Painkiller: Complete Studio Recordings

After his schizophrenic ensemble Naked City began to dissolve, New York composer/improviser John Zorn needed another outlet for his love of thrash-jazz and grindcore. That outlet was Painkiller, a brutal power trio formed with fellow downtown pal Bill Laswell (who once played in Massacre, another revolutionary trio) on bass and Napalm Death's supersonic drummer Mick Harris. Until now, much of Painkiller's discography was out of print, but Zorn has just reissued the band's entire studio output as a four-disc collection. Disc zero contains the rapid-fire Guts Of A Virgin and dirge-like Buried Secrets albums, plus the shorter Marianne. Discs one and two contain the music of Execution Ground in its entirety, complete with songs of epic length, as well as even longer ambient remixes reminiscent of Harris' work in Scorn. Disc three contains the caustic Live In Osaka release. The gruesome, graphic cover art, which faithfully reproduces that of the original albums, gives a clear indication of the type of music Painkiller plays: This stuff is extreme, with blasts of shrieking sax and rumbling bass atop Harris' unforgiving percussion, and it's not anywhere near as fun as the pop-culture-savvy Naked City, Zorn's most similar project. But for those masochists and Zorn fanatics who possess the mettle needed to endure this abusive racket, Complete Studio Recordings is essential.