Slaves – “Consume Or Be Consumed” ft. Mike D (Singles Going Steady)

Adriane Pontecorvo: This is about as grimy a throwback as anyone could ask for, from the piles of hot dogs to the chainsaw interlude, and that’s exactly what it’s meant to be: a grungy, messy song so inspired by the Beastie Boys that even without Mike D. making a cameo, it wouldn’t be a leap from one group of loud, snot-nosed kids to the other. It’s not the kind of song you can really dance to or send home to mother, but it’s good and cathartic — the first couple of times. Too much of it, and you’ll end up with something like a post-caffeine headache. [6/10]

Andrew Paschal: Slaves seem to mirror the repetitive, relentless onslaught of consumption culture itself with their latest single, making a valid political statement while not necessarily crafting a particularly listenable song. Bonus points for anti-capitalist sentiments I guess, but “Consume Or Be Consumed” is grating and not really something that warrants repeated listening once its general statement is, well… consumed. [4/10]

Scott Zuppardo: Sludge hip-hop from overseas, no less! And a guest spot from Beastie Boy Mike D. The fuzzed up guitar riff with the verbose boom bap drum track kicks you square in the grill — a genius amalgam drawing from Oblivians and MF Doom. The keyboard fills are infectious too. B-Boys, metal heads, and garage punks unite! [9/10]

Chris Ingalls: It’s not surprising that Mike D makes an appearance on this new single from Slaves’ second full-length album. The raw angry party atmosphere sounds like a British “License to Ill” for the 21st century. Is that a good thing? Well, this isn’t awful, but I can imagine the brash rawness wears thin after a few songs. As a standalone single, it’s a lot of loud, harmless fun. But like that early Beastie Boys album, one can only hope that the posturing will eventually transform to a deeper maturity on future releases. [6/10]

Morgan Y. Evans: Hot dogs are wicked gross. Hot tracks about consumerism are wicked cool, though. [7/10]

Paul Carr: This sounds like Queens of the Stone Age being savaged by an attack dog. The cranking drive of the bass retreats before singer Isaac Holman lets fly with sneering machine gun paced vocals. While it’s certainly angry enough, it doesn’t quite ring true as the rousing anti consumerist anthem it clearly wants to be. Rather than smash the system you might be tempted to keep quiet when you are given too much change in Starbucks. How’s that for sticking it to the man!? [5/10]

SCORE: 6.17