Friday, June 29, 2012

Primate: Draw Back a Stump



This is as close to covering punk rock as I will ever allow this band to get.  Mastodon Guitarist Bill Kelliher and former Brutal Truth growler Kevin Sharp step up to the plate with this side project. It hold none of the chaos either of their other bands once played with, instead stays very basic pummel style in the vein of Black Flag , yet the metal roots betray it with some of the sonic chug of this assualt.

The only melody to be found lies in Kelliher's playing, as Sharp is every bit as abrasive as the guitars. This is consistant with his preformance in Brutal Truth, a band who in all fairness I abandoned after their first album. The snarl Sharp default's to is at times very Rollins. While aside from Ringworm there is not alot of good new crossover coming out so sweaty drunk kids every where are looking to get this kind of pit going.
I don't see this making the trip over to my i-Pod as I'm not the target audience, I recognize this so I'm not going to score it as I can't tell the songs apart. They are all well played but at a similar tempo, influenced by an era before the hardcore break down. The songs clock in in the traditional under three mintue mark in fact this entire album is the length of one songs from "Crack the Skye". Several memebers of  this band are from the Atlanta punk band the Despised, who kept.an underground following, like the Despised , Motorhead would be the closest metal band comparisons could be drawn to even factoring in the rest of Primate's family tree, I suppose those lines of distinction could be drawn with most punk of this flavor.

The album is well recorded , clarity and grit present in a well rounded balance, an achievment considering this sort of thing normally works best live.While dense, I wouldn't say this album holds a very dark, so this factors into why it would not resonate with me.I think younger metal heads with punk leanings will enjoy this as much as the old school who has G.B.H patches next to the D.R.I and Slayer ones on their denim vests. I think as far as hard core punk goes , the hype surrounding a band like Off! would be better served on these guys. I think the bands age or more vetran nature is transcended in their preformances, making the attitude this music is about hold more weight than coming across as a loud suburban brat.

I guess the restraint Kelliher's playing here exhibits, lends creedence to some of the punk vs metal compare and contrast examined earlier in the week, it must bring out this inner 14 year old to dummy down after the winding prop epics. Earlier Mastodon utilized as some what more straight forward attack at the onset of some of their songs. This is 75 percent punk 25 percent metal so if you are dying for a score on this move the decimal point and round it up or go dig up Slayer's "Undisputed Attitude" album and you will be in the same zip code just on a steady diet of  " My war " .  

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2012/06/primate_readies.html

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