Emmure, 'Gypsy Disco,' GG Allin, and the music industry

On 'Gypsy Disco,' Emmure wax-lyrical about the music industry & what happens when you pour everything into your art but get nothing back. 

Why do people play and pursue music? There's a wide array of answers to that broad question. For most, it's an addiction, an itch that they always need to scratch in their lives; if they don't write, perform, live and breathe music, they don't feel fulfilled. For others, it's something fun to do with their mates, to pass the time; something they fall into. And for a few, it's just a gig; something to do to get paid (if performing more lucrative musical roles, of course.) Either way, there's a host of answers for different individuals, but there's a big crossover of experiences for these people, no matter their background, in the music industry.

As a trickier question to answer would be what happens when you give your life to an industry but end up with nothing or get very little back? Emmure have their own extreme answer: 'Gyspy Disco.' As this short but sweet, dark nu-metalcore track puts it, it's about caring deeply for the music you make but making peanuts in return and losing, sacrificing, so much else. About creating nothing but a "legacy of fucking regret," ending it on your own terms when you feel that your mission is finally complete. For when you have given everything to your art and there's nothing left to do nor offer people, what else is there? As 'Gypsy Disco' spells it out: "The ultimate rock and roll sacrifice is death."

Now, if that last quote sounds familiar, there's a reason for that, as this new Emmure jam samples one specific infamous musician. If you've heard Lil Uzi Vert's 2014 EP, 'Purple Thoughtz EP, Vol. 1,' or at least that EP's intro piece of 'GG,' then you may recognize where this Emmure songs' two samples - in its intro and outro respectively - come from and who said it: the poo-slinging, racist, unfiltered punk rock dirtbag legend himself, GG Allin. ('Gypsy Disco' could also be a slight reference to GG's 'Gypsy Motherfucker.') Here's a small part of a much-larger quote that Emmure use here from the deceased, highly-insane rock musician about what kind of legacy he believed his awful music and gross antics would leave behind in the bloodstream of rock:

"...And then I can accelerate into the next life

And still leave my blood here

To be the blood of rock and roll and still be here

I'll never go away."

Eerie. Very eerie.

As for this self-loathing song, Emmure are practically the modern kings of honing low-tuned, filthy-sounding, incredibly moshable breakdowns. They've been predominantly playing that shit since 2003, so you'd sure hope that they'd be great at it by now. And that is very much the case here with 'Gypsy Disco,' as thankfully, it goes pretty damned hard. The band keeps things bouncy and heavy with some air-tight syncopated breakdowns, big-ass grooves, slicing guitar harmonics and dissonant loops, and Frankie Palmeri's signature vocal style of vehement high-pitched screaming and whiny spoken-word/rapping that really help hit the lyrics on home.

If there's one criticism to have about 'Gypsy Disco,' it's that it does feel a little like a "skit." At just two-minutes long, it leaves you wanting more. They even re-use that whirring, alarming guitar sounds as per their previous single, the gnarly 'Pigs Ear.' Still, I prefer obnoxiously-heavy bands like Emmure to keep things short as opposed to dragging things out for four minutes plus, kinda like I just did in this article.

Expect the full reveal of the next Emmure record any day now. Boogie down: