Saturday, January 19, 2019

Weird Tales : " Hell services cost a Lot"






These guys are weird. It moves like doom, yet is more apocalyptic than melancholy so it's almost more sludge with more of a 60s psychedelic garage rock atmosphere ... think Iron Butterfly meets Blue Cheer in this regard. The opener is over ten minutes to they also have a loose jam feel when they launch into the guitar solo. There is a heavier stomp to the more metallic "Crawling Pain". It is darker and more driven , but also feels more sludge like. The vocals are sung in a detached 60's rock half croon, half spoken, bringing the Butthole Surfers to mind, I know they are from the late 80s, but Gibby Haynes is what I think of . This song does offer more dynamic ebb and flow and a trippy shift in the bass tone. The vocals shift into some anguished screams that would not be out of place on early Neurosis.

Harmonica leads into the rumble of "Lie". It's pretty burly and the more shouted vocals are doubled. The bass player is really ruling on this song. In a very Geezer Butler way of ruling. He might be the bands most shining star. The first few minutes of "Nightmare" are a fuzzy rock boogie until things get weird when the drugs kick in as the second verse breaks down and the atmosphere becomes weirder around it. The vocal melody is double with a more shouted one that is not unlike what Monster Magnet used to do. They gain a heavier traction to "Bitchcrusher" that is more of the bulldozing kind of doom that always seems more like sludge to me.

"Warnings" is more pounding , but also more sonically interesting. Midway into the song , as the instruments converge to a central hammering, the vocals go into more of a shout. The most dynamic song that brings the need range of mood is the 11 minute closer "Dead Man" it starts off in a atmosphere glaze that is part post-rock, part shoegaze and part doom. 8 minutes it the pace picks up and it goes in a more metal direction. Overall this is a cool album. They fall between the cracks when it comes to fitting neatly into one box. I'll give this album a 8.5 and see how it sits with me. Not the sound I think when I think of Poland , but it works.

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