How many bands get signed after releasing just one or two tracks these days? I mean, it does happen. But this isn't the '60s anymore. You don't drop a hot single and then get carried to national acclaim on the back of a surge of call-ins to local radio stations. Labels don't sign you because you're the slick young band with a regional heat seeker in your back pocket, they... Now that I've written the previous sentence, I've realized that I have no idea how people actually get signed to a lable these days. I assume it involves email... although a lot of record labels are on Twitter and Instagram now. I guess you could just DM who ever you want to sign you. They'll probably listen to your stuff while they sort their emails at night to empty their inbox (which is a thing people do because they hate themselves and can't stop working, even while in bed). People DM me their stuff all the time and I listen to it (yes, while I sort emails at night, I'm as bad as the rest of you). I'm not signing anyone to a label, though. I Thought I Heard A Sound is not in that kind of a business, friends (I have to sleep eventually).
Regardless of how record deals actually get inked in the Twenty-first century, Terminal Bliss's signing to Relapse seemed almost inevitable. The band released two tracks via Bandcamp and it landed them a deal within a week. Given who is in Terminal Bliss though, I'm surprised it took that long. The group is comprised of members from Pg. 99, City of Caterpillars, Iron Reagan, and Darkest Hour, and the fact that they released anything as an unsigned band makes me think that they didn't initially take the project that seriously. Lots of bands start out that way, ie as sort of a lark. That seems to have been a miscalculation on their part. People are very interested in this band and they needed to put together an EP right quick if they wanted to maintain the momentum generated by those early tracks.
So what's the verdict on Brute Err/ata, the band's aforementioned, debut EP? Well, it's pretty good. Good enough to drop 500 or so words on it at least. The album really doesn't sound like any of its members' other projects. It's more of a revival of the loose, fun, and audaciously outspoken, political hardcore of the early '80s, with odd nods to power electronics and a punishing stratum of feedback ground into its DNA. "Clean Bill of Wealth" starts out with an industrial sputter before slipping into an SSD aping groove, "Dystopian Buffet" is a bouncy thrash and mash, and "Small One Time Fee" will whip you around like a dead cat in the hands of guerrilla with the Venomous Concept logo tattooed on its chest before grotesquely transitioning into a Street Sects-esque slither. Brute Err/ata has definitely gotten my attention and I'm looking forward to seeing what Terminal Bliss does next now that they have the dedication of my eye, ears, and whatever is left of my slightly damaged sense of hearing. I'd wish them luck, but that's probably bad luck... break a collar bone, guys (no, not literally).
