Gotober- Dridge : "Curing"

 When  this band from Philly commits to death rock, they get it right. More gritty and crude than Atriarch, but in a similar sonic zip code in their marriage of metal with goth. Its done in the dirt back alley way and not how say Type O Negative retained the more dark wave elegance. But death rock never had that except in the rare moments Christian Death put the needle down and got dramatic. The drummer is singing which to me is always a weird dynamic. He is pretty solid when it comes to switching from the more emotive moan of goth to the snarling dirty crust punk vocal. Where the first song has the punk recklessness, on the second song they groove on this before , stomping into an angrier more metallic crunch. 

Once the floodgates of aggression are opened it is hard to get that cat back in the bag. "Boomerang" is tightly syncopated. The groove falls somewhere between Helmet and Celtic Frost. I like what they are going here. Not sure I would call it doom , but it rocks with a healthy stomp to the guts . "Webb" splits the difference ,as it falls back into the post-punk disco groove with the hi-hat, but has equal amounts of angry snarl to it as well. The death rock pout of the vocals is a call and response to the more angry vocal. The distortion is very dense creating an abrasive wall around the song at times. " Cut" falls prey to a more chaotic mania cast over the song.

Things get really interesting on "Meddle" , it is angry but comes from a more Black Flag like place, except angular and more primal, so I guess that is more like early Rollins Band, which also works for me. The sonic scope of what goes down occupies a good place in my ears . Around the five minute mark of this  9 minute monster things get more metal in their attack,  that is before they back off into the more death rock ambiance, including the morose musing of the vocals . "Figure it out" reminds me of "Filth Pig" era Ministry if covered by the Jesus Lizard.  I will round this up to a 9.5, a marriage of noise rock, sludge and death rock is always a wonderful thing.