Saturday 17 November 2012

NO ANCHOR - The Golden Bridge Review

The Golden Bridge cover art

No Anchor are a Sludge/Crust-Punk/Doom/Stoner Metal band from Brisbane, Australia

The members are:

Alex Gillies (Drums)
Donovan Miller (Bass Guitar & Vocals)
Ian Rogers (Bass Guitar & Vocals)

YES THERE ARE TWO BASS GUITARS AND NO ‘REAL’ SIX-STRING GUITARS. DON’T FUCKING MESS IT UP YOU HACKS!

The statement above is No Anchor's words from their cool press pack they recently sent to me for their brilliant new album - The Golden Bridge.

No Anchor have been on this blog before and they have a very loyal following amongst the Sludge/Stoner/Doom Metal underground. Their last album Supernova was acclaimed all over the place for it's mix of volatile angry based Sludge/Doom/Stoner/Crust Punk riffs.

They are a self-produced DIY Band who do everything for themselves and nothing much has changed with their latest and possibly best release to date - The Golden Bridge.

A 10 song and almost 40 minute collection of head-banging and head-turning noises and riffs. This album will entertain and confuse you in equal measure. The Golden Bridge doesn't have a set structure at all just a collection of tracks showing how angry No Anchor are with the entire world around them. Read the following song by song description prepared by the band themselves. I couldn't put it better myself.

1. FTB: A love song dedication to MCA and a hate song dedication to just about everything else we could think of, including ourselves. 

2. SLACK SABBATH: Probably the best riff you’ve ever heard layered over a song that entirely ‘gets’ us. Has there ever been a band that less comfortably straddles indie-noise and trad-metal? Probably not.

3. ANNA: A pretty simple idea turned into our most concise pop song to date (maybe ever). The idea? Write a song like Annie by Elastica or Jamie by Weezer. But put through No Anchor, it comes out pretty awful and mean-spirited. Anna isn’t even the girl’s real name but who could get angry at a girl called Beatrice?

4. LOOSE GRAVEL: A song about how the band is a colostomy bag for our lives.

5. ONE MEANS: Hopefully the only song ever written that owes equal debts to ‘The Dice Man’ by Dr Luke Rhinehardt and ‘Clientele Kidd’ by Raekwon.

6. ELECTRICITY: Donnie’s sensitive side plus cats. The album collapses into this song’s what’s-the-fucking-point-blues and then gets shitty at itself and cheers up.

7. WOODMAN: Donnie’s insensitive side (plus Electric Wizard) reporting back from the other side of a white blank vortex. Feels great over there. There’s an orchard of great riffs in the vortex.

8. OH KILL: A culling song and an incantation. When bogan racists hear this song they cry, shit their pants and their capes catch fire. This song jumped out almost by accident after Ian hears a friend - in a completely unrelated context - mention a new Rational Academy song titled, ‘Oak Hill’.

9. SLABS: Just some slabs.

10. SHUT YR MOUTH: Ferdinand von Schirach’s collection of short stories about various real life criminals he’s defended in court is a harrowing - but strangely uplifting - book. ‘The Golden Bridge’ is taken from his work too.


So that its all the songs described by the band themselves. But that is only half the story. The other half is the viewer's perceptive. What you get is pissed off angry fueled Sludge based Crust Punk/Hardcore/Doom/Stoner Metal riffs.

No Anchor throw everything in the kitchen sink. It's just that this kitchen sink is one shit-infested fucking hell hole that you might find hard to breathe never mind survive. And it's even more better for it.

The crunching bass-driven guitar riffs give this album an earthly organic feel to it. Mixed with the dual vocals of Donovan and Ian. The 40 minutes will leave you battered and bruised and hungry for more.

No Anchor have delivered a crushing statement of intent on how they see the world. It aint pretty but this could be the most truthful and most important record of their career's if not one of 2012.

A true vision of one of the best underground Sludge Metal Bands currently around. Miss this at your own peril. Amazing. End of.

The Golden Bridge will be available to buy on both Physical and Digital Formats from 23rd November 2012 via BandCamp.

Check This Brilliant Band Below.

noanchorband.com
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