Primitive Man : " Caustic"

I am back after weathering the hurricane. Just got power back last night and internet this morning so Here we go. Primitive Man is no stranger to us here. The band's sound continues to evolve into something heavier and now it's to the the point that if demons possessed a tank and drove it through a junk yard, it would sound much like the opening song of this album which is more death metal than it is sludge. Though when you reach the density these guys have labels become a mute point as it's a matter of frequency and function. They chug out of the jagged feedback that makes up "Victim". The vocals are a growl that almost comes across like low squawk. Forget making out any of the lyrics it is more about the sonic attack. I think a few years ago I would have been more impressive by the sheer heaviness of the album. I can appreciate it. The guitar tone is pretty apocalyptic it sounds like large pieces of machine are being smashed together without sounding industrial.

There is a more droning pulse to "Commerce" . The vocals carry the death metal bellow though the pace stays more deliberate. While it's heavy as hell, from a song writing perspective it holds on a lumber in a manner similar to doom. Dynamically I would not say it's static, as it swells into a tremolo section that is pretty massive sonically. The pace only picks up incrementally for "Tepid". There is less of a rhyme and reason to the grunted vocals on this song. Yes it is very, but I feel there needs to be more pieces to this puzzle and begin to miss some of the more industrial strength nuances I remember them having on their earlier work. The double bass brings a more barreling steamroller of an attack to "Sterility" which at times sounded like instruments were give to gorillas.

By the time the album gets to "Sugarhole" this pounding has numbed me out and is all beginning to sound the same. So I took a break from the album and came back to it. It still strikes me as heading in a more death metal direction. Three minutes into "Disfigured" and the pulse of the song is more pleasing to my ears. Not that this is ground breaking , but it flows better than the bulk of what I have heard from these guys this time around. There is more of a sluggish doom tinged hesitation to the chords of  "Inevitable" . It does move into another more sonic passage with tremolo guitar letting us know they understand that black metal has forever influenced every genre of music. The last two minutes of this song is the sound of a dead horse being beaten. This is the last real song as the closing track is an outro of ambient noise. I'll give this album a 7.5 , it's certainly heavier and while I don't mind the more death metal direction, I personally want more in terms of dynamics vs sheer weighty heaviness.