The life cycle is strange sometimes. Kids in the Hall is back, but The Eradicator is going away. One is an indirect result of the other, yet it seems they cannot coexist at the same time.
And if that already confused the hell out of you, just wait until you dive into this band. The Eradicator is a project themed after an old Kids in the Hall skit, somehow turning about five minutes of abstract comedy into a trilogy of hardcore-tinged punk that is possibly summed up as “squash-themed braggadocio.”
It’s a gimmick but, to plagiarize myself from previous coverage, gimmick bands are nothing without good music. And The Eradicator succeeds on a couple of levels: one, the gimmick works; two, the music is good and doesn’t feel like it’s just a joke. This is catchy and hard punk with poppy melodies and some textural keyboards for a little bit of dramatic effect. The lyrical theme follows the titular Eradicator singer and squash dynamo as he defends his crown. And while the songs are theoretically about being the best squash player, they’re really a ham-fished metaphors about struggle, coping, and empowerment shrouded in some abstract, tongue-in-cheek braggadocio. The squash theme is front and center, but nearly every song utilizes language with dual meanings that can alternately be interpreted as being on top of the world or wallowing at the bottom. It’s super silly, yet it draws an emotional connection that’s hard to explain. The press sheet shouts out Andrew WK anthems and it’s an apt comparison in some respects.
Musically, Forever The Eradicator is heavy and power chord driven with a lot of nuanced influence. It kind of reminds me of early 2000s Dwarves like Come Clean and Must Die which were rooted in punk but shamelessly integrated elements of industrial rock, hip-hop, hardcore, and more. The intro track even pushes into prog territory though, thankfully, the rest of the record steers clear. Finally, it ends with a cover of “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” leaving a bit of intrigue as to if this record is truly the end of The Eradicator or if another comeback is on the horizon.
A few of the songs here premiered earlier, and others (like The Clash cover) were live staples, making this album both a final act but also a culmination or trophy of The Eradicator’s greatest works so they can live on, long after the masked one has left the court. It signals going out on top, rather than the slow and painful demise of a legend.
