The Ogre Packet Slammers - Giant Green Destruction

Despite the apparent hard-lined seriousness that many perceive at the surface of metal, so much of metal has been based in ridiculousness and in exaggerations of such that step past the border of seriousness and well into the comedic. Bands like Cannibal Corpse or Pissgrave might put forth vivid and convincing performances of gory musical violence, but it has always been the very gratuitousness of those kinds of performances that have made them, at their core, pretty silly (I like both these artists, and rated both of their respective most recent albums quite positively on here).
Even as it gained worldwide popularity for a time that metalheads largely look at with disgust, hair metal’s absurd exaggeration of glam rock fashion and lifestyle could be described quite similarly; the same could be said even more of power metal’s unabashed indulgence in the most obnoxiously glorious supernatural/mythical fantasies (which I will get into more when I review Gloryhammer’s new album).
Naturally, metal has always had its more overtly comedic side to it as well, from Metalocalypse, to Steel Panther, to quite a few of Devin Townsend’s projects, to XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX. So of course the music of metal itself and internet meme culture were always bound to cross paths at lest a few times (see Okilly Dokilly and Forest of Harambe), and at this point, I suppose it only makes sense that we have a Shrek-themed metal project on our hands with The Ogre Packet Slammers’ Giant Green Destruction.
As the band’s name implies, Giant Green Destruction is a slam-slash-hardcore-slash brutal-death-metal project focused on the now-memed-into-oblivion Dreamworks films of the Shrek franchise. But for all the meme power at the surface of this album, little of it remains relevant past the album cover, the song titles, and the sample that begins the album.
If someone were to just play this thing to me without showing me the cover or the track list, I would think some unsigned band decided to use one Shrek sample to try to hook listeners in on their competent yet stylistically unimaginative slam/deathcore to maybe have people share links to it on Twitter calling it “shrek metal”.
If shrek metal is a genre that can exist, it’s probably not just some slamming variety of death metal with ogre-themed song titles, unintelligible lyrics that may be about ogres, and one Shrek sample. Not even the “All Star” cover is there any realized meme potential; it’s just a brutal slam song with the same lyrics and vocal rhythm as the Smashmouth song. Giant Green Destruction is a decent album in its field, but if you’re looking for something mildly exciting, or different, or even just a meme, you’re not going to find it here.
One onion ring/10

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