The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

 Welp, no second review this week. I got pretty sick and am still recovering.


I'm pretty sure you'll get 2 reviews Next Week, with one coming out Monday. 

Thanks for reading and stay tuned more is definitely coming from this little blog.

Seethe Griever- Nausea; Ad Nauseam

 I actually meant to get this up last week but, again, life gets in the way. So, you should get 2 reviews this week. Hooray for you! Anyway onto the review.

"Listen to Grief". 

This is listed on the band's Bandcamp page in the bio. An exhortation, if you will. But also an obvious statement of intent. and possibly even a threat. 

I discovered Sludgecore in 1993 but had no idea what I was listening to until 1994 when I picked up "Grief- Come To Grief". Now, I'm aware none of the bands  really wanted the label. That tends to be the way with innovators but I think its one of the few times a reviewer labeled a style of music independent of bands desires correctly. These bands were obviously heavier than what most were calling "Doom" at the time and, unlike Death/doom, were also clearly more influenced by hardcore than they were by metal. 

When I listened to "Come To Grief", I instantly fell in love. I dove headfirst into this world of dark, slow and depressive music with no hesitation. I was ravenously devouring anything released by Slap-a-Ham, Theologian and Pessimiser records, especially Pessimiser. That was my most favorite label at the time. I never really looked back with the exception of "Sludge" losing all the dark and heavy parts but that was later.

This brings us to this EP.  It was released last year but I am only now hearing it. And, man, does this project LOVE Grief. That's not a knock on it at all. It does a great job of capturing mid 90's sludge. The 11 minute opener, Nausea; Ad Nauseam, slowly rolls over you like a Sherman tank, all nastiness and ill intent. "He Was Still Teething" opens with a harrowing sample of a girl describing nearly skinning herself while cutting then plods into a slow, brutal track whose title implies horrific possibilities. "Hunted Down" shows a slightly experimental side in the sense that the vocalist uses clean vocals, which work very well on that track, that sometimes duet with the growl normally employed and musically is probably the fastest paced track on the EP, though I would hesitate to even call it "mid- paced".

As I said, this captures what was happening musically in the mid 90's as far as "sludge" goes but, while the love for Grief is obvious I think they have a path that may show them doing their own thing. Specifically in the vocal choices in the final track, which I think is my favorite.  They have a new recording coming out in June so we can all look forward to the horror and misery.

Highlights: Hunted Down but, again, the whole recording is great if you're into the sludgecore sound. Highly recommended from this here blog. Check them out and, indeed, LISTEN TO GRIEF!


https://seethegrieverdoom.bandcamp.com/

Singe- Sin, Waste and Decay

 See, I told you there'd be a new review this week.


So, I really like metal/rock that finds a way to combine ferocity with a dark and threatening atmosphere of some kind. It's actually pretty hard to find but when I was young it was  pretty normal. From Acid Bath to Alice In Chains to Karma to Burn's first record you usually found it somewhere in music. I include Scissorfight in that list as well.  But it's been harder to come by recently. 

Enter new band Singe. I discovered these guys randomly on Spotify and decided to listen to this EP. Its a powerful display of atmospheric rage infused underground heaviness. From the aggressive stomp of "Settling Scores" to the noise rock/grunge sounding power of "Horsie" through the psychedelic horror of "Dusk". It all ends in the poisonous rhythm of "Lucky Strike" which comes after a spoken word interlude "VI I IV" which sounds like it would easily fit into an underground horror flick. 

This EP pulls together all the good parts of sludgecore, grunge and nu-metal. The music is well written and effortlessly flows from wild insane rage to creeping psychedelia not unlike all of the bands I mentioned in the first paragraph, The drums pound in the right moments. Guitar riffs easily move from heavy crunch to barely controlled acoustic parts. The bass perfectly compliments this formula by sinuously slithering between the drums and guitars. The lead singer has tons of charisma and can  summon absolute rage in one moment and in the next moment shatter your expectations with true tortured vulnerability.  Like the rest of the band, he is capable of combining moods and textures to compliment the songwriting for the needs of the song. 

Considering this is a debut EP and they only really released 2 other songs as "demos", this is an incredibly strong debut.  I first heard it about a week ago and have listened to it most days since. I can't see not listening to it often in the near future and believe it will be in my plays for years to come, not unlike the bands mentioned in the first paragraph. 

Standout tracks are: Dusk and Lucky Strike but the whole EP is very good, so you should definitely check them out of your a fan of any of the releases I mentioned earlier. I hope Singe do very well and get popular in hard rock and Heavy Metal circles. They deserve success and I look forward to more from this talented young band, Anyway, check them out.

https://singect.bandcamp.com/album/sin-waste-decay

...And We're back!

 "Guess who's back... Back again... Yes, he's back... Tell a friend."


Hello there fellow heads of metal,


    Well, it has been a while, hasn't it? I know, ya missed me. Welp, I'm an adult and things do get in the way sometimes. I'll be 50 years old next year. Dang, I didn't think I'd make it. 

    Honestly, most of the reason for the silence is that I've not had a lot to say about the heavier ends of rock music recently and have actually been pretty disappointed the last 8 years. Yes, I still keep up with releases and still listen to new music but most of it is from already well established bands who have strong song writing formulas. Most of the new stuff hasn't felt as vital to me, or, at least, not really worth my expounding upon.   

    Well, you might have guessed that may have changed a little. So this week we start up the reviews again. I have 3 releases I know I'll be talking about here and all of them are worth highlighting.  There are also a few fairly historic shows coming to my area that I will be going to see and will review them here. A new fire has been lit under my ass as it were, at least for the time being. Hell, there may even be an interview or two. We'll see.

    I know its been a while and I know a lot of my readers may not come back. I hope you do come back to read my thoughts on this music. I have missed doing this and hope to rebuild where I left off. 

    So, anyway, thanks for reading and be on the lookout for a new review this week and more thereafter. I hope you guys have a great day and keep rocking!