterio Jr.
Real life is ugly. Real life is criminal negligence and greed. Real life is murder, drug addiction, disease and indifference. Real life is two tears in a bucket.
TV isn't real. Shit, reality TV isn't even real. The twenty-four-hour news cycle is questionable at best. Social media is fake. TikTok, well fuck TikTok. The filtered, Photoshopped race to be famous for nothing and the selling of sex via dating apps are based on deception and manipulation. The whole culture behind swiping right, whether for love or lust, is a selective delusion that the populace buys into. The false sense of anonymity and control is not real life. Essentially, a life based on superficialities will ultimately lead to something or someone—ugly.
Straddling this dark dualism of a Tinder date gone wrong and the existential terror of life is Dallas' newest grindcore band, Real Life Ugly. A band whose founding members consist of some of the DFW grind scene's heaviest hitters and all around good people, Irving Lopez and Alejandro Ramirez. Both of whom are current members of the rising Dallas grind-gore super group Trucido. Before that Lopez's tenure in the dissonant/technical death-grind group, Cognizant might ring a bell, as well as Ramirez's past in the cult hardcore/procedural-violence band, Dick Wolf and crusty grindcore THC-oholics, BOZO. With the addition of newcomers Randall Day and Brad Langton, Real Life Ugly are establishing themselves as more than just a side project with their debut demo release Manifestación.
Real Life Ugly's Manifestación is a love letter to Texas grindcore, most notably the gulf coast sounds of grind royalty like Insect Warfare. There's an emphasis on heavy repetitive riffing and fast blasting. Manifestación is a four song demo that doesn't need to meddle in blending genres and doesn't waste time with mood or atmosphere. Even the vocals are moderately sparse. No, this new EP is just straight snarling, driving, no frills Texas grindcore.
Irving Lopez's guitarwork is front and center on this demo. It sounds like he's performing his version of knuckle-dragger heavy metal riffs; purposely replacing his usual technical and dissonant guitar whirlings with crushing palm mutes and sharp heavy marching chugs. Nevertheless, his personal style of hiccup riffs and circular fret smears still make their brief appearances. I think I even heard some pinch harmonics in there as well. Regardless, the guitarwork that he's doing with Real Life Ugly is a direct contrast to his work in Cognizant. There is more of a linear process here compared to his usual more angular playing. Lopez is a casual guitar savant that seemingly can play anything in any style.
I don't know about you, but during live shows I'm staring a hole through the drummer of every band on the bill and watching technique and style. And when I tell you that other than Bryan Fajardo, Alejandro Ramirez might be the most effortlessly smooth and fluent drummer in the North Texas grind scene. Casual fans who might only know Ramirez as the vocalist for Trucido may not know him as a drummer, but he's one of those guys who is just good at everything. It's stupid. On Manifestación he is oscillating from mid-tempo trots that accentuate the chugging riffs to faster .50 caliber machinegun blast beats woven together with satisfyingly tight snare rolls. I genuinely believe his efficiency and solidity behind the kit is clear and present on this release.
Now, from what I can hear, Real Life Ugly could easily be recorded as a two-piece on this release—which was an early incarnation of the band, if I'm not mistaken. But I'm not hearing a defined bass in the mix and I'm not a hundred percent sure of who or how many are on vocals. Assuming the CD's liner notes listing Randall Day and Brad Langton as vocalists are correct, their vocals on Manifestación are a clamoring of some wild, caveman mid-ranged shrieking highs and some raspy low gutturals that are not too far off from Phobia's Shane Mclachlan. You can definitely hear the overlap in the mainly monosyllabic grunts that, again, are very reminiscent of Houston's Insect Warfare. The CD version of the demo EP comes with a fifth bonus track that is a different version of the previous track, "Just Die Already" only with a different vocal performance and the addition of one Arnold Santos.
Real Life Ugly's aesthetic is a huge part of the band's charm. They have a certain style of sarcasm and irony towards life, weeb culture, social media, the white trash metal community and Hulk Hogan Newspeak. It's a fun lampooning of the problematic and vapid qualities of the human condition and society as a whole, but also a celebration of the more laudable aspects of today's world. The sense of humor in this niche local scene is very specific. Real Life Ugly could very well be forging their own subgenre of grindcore—like a "cringe-core" or maybe "ironi-core." And despite all of this, the band's lyrical message promotes a progressiveness and shines a light on societal problems such as drug abuse and poverty.
A lot of the band's merch and imagery is based on underground wrestling and lucha libre. The EP itself pays homage the Latino cultural influence both within the band as well as in the Dallas/Fort Worth areas of Texas. I'd go as far to say it's an intrinsic part of the scene here.
Hopefully, Manifestación is the first of many releases from Real Life Ugly to come. I personally would like to see this band do more and not die on the back pages of Bandcamp, as many grindcore demos are wont to do. Yet as this demo is only a few months old, I guess we shouldn't necessarily be in a rush. But Real Life Ugly is a band well worth swiping right on, especially if you have a fetish for traditional flavored Texas grindcore. HYB!
FFO: Trucido, Insect Warfare, Phobia, PLF
Listen to the album:
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