Pariah : "Violence is a Curse"

 

Another band from the UK where sludge collides with hard-core. Damn, fish and chips got these mother fuckers pissed. The chugged hook the main riff comes down on is pretty badass, and they keep things both dark and dissent with feedback squealing at from the furious corners of the song. It is not surprising that this was released on Cursed Monk Records. The ballistic attack of the second song finds more of hard-core's punk roots bubbling up from the flurry. At a minute and a half, it gets to the point. In many ways, this reminds me of Nails. Right down to the overall dark and dense sound of the production. 

"Within My Skin" reminds me a little of the first song. It does carry a more malicious stomp. There is a very Entombed-like sound to these kinds of bands. They have certainly captured Entombed's guitar sound. They take a more rapid-fire plan of action in beating you with it on "Endless Circles". It is the kind of straightforward almost punk rumbling I am not a huge fan of, but I do like it when they go into a deliberate chug. I do understand the appeal of these guys as they are heavy as hell and have more hardcore feel to them.   

I had to listen to the last song a second time before I paid attention to it, as the album begins to take on a uniform rumble as the vocals do not shift a great deal. Once I hear the pervading shadow of Entombed lurking over the sound of this album I can not unhear, but you might not be that observant, and this will sound like the most original thing ever to your ears. Regardless, these guys are capable at the execution of this and it feels like despite wearing their influences on their sleeves that this is coming from an honest place so I will give this album an 8.  

pst96

Slung From a Tree : "Voyage into Cosmos"

 This band from Ireland is plenty heavy. They lash out with a feral snarl and wall of distortion . The rough around the edges feel to their lumber plants them solidly as a sludge band. It is one of those experiences where the sheer weight of their sound stuns you and , then after the first song you are left asking if they can write songs. That is if you are the type of listener who wants more than just a sound from the bands they are into. The question of can they write as song, takes a minute to warm up to into order to answer it in the most accurarte manner ,as the first two songs run together, thanks to the monochrome screams that are just a static human layer to the collision of sound that your ears are being battered by here. 

At times there is even a bit of boogie and if feels like they are putting in the effort from their perspective to write songs. It is not until "Noise Pollution" that they really earn my attention. The song before it, just hammers on with a dense fuzzed out sound, but nothing that really grabs me aside from just being heavy. There are more dynamics to "Noise Pollution", it feels like a song rather than scathing riffs your ears are in masochistic relationship with. There is even a guitar solo or two, which adds another dimension of musicality to things.  "Dim of Wit" has purpose to it, though might not touch upon anything that sets these guys apart from other bands doing similar. 

The untitled song, starts off with more of a post-rock meander. It is one of the albums more unique moments. It is largely instrumental with only a few spews of vocal exclamation. The stoner doom tendencies of this band are kept on the back burner , but this is one of the few moments when the jammy nature of what they do exerts enough blues to be noted. I will round this down to an 8, while they have a sound I enjoy, there is a uniformity that could stand to be broken up with more atmosphere as when they do bring in the more nuanced touches they shine. This is being released on Cursed Monk Records April 20th