Chuck Dietrich, the founder of the long-running, L.A.-based hardcore/punk rock band Bullet Treatment, is at the core of the continually, and intentionally, morphing music project. Since 1998 Dietrich has performed on every Bullet Treatment record while other talented members have been temporary involved over the years. The guest artist list is long and illustrious, and includes various members from bands like Rise Against, The Bronx, Faith No More, Anti-Flag, Spinnerette, Vultures United, Social Distortion, and more.
Bullet Treatment just released a new EP titled Bloodshot - Chapter 1 March 8th on Basement Records. The follow-up Bloodshot - Chapter 2 EP is also due out this year. Between Bloodshot - Chapter 1 and the 2013 album Ex-Breathers, the ever-busy Dietrich has re-issued Bullet Treatment’s debut record with 5 bonus tracks, now named What More Do You Want?, and a retrospective collection.
Bullet Treatment’s revolving door line-up creates an exciting anticipation for each release, although this time around band member identities are being kept under wraps for the time being. The idea is to take the music on its own merits and not just for the band’s star-studded line-up. Deitrich, however, did divulge this interesting detail: “Everyone has played on a previous Bullet Treatment release, but not together as this foursome.”
Dietrich and company go for short, sharp, and satisfyingly involving on the 6-track Bloodshot - Chapter 1. Each song is around one or two minutes long (except last number which clocks in at just over 3 minutes) and flies by like an exhilarating nitro-fueled ride. EP-opener “Damaged” sets the dark and dangerous mood with a slow intro that suddenly zips into heavy guitar riffage, speedy drumming and cymbals bash, and throat-ripping vocals where the vocalist shouts vehemently that it’s “Impossible to argue with crazy” and that “I am damaged.”
The unrelenting “Let It Bleed” kicks in next, thickly roiling with grinding guitar burn and machine gun fire drum blasts. The vocalist tunefully modulates his exclamations, asking “Is this what you want? /…give into everything…” The message seems to be that the system (be it political, social, individual, etc…) is broken and a pervasive apathy exists that is resistant to change.
The band gets downright melodic amid the noise on the verse/chorus/verse-constructed anthem “Our Lady Of Perpetual Exemption”. The vocalist shouts in a sing-song intonation the bleak admission that “I don’t feel incomplete / I don’t feel anything.” He’s backed by equally rousing vocal chants on the chorus, as well as chugging guitar distortion and a driving drum beat. The highly-charged “Volatile Animal” is a quick, less-than-a- minute track that changes from a fast pace to an even speedier tempo midway through its run. The breakneck bludgeoning is topped with the harshly throat-shredding shouts of the vocalist who declares at song’s end that “We’re just animals.”
Immolating guitar lines and double-time drumming kinetics propel the vocalist’s call to arms on “Mr. Mouth Breather”. Aimed at the apathetic segment of today’s youth who need a good kick in the ass to do anything, the vocalist exclaims for the kids to “Wake up!” and that they’re just “…killing time…” Along those same lines, at least in title, “Nowhere To Go And All Day To Get There” follows. On the song the vocalist plaintively comments on a violent world gone wrong and a “…death of innocence.” The guitars churn jaggedly against his stark words while the steady drum beat switches into overdrive midway through the tune, launching into a higher level of intensity before dying away…
Watch the lyrics video for "Volatile Animal":
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