'Xtrmntr' is exactly the shot in the arm that rock needs right now. Angry, abusive, belligerent and experimental, it is the antithesis of the very elements that shaped the redundant vortex of much of 1999's music scene.
Throughout the album, Primal Scream set a furious pace that only narrowly stops itself before the last note is spat out. In the preceding 65 minutes, what you get is as monumental a sonic statement of the times as 'Screamadelica' was over ten years ago, the first great album of the millennium and probably the best record of the year.
Opening with the phasing electro shrapnel and sawing funk of 'Kill All Hippies', Bobby Gillespie, rips immediately into the faceless multi-national 'opposition' that are hunted down and slaughtered throughout the record: "You've got the money, I've got the soul", Gillespie exhorts. My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields has become a live member of the band and his influence is all over the record, most notably in the psychopathic distortion of 'Accelerator'. As the disgusting fuzz-box guitar chainsaws through the track, Gillespie, as Iggy Pop, implores the listener to "COME ON!!!".
Lyrically, Gillespie is in the sort of form you'd expect of a deranged man appearing at your door to unload deliverance and retribution on the 'corporate whores', 'Exterminator' being a perfect example. "Exterminate the underclass...no civil disobedience...everyone's a prostitute". A reverberating bass-line marches through the track, accompanied by a violent techno whiplash, as the unhinged tempo refuses to slow.
In fact, 'Xtrmntr' doesn't actually rip its nailed foot from the accelerator until seven tracks in. Meantime, Jagz Kooner's version of 'Swastika Eyes' - the Chemical Brothers single release is also included, for some reason - charges into sight, a cross-pollenisation of fast-action techno and groove-ridden rock and another damning diatribe against the vacuous, vampiric bite of 21st century industry. 'Pills' is even more enraged in its bile, as Gillespie releases a shower of splenetic abuse at no-one in particular: "You're sick, sick, sick, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck..."
Such is the common ground and while lyrical and musical molestation is the life-blood of 'Exterminator', the shelter provided by the album's peaks - 'Keep Your Dreams' and 'Shoot Speed Kill Light' - is tangibly welcome. The magnificent 'Keep Your Dreams' is as close as the band get to the atmospheric hallucinations of 'Screamadelica', replete with a gothic sythn purge reminiscent of Joy Division, while also providing a rare glimpse of optimistic light from beyond the gloomy rockface of the rest of the record.
Closing track 'Shoot Speed Kill Light' is as fantastic. A charging riff, suddenly transcended by waves of backwards guitars and a dangerously hypnotic, pulsing bass-line. Heavily influenced by legendary Krautrockers Neu! in its propulsive momentum, Gillespie simply vocoders the title as the track drives onwards and truly upwards. A magical conclusion and a rocket ride clear from the debris, claustrophobia and rage that floods from most of 'Xtrmntr'.
But let's face it, you've got to hurt to heal and this album goes a long way to gouging out a future for rock that demands protest, energy and belief. The very things that have made it so vital for the past 40 years.
