It was 1994... I was a young 17 years old. I was looking for the foulest and cruelest sounding music I could. We had a local record store called Manifest Discs and Tapes (Yes, kids, this was back when they sold cassettes :) ). I went there every week to check out new releases and, luckily for me, the owner actually had a ridiculous amount of underground music. That's when I heard Grief for the first time. It was the "Come to Grief" record and it brought to my attention a rotten and disgusting world of DARK doom that some reviewers were calling sludge because it really didn't sound like Saint Vitus... I didn't look back for a looooooong time.
I began to look away in the early 2000's... Sludge began to be used for music I thought had no business being called "sludge". Sludge, to me, was always typified by Eyehategod, Grief and 13. It was a style broiled with rage and hate and churned out some of the sickest and most disturbing music of my youth and then... well, it just.. stopped...
The bands that started using the descriptor sounded different than I wanted them to. They sounded more like Explosions in the Sky then Noothgrush and they left behind the rage for an "indie rock" atmosphere, for lack of a better term. It just wasn't interesting to me. I wondered away from "Sludge"... drifting back occasionally hoping only to have my hopes dashed on the "post metal" rocks. It was a sad time for me, as far "sludge" is concerned. There were a few bands that got it but not many... which is why I was so excited to learn about Come to Grief.
Come to Grief is ex members of Grief with a couple of other guys jamming to make horrible noise again. I was excited! I thought that maybe they would create music that I would understand as "Sludge"... and they did!
This ep is a glorious return to form. The riffs are pounding and nasty roiling over the drums and rotted bass riffs. The music and lyrics are a montage of depression and horror. The vocals are roared out as if from a murderous killer is running at you. It is filled with pain, loss and rage and it is so cathartic and perfect... I have a hard time not listening to it... My wonderful "sludge" has reemerged and is as rotted and festered as ever.
The only complaint (and it is a minor complaint) is that this is just an ep! Its only four songs; all of which are spectacular! The whole ep will fly by in a heart beat, a terrible and beautiful harrowing heartbeat! I hope they go into the studio soon and give us a full length of this magnitude... This is another contender for record of the year!
I've just heard Iron Monkey are ready to release a new album and the first song is strong! A rotted, vicious breath of fresh air!
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