Primitive Man - " Scorn"

I went into this with little ...ok no knowledge of this band expect they seem to be featured on sites that share similar taste in metal. I did learn that very member of this band also used to be in Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire. The sludgey sound they capture seem to have become indigenous to America. Theres a coating of abrasive noise to their brand of sludge, the edges sound sharp and rusty like an a.i.d.s ridden Gorilla rPing you in a dumpster.

The grime encrusted fuzz corrodes all the dark corners of this album. Though the drums are acoustic they carry a similar cadence at times to that of an industrial band...think Godflesh not Combichrist. There are some grin score like temper tantru,s thrown before the more predominat machine like crush. The way the tempo retards on a song like "Antietam" makes it sound like the disease is slowing the big monkey pumping down as he runs out of steam and closes in on his last perverse breath. I think this song is particularly strong and I like the apocalyptic nature it conveys. To say the production is gritty would be an understatement. It sounds like every piece of mequipment used to record this album was rolled through broken glass and the band was whipped with barbed wire as they were recording this.

Vocally there are moment I would liken to Converge as it sometimes sounds like Jacob is screaming out of catharsis ad abandoning any decorum of the human language, which is the vibe I'm getting here as well. It barked , it's squeaked , we have set Noahs's ark on fire and it's sinking into the flood water amd these are the pleas we hear. With songs like "Black Smoke " the tone is almost set to equal parts noise and while I can appreciate the David Lynchian oddity found I. Experimentation , there needs to be some sort of notes for me to consider it a song. Not static and what may or may not be a moan.

"Stretched Thin" carries the punk venom with barking with rabid abandon.its not until the chug midway through does it really ,Orpheus into metal. The bass is very present and accounted for here which I'm a fan Of. "Astral Sleep" let's it's heft linger at first before it slides into the first piece of sludge that I would say comes close to having any doom ties. The build back in has a powerful chug to it. This is to Sludge what Lord Mantis is to black metal . Though that is not to say there is anything black about this album. It's darkness is more on the urban plane of existence. The punk leanins are they only hindernce here, I know to some extent it does part and parcel with grind core.

The conviction with which they set a out this with is pretty impressive , I think it should maintain a spot on my iPod so I will go ahead and give this one an 8 . It's powerful it tends to hit you with the same blows all too often , yet the feel of what they are doing has a very real desperation to it and I fou d myself like in Thai album much more than anticipated , so they get points for winning me over despite their lack of anything black.