Snotty Oslo punks The Good The Bad And The Zugly are premiering their new album Misanthropical House exclusively with Metal Hammer.
Due for release on January 26 via Fysisk Format, Misanthropical House is the third full-length from GBZ and follows last year’s earworm-filled compilation The Worst Four Years. Channelling the sounds of ‘90s hardcore, Kvelertak, skate punk and more, the band’s new album is a bounce-filled, drink-along speedchase full of songs about haemorrhoids, the dangers of thinking and unnecessary travel.
It’s fun, it’s dumb, and it’s brilliant.
Why are the band singing about bleeding bums and a hatred of travel bloggers? Well we asked The Good The Bad And The Zugly to talk us through each song. And here’s what they had to say…
H-Bomb
“The opening tune is an anthem to the state of hubris – an explosion of adrenaline, of natural and chemically-induced highs. It’s supposed to be a smack in the head, a punk rock overdose, like riding 100mph blindfolded, boosted by your own ego and artificial testosterone. The voiceover is by former wrestler Bas Ruten, an outtake from one of his hilarious self-defence videos.”
Mindlessness
“There is so much talk about positive mindfulness strategies and psychological self-help solutions these days. We have a different approach, I guess. It’s better to disconnect than to empty your pockets getting life coaching lessons. Medicinal yoga stands no chance against getting a tour inside your toga. Do you want to find inner peace? Do you lack purpose in life? Are you searching for a mental vacation? Then embrace mindlessness.”
Vik Bak Meg Satan
“The lyrics deal with an illness that one-third of the world’s population can relate to, but no-one talks about. Taboos still exist! After decades of living this lifestyle, it should not come as a surprise that it’s starting to take a toll on both our bodies and our minds. As we plunge into premature middle age, we have all encountered the inevitabilities of growing older. Yet Norwegians seem to keep quiet about this stuff, nobody is wearing their haemorrhoids with pride anymore. The song Vik Bak Meg Satan is an ode to the unspoken atrocities happening to countless of bleeding assholes throughout the country. Someone had to step up and address this stuff!”
I Lied About Being A Hardcore Man
“This is about when you play in a hardcore band but don’t really know that much about hardcore. People have mistaken us for being connoisseurs of the genre, but in fact we know next to nothing. I used to wear a Gorilla Biscuit t-shirt, but in fact, I know nothing about them. The only thing I know is that Cro-Mags are even more gorilla than them. One part of the middle-age decay we are talking about is the realisation that you have fooled yourself into believing you were a true hardcore punk.”
Ripe For The Grave
“Your body feels like a rotten piece of compost, your mind even worse. Your life is in steady decline, plunging towards a seemingly bottomless pit of misery and self-destruction. Why are middle-age dreams so hard to beat? The only key on my keyboard I like is delete. And when you think that you’ve reached the bottom, when you feel that you are ripe for the grave, just keep on digging.”
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West Coast Exile
“This is a song about the utter stupidity of going on a West Coast exile and the comic irony of putting oneself through a journey worse than Dante’s nine stages of hell. The song is a message to all future idealists, spiritual minglers, degenerated novice students and enterprising future-contributors to step back and let go of their dreams. It’s a song for people who claim that they are self-made, but dammit – they were always born on the sunny side.”
It’s A Jungle Out There, In The Forest
“We all live near the woods just outside of Oslo, and it’s no walk in the park, literally. Ants, piss, asbestos, wasps, pills and acid rain, dragonflies, nettles, ticks, swamps, the express train, fornication at the black pond, city tourists, Norrøna cunts, concrete punks, long fingered Sunday school teachers, Mr. Crowley and Charles Manson. All we wanna do is to live in peace. All we want is to deal MDF and OSB so we can feed our family. But it’s no picnic, it’s a jungle out there, in the forest.”
International Asshole
“We all have that one friend who travels to the far east just to get a decent cup of noodles, who is blogging photos from a cosy fucking farm in France, and who keeps talking about how cheap it is in India and how long you can stay there on just one month’s salary. Two hours in Paris, eight hours in Shanghai, another four-day weekend to New York. Do these assholes ever go to work? The world wouldn’t have to care for CO2 if it wasn’t for backpackers just like you. What’s wrong with Oslo and Google Earth?”
What Would I Do?
“This song addresses the genuine concern we have of what we would do if we were born before rock. Read books? Go on walks? What would we do without booze, boobs and Ibux?”
I Need A Place To Drink
“Whatever happened to just walking into a bar and not having to answer a bunch of questions? What’s the capital of Tokyo? Who wrote Juliet And Romeo? We don’t know! We just wanna sit down, drink beer and feel fine. So we wrote this song about quizzing – a song for anti-quizzed. Knowledge is power says my girl, well how come the quiz masters don’t rule the world? There is one thing we never do, we don’t mix beer and IQ. We need a place to drink, not a place to think.”
Sickness Unto Death
“According to Søren Kierkegaard, despair is a fate worse than death, he called it the sickness unto death, the agony of dying while you live. It is the equivalent to the modern Catch 22 – being stuck between the rejection of life and the impossibility of death. Just hang on, one more day, try to catch your breath while the demons are raging in your mind. Termination juvenile. Lights out.”
Going Nowhere Fast
“But then again, whats wrong with going nowhere fast? Take the train into town with a six pack of easy beer. Get drunk, play some punk, sleep hard, repeat.”
Misanthropical House is out January 26 and is available to pre-order now.
