Nightslug : "Loathe"

The German band surprisingly digs up a very American sound in their dirty white trash version of the visceral sludge Neurosis used to churn out mixed with swampy trailer park blackness. They hold the riff and drone on it's pound for all its worth only letting up for the guitar go into a solo that more feedback than shredding or melody. They pick up the pace on the second song and gather an almost Celtic Frost momentum. There is fuzz and feedback over everything, including the vocals. they change guitar tones a couple minutes into the title track, but kick back in. The first two song what they do has really worked , but I begin to need something more by the time they are beginning to make my ears ring on the third song.

They drop into a lower slower riff. They return to their more punk roots on " Under a Bane", which had the reckless rumble of Motorhead being buried alive in a post-apocalyptic scrap yard.This is a little more straight forward than I prefer as it is dynamically flat and not amount of heaviness can really compensate for that. They descend back into a gloomier place on "Disease' that continues to foster some Eyehategod comparisons. This song is allowed more breathing room and sounds closer to music than some of the other outbursts. There is more of a syncopated pound closer to Godflesh on "Pure". The bass and the drums hold onto a minimalist almost industrial beat. The industrial comparisons could continue to flourish on "Tainted Throne" which has that churning almost "When the Levee Breaks " like beat that Ministry used on some of the more deliberate groove to the second side of the the "Psalm 69" album.

 Over all this album is dark and dirty with a nasty habit for smothering you in their suffocating pound. Not the most dynamic or original album of the year, but the pieces they have in place work well for what they are doing. I'll round this album up to a 7.5, if you are a big fan of sludge ridden hipster industrial then it might even be an 8 for you, I like stuff like Primitive Man, but this albums sticks to the few dark crayons it has to color with.