Limited cassette run taps into sludge-pop and subculture
Coming off the heels of an up-tempo micro-pop album and a crowd-pleasing electronic EP, Gregory Pepper and His Problems aim to ruffle a few feathers with the release of Black Metal Demo Tape.
While the music could be described as “sludgy pseudo-metal pop” at best, the cover art shows Pepper decked out in corpse paint, lifting his cat as a sacrifice to the Scandinavian demons of black metal.
Although Pepper credits a “subconscious fear of success” with the ironic branding of his latest release, he also revels in the idea of hardcore metal fans vilifying the album’s misappropriation of the black metal name and imagery on the deepest threads of Reddit.
“They say that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, so fingers crossed that, in one foul swoop, I will insult an entire community of metalheads,” said Pepper in an interview with The Ontarion.
Black Metal Demo Tape also borrows from the underground DIY cassette tape culture of ’80s heavy metal and punk bands, opting for deliberately noisy and raw recordings to suit the medium: a limited run of cassettes.
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After being denied for a grant from the Ontario Arts Council, which Pepper hoped to use to record the album with the full Problems band, he opted for a solo home recording effort.
“I had the album’s worth of material, which was actually [in demo form], but after sitting with it for six or eight months, I got to kind of liking the naïve raw production, which is aesthetically something that it actually does share with black metal,” he explained.
“It’s typically very under-produced and, in that scene, there is a very deliberate effort to stay obscure.”
While many listeners may not have access to a tape player, the obsolete format hasn’t stopped fans from pre-ordering the cassette, which is slated for release on Feb. 24 from Fake Four Records. The cassette also includes a digital download code (because it is 2017 after all).
Contrary to the clear and concise social commentary on Pepper’s 2015 album Chorus! Chorus! Chorus!, the new material explores darker, more cryptic themes with the lyrics buried deep in the mix and in the use of metaphors.
While the first single “My Roommate is a Snake and the Landlord’s a Bat” uses Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery as a reference point, “This Town” embodies the personas of classic slasher movie villains. Originally released on the 2016 EP Ghost as an ’80s electro-pop throwback (complete with a Breakfast Club super-cut music video), the Black Metal Demo Tape version of “This Town” ditches the John Hughes influence for more of a John Carpenter approach.
“That one started off as being introspective of being stuck in a small town… and then it turned into a first-person murder story,” said Pepper. When asked if that’s how he feels about living in Guelph, he replied with a laugh, “Sometimes.”
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To tease the upcoming release of the album, Pepper and His Problems played an unannounced show at the eBar on Feb. 3.
With the heavier material and a slight change in lineup, the surprise set called for a muddier sound and fewer power stances than the local audience is used to witnessing from the Problems.
Previously up-tempo songs like “Dearly Departed,” while already grim in nature, were transformed by relentless distortion and a slower BPM to match the tone of the new album.
“There is a goal to have everything feel like a cohesive unit,” said Pepper about playing live. “In the long run, it’s better to cater the set to the other musicians I’m playing with. I think it’s more fulfilling for them and it ultimately works. So the guys I’m playing with now, they’re pretty expressive, psyche-experimental guys and they have toes in jazz [and] electronic music.”
The band members—including Pepper on lead vocals and guitar, Tyson Brinacombe on rhythm guitar, Alex Ricci on bass, and Dan Paillé on drums—who normally sport matching stage outfits, wore their regular street clothes for this show. However, a fresh coat of matching corpse paint could very well be in the Problems’ future.
Following a solo American tour, Pepper will return to the Guelph stage to perform at Kazoo! Fest with his full band in April.
“I’ve got a couple months to work on the guys to see if I can convince them to wear the corpse paint.”
The gimmick isn’t necessary though, as Pepper’s cunning songwriting and unpredictability continue to keep listeners on the edge of their seat.
Just as Black Metal Demo Tape winds down with a dizzying atmospheric waltz on “Quirky,” a bonus track emerges, demonstrating possibly the most raw and vulnerable version of Pepper we’ve heard to date.
When the demo version of “I Felt Pity” first appeared online back in October, he noted that it was “uncharacteristically direct and autobiographical.”
The fuzzy, stripped-down rendering on the cassette pulls the listener into the true story of 17-year-old Pepper being hit on by an older male coworker after accepting a ride home from his work-a-day factory job.
On being able to tell this story by pairing the right words with the right chords, Pepper said, “I would like to start writing more honest, direct songs, but it’s not easy. I don’t have much to say… That’s why I could never be a rapper.”
Feature image by Jaime Hogg