Neckbeard Deathcamp - White Nationalism is for Basement Dwelling Losers

I found Neckbeard Deathcamp’s debut album shuffling through the rabbit hole of links on Bandcamp.com, and soon as I saw the cover art and the track titles, I knew I was probably going to have to talk about it.

In case it’s not immediately obvious from the cover and the title, which features a mockery of the eagle crest of Nazi Germany made out of dicks and with a sad Pepe replacing the swastika, this album takes a jab at national socialist black metal and the part of internet community that constitutes the more incognito side of the alt right movement. And it happens in a manner in which the band take neither themselves or the subjects of this album seriously, which is a much better way to treat the ardent and aggressive believers of such stupid ideologies as white nationalism than the counterproductive hysteria that has come from the new political albums from Otep, Prophets of Rage, and Ministry.

With track titles like “Incel Warfare”, “XXXL Obersturmfuhrer Leather Duster”, and “The Fetishization ov Asian Women Despite a Demand for a Pure White Race (Outro)”, reading through the lyrics the band so kindly post alongside each song is a similarly joyfully hilarious. Some of my favorite include “ BATHE YOUR BONES IN BAJA BLAST” (and yes, they are all fully capitalized), “STURM THE KOMMENTS THREAD ONE THOUSAND CUCKS BORN TO DIE”, and “HI FEW THINGS TO START OFF YES I ADDED YOU BECAUSE YOURE A FEMALE GAMER TIS AN AWESOME THING TO SEE IM BRIAN DONT BE INTIMIDATED IM NOT A STEREOTYPICAL GUY / IF ANYTHING ILL BE THE ONE IN THE KITCHEN PLEASE RESPOND”.

Now, the music though, it’s a little underwhelming. I get that this is entire project is a piss take and that it’s supposed to be a very cheeky parody of NSBM. And perhaps the band was aiming to stay ultra-true to the “bedroom 4th reich bands” they dedicate this auditory urine stream to, to paint an ugly realist picture of those groups, rather than putting their best musical foot forward for a joke album. If so, it shows. The music is lacking in interesting writing, discernible riffs, and above potato-tier production. Again, the shit sound, shit writing, and shit style were all probably intended choices. But aside from the intro and outro tracks rattling off nonsense about cucks and about posers bitching about Facebook, respectively, not a single growled lyric is discernible without a close following along with the provided text, and the songs are jammed with the same basic-ass grimy black metal that indeed sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom. Without the comedic imagery and aesthetic of the album, were it just played alone with no context, it would just be another skippable, forgettable raw black metal project. The comedy is not really in the music, the comedy IS the music and how ridiculously shitty it is.

And the approach Neckbeard Deathcamp take is entirely valid, all context considered. It’s not really an album that’s meant for listening to to be repeatedly hit by the jokes it makes, it’s more of a monument than a movie. And by that I mean, it’s something that is best enjoyed for what it is and represents and not so much what it contains. And it’s not like something like Lil Yachty’s Lil Boatmixtape that you can like ironically, or even The Room or Sharknado whose overt B movie satires (intentional or not) are still fun to watch and laugh at for the lengths of their runtimes. This album is more for looking at the outside of, or sending links of to a friend or random internet racist to mess with them. White Nationalism is for Basement Dwelling Losers is a fun, quick shitpost of an album, one that makes for a good goof, a good gaff, but not one that actually inspires repeated front-to-back listens to revel in its sound or its comedy.