ALBUM REVIEW: Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals, "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Full Length: Full length

Date Released: 26/01/ 2018

Label: Housecore Records |

Season of Mist

Songs like "Mixed Lunatic Results" and "Delinquent" are Anselmo at his best, holding court and being the wildman savant his fans adore. Say what you will about his persona, but Anselmo is as spellbinding as ever, and songs like "Photographic Taunts" show you how he's still got it.

"Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Little Fucking Heroes

2. Utopian

3. Choosing Mental Illness

4. The Ignorant Point

5. Individual

6. Delinquent

7. Photographic Taunts

8. Finger Me

9. Invalid Colubrine Frauds

10. Mixed Lunatic Results

The Review:

A friend once said he loved hip-hop legend Cam'ron because he was the king of ignorant rap. The former Killa Cam has made a 20-year career out of having wealth, screwing women, making trouble and slapping haters. It's just narcissistic music for the club that is blessed by an artist with a seductive flow who knows his lane is the Wraith and Hennessey, and not Black Lives Matter or introspection. He seems to like it that way, as do his fans, who have followed Cam'ron through the various Diplomats reunions, guest spots and feuds.

Metal's Cam'ron is almost certainly Phil Anselmo. No one in the last 20 years has been as polarizing or reliable/predictable as the former Pantera front man and lead for Superjoint and Down. Rage and seething are largely the emotional spectrum. Anselmo's continued stumblings into political commentary have earned him a reputation as a neo-Nazi, a label he has repeatedly rejected, unconvincingly. His excesses would have killed most of us. And, like Cam, Anselmo's worst enemy has been himself. Fans may point to stylistic growth. It's just not terribly convincing either.

On "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" Anselmo offers the first glimpses in some time at attempts to prove his haters wrong. Granted, it's done in that pretentious Anselmo way of not caring what you think, but it's evident nevertheless. When the album's title track was released in November, it featured vintage Anselmo alongside elements of his Down and Superjoint incarnations. Guitarist Marzi Montazeri is gone from this version of the Illegals. And Anselmo suggested this go-around was more collaborative, and intended to convey a story of facing mental health issues.

This renewed energy comes at the right time. As with Cam'ron, the music Anselmo once led has steadily been growing beyond him, and some switches were in order. Metal has since Black Sabbath been a convergence of commentary. Social media and growing political divides, however, have sparked more than a few heavy acts to blend critique into their music. For years, Anselmo has had a penchant for voicing his opinion in his music and elsewhere; unfocused, it can become a trainwreck, such as in his white supremacist flirtation. The topic of mental health herein is a loaded one. In mid-February, a 19-year-old man with an apparent mental illness killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida. There's a worldwide opioid epidemic spurred by attempts to deal with psychiatric problems. How Anselmo contributes to the discourse feels interesting, to say the least.

On the first Philip H. Anselmo and The Illegals album since its 2013 debut, there is plenty of red meat for Anselmo's hardcore base. He's still mad, still dropping that rumbling vocal and still backed by a bruising metal ensemble. The album's opener, "Little Fucking Heroes," delivers a white-hot blast of fury, driving rhythm section and raw riffs for the vocals to tear into. Anselmo, who turns 50 in June, is undoubtedly grown from the kid who fronted 1988's "Power Metal," though his passion is timeless. Unmoored by a band's larger identity, Anselmo feels freer than usual, roaring into the microphone with the muscle that made him famous. Songs like "Mixed Lunatic Results" and "Delinquent" are Anselmo at his best, holding court and being the wildman savant his fans adore. Say what you will about his persona, but Anselmo is as spellbinding as ever, and songs like "Photographic Taunts" show you how he's still got it.

However, don't hold your breath for Anselmo to go Kendrick Lamar on this album in regard to the mental health crisis. Rather than a slam on Congress, insurance companies, Big Pharma or state failures, the critique throughout "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" seems aimed at anyone who's not him. It's the wary eye generations of rockers have cast at politicians, liberal social justice warriors, media, institutions, parents and anyone else who just doesn't get it. The two types of people in the world, Anselmo says on "Invalid Colubrine Frauds" are those who just want to be left alone, and those who won't leave them alone. On "Individual," he declares, "I don't want to be part of your pack. Shut the fuck up, you don't even listen… I'll never be what you created." In these sentiments, Anselmo implicitly opens another conversation, most vividly illustrated in the Nikolas Cruz case: where does the right for someone who is seemingly unstable to be left alone end and the community's safety begin? Amidst the American debate over gun control, issues like institutionalization, mental health and the near-manic desire to be self-involved collide too. There are no easy answers.

"Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" is available here

Band info: facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Superjoint - “Caught up in the Gears of Application”

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 11/11/2016

Label: Housecore Records

This is gnarly and nasty music made by a figure that is both revered and reviled. Through all the controversy, one thing keeps me coming back to listen to Anselmo: the quality of the music. And the music is as potent as ever. A storming return.

“Caught up in the Gears of Application” CD//DD//LP track listing:

01. Today and Tomorrow
02. Burning the Blanket
03. Ruin You
04. Caught Up In The Gears Of The Application
05. Sociopathic Herd Delusion
06. Circling the Drain
07. Clickbait
08. Asshole
09. Mutts Bite Too
10. Rigging the Fight
11. Receiving No Answer to the Knock

The Review:

Superjoint Ritual, as this band effectively is, made a couple of records in the early 00's and then disappeared as Down reignited and- by my estimation- stagnated. Now, Anselmo is back with a rather different line up but still peddling the same angst ridden mix of sped up/metalled up EHG/Saint Vitus and Black Flag.

Song lengths are fairly concise, the anger is almost tangible and overall this is an unholy racket of rather hardcore proportions. Anselmo recreates the vocal stylings of his early 30's self to good effect. Naturally, he remains (now more so than ever!) a divisive figure- but I'm not here to write about politics; so the music is the focus here.

The likes of “Ruin You” are punk-ish blasts of anger and Phil really does turn in a good vocal performance of raging fury; his best in years. The title track is just a ferocious beast, as is... the rest of the album. Certainly, this record proves that Anselmo's writing and performance have not been hurt by years of drug abuse, scandal, grief and whatever else has been negative grist to his mill. When he screams “we used to be drug addicts!” in “Circling the Drain”, you know that he speaks from a place that you don't really want to go to (no, not Bradford).

Naturally, there is no experimentation here, no subtlety and certainly no ballads. This is horrible and pitch black stuff. In every sense, the album feels like a natural successor to “A Lethal Dose...” combining the bile of the previous two records with the propensity for throwaway song titles (“Asshole”- a nasty little track) and the raw production values. Through the latter stretch of the album, from the lengthier “Clickbait”, the bass intro sporting “Mutts Bite Too”, the sharp “Rigging The Fight” and so on, there is not one backwards step. The record just marches relentlessly onwards.

By the time it ends with the five and a half minutes of “Receiving No Answer to This”, it is quite a relief. This is gnarly and nasty music made by a figure that is both revered and reviled. Through all the controversy, one thing keeps me coming back to listen to Anselmo: the quality of the music. And the music is as potent as ever. A storming return.

“Caught up in the Gears of Application” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

FFO: Black Flag, Philip Anselmo & The Illegals, Exhorder, Eyehategod

Child Bite - "Negative Noise" (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 01/04/2016

Label: Housecore Records

Child Bite create an idiosyncratic racket, a chaotic collision of off-kilter punk, the weirder end of 80’s hardcore and rumbling post-punk.  “Negative Noise” is an invigorating blast of dissonance, a blend of familiar influences twisted into their warped vision.   Shawn Knight’s hyperactive drawl makes a compelling foil to the band’s manic yet inventive playing, as his Jello Biafra via Mike Watt drawl varies in intensity to match the song’s twists and turns.

“Negative Noise” track listing:

1). Death Before Dementia
2). Paralytic Phantasm
3). Euphoria Saturation Point
4). Born a Hog
5). Video Blood
6). Apex of Anxiety
7). Vermin Mentality
8). Beyond the Dirt
9). The Great Ego Flood
10). Into the Disease
11). Heretic Generation
12). Feed Me Septic Dreams

The Review:

Child Bite create an idiosyncratic racket, a chaotic collision of off-kilter punk, the weirder end of 80’s hardcore and rumbling post-punk. The Detroit quartet have shared vinyl with the illustrious likes of David Yow and Dope Body. New album “Negative Noise” shows they are more than match for these heavyweights.

The band cover a lot of ground stylistically over the course of “Negative Noise” but their identity maintains strong and coherent throughout. For every breakneck burst of damaged rock like “Death Before Dementia”, “Born A Hog” and “Vermin Mentality” there are voyages into stranger territory like “Paralytic Phantasm” and “Beyond The Dirt”. The spooked-out reverb soaked guitars of the former are taken to extremes with the huge wall of sound and a hypnotic bass line that begins the latter, seven minutes of menacing riffs and anxious vocals that make for the album’s highlight.

“Video Blood” sees the band at their most angular, sharp chiming guitar lines building to keening screeching wails while the stop/start riffs of “Euphoria Saturation Point” sees them at their most restless. Strong undercurrents of noise rock bubble to the surface periodically, most noticeable during the intro of “Apex of Anxiety” which exudes the shambolic belligerence of Pissed Jeans and the churning riff that heralds the arrival of “Heretic Generation”. Shawn Knight’s hyperactive drawl makes a compelling foil to the band’s manic yet inventive playing, as his Jello Biafra via Mike Watt drawl varies in intensity to match the song’s twists and turns.

“Negative Noise” is an invigorating blast of dissonance, a blend of familiar influences twisted into Child Bite’s warped vision of noisy punk rock.

“Negative Noise” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Author & Punisher - ‘Melk En Honing’ (Album Review)

‘This is filthy music that throttles you somewhere between the borders of dark and dingy sludge/doom metal and synthesized drum n bass, electronic anarchy.’

Album Type: Full-Length

Date Released: 29/06/2015

Label: Housecore Records

‘Melk En Honing’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). The Barge (08:10)

2). Cauterize (03:29)

3). Shame (07:50)

4). Future Man (07:21)

5). Disparate (08:34)

6). Callous & Hoof (07:08)

7). Teething (04:21)

8). Void, Null, Alive (07:06)

Review:

‘Melk En Honing’ is like the musical equivalent of an overly clingy, intense girlfriend. You know? The one who declares her undying love for you within days, makes collages of selfies and crappy song lyrics for you and cries when you umm and arr about her ‘cute idea’ that you should wear matching jumpers to your mates birthday? It all just gets a bit too much, a bit too leech like, as if the record is feeding off your entire being to survive, but draining you in the process.

Despite opener ‘The Barge’ coming in slowly, broodingly, building like the terrifying approach of Jaws in ocean waters, it is never anything less than oppressive, voracious and abusive. Certain aesthetics are drawn from the ilk of Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age here but are bastardised into a synth led demonization of noises that come at you like the Live Oak Boys of 19^th century New Orleans.

You see, this record has loomed in my iTunes for a good few weeks now, if not longer, but occasions where I’ve had the gall to approach this album have been few and far between. This sure as hell ain’t easy listening, it’s about as digestible as a brick. But that’s the point of course, this is meant to be vicious and about as far away from any kind of mercy, apology or manners as you can get. This is filthy music that throttles you somewhere between the borders of dark and dingy sludge/doom metal and synthesized drum n bass, electronic anarchy. Imagine The Prodigy playing slower, lower and more aggressively in some rat infested basement and you get the general idea.

This album fucks you up; it plays havoc with your mind. It sends you spinning, it spaces you out. It affects you, but that’s the most important thing. Their achievements are on a par with drawing blood from a stone, veneering tones drawing a reaction from you, the listener, be those feelings ecstasy, disgust or, like me, a putrid hybrid of the two. It’s impressionable and impenetrable. You don’t so much as listen to this record but experience it, get haunted by it. 

‘Callous and Hoof’ resembles the chaos and impending doom and hopelessness of the Somme, gargling synths rattling your speakers like mortars and ‘Cauterize’ drowns a symphonic lease of life in a bloodied, horror film style soundtrack. Things aren’t what they seem once you are properly immersed within the album’s depths. Everything starts to become twisted, blurry and distorted like you’re walking through a house of mirrors.

‘Disparate,’ while clouded by producer Phil Anselmo’s purposefully dense and muddy mix, is underpinned by a fanged groove akin to the work Shining (NOR) produced on ‘One One One’ only with a more ominous Nine Inch Nails stomp and crawling pace.  

The tempo never rises above that of the heartbeat of a dying old dog, light never piercing the blacked out curtains that drape over their musical mantra. Listen to this album for too long and you will seriously drop into a different plain of existence, a place where nightmares in daylight seem, not so much possible as definitive. To recommend this record to the wide ranging Sludgelord populous would be like asking a baby to drink bleach, but for those of you out there who want to be scared to death, tortured and left for the crows, then ‘Melk En Honing’ is by far the most startlingly gripping and emotively dictating release 2015 has to offer.

Words: Phil Weller

‘Melk En Honing’ is available here and digitally here

For more information:

Official: http://www.tristanshone.com/

Listen: https://authorandpunisher.bandcamp.com/

Label: http://www.thehousecorerecords.com/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorandPunisher

Fulgora - ‘Stratagem’ (Album Review)

Album Type: Full-Length

Date Released: 24/03/2015

Label: Housecore Records

‘Stratagem’ CD//LP//DD track listing:

1. Source

2. Splinter

3. Risen

4. Artifice

5. Design

6. Crutch

7. Meridian

Fulgora is:

B. L. LaMew | Guitar, Vocals

John Jarvis | Bass

Adam Jarvis | Drums

Sparky Voyles | Guitar (live)

Review:

Fulgora is likely to get some extra ears and eyeballs even before anyone hears it, with Adam and John Jarvis of Pig Destroyer being the rhythm section of the band, even if Fulgora is pretty different from Pig Destroyer musically. In reality, aside from sharing a bassist and drummer, the only connections Fulgora and Pig Destroyer share are being thoroughly pissed off and being flush with savage riffs.  ‘Stratagem’ has a considerable hardcore influence, most strongly represented in guitarist/vocalist B.L. LaMew’s throat-grating shout. Musically, Fulgora are a frenzied blend of grind, death metal and hardcore, splicing the musical DNA of Nostromo, Napalm Death and Cryptopsy circa ‘Whisper Supremacy’. With ‘Stratagem’ clocking in at nineteen minutes, Fulgora don’t waste any time. While this is listed as a full length, it’s only a full length in the way that Assück’s ‘Misery Index’ is considered a full length.

The short run time might be to Fulgora’s advantage, as there’s a lot to take in, even in such a short period of time. Taking ‘Artifice’ as an example for the whole album, you’ll hear a mixture of convulsive drums and guitar bends, blistering grindcore blasts, hacking palm muted guitar riffs and even more besides. There are brief doses of atmosphere and melody to serve as reprieve here and there, but otherwise you’re largely in for variations on similar musical themes over the the 7 tracks on offer.

What Fulgora do, they do as well as anyone going right now, but I’d be dishonest if I didn’t admit that I’m hoping for a bit more variety from future releases. Whether that comes in the form of wider variation in tempo, or expanding the different emotional tones the guitars work with, or maybe trying some different vocal techniques would do the trick, though traditional singing would likely be a bad fit. ‘Stratagem’ is an excellent foundation to build from though, make no mistake about it.

Words by: Daniel Jackson

You can pick up a digital copy here and a CD/LP copy here. 

For more information:

Facebook | Twitter

The Sludgelord News: FULGORA: Full-Length From Grindcore/Death Unit Featuring Members Of Pig Destroyer, Misery Index & Agoraphobic Nosebleed Streaming In Its Entirety At Decibel; Preorders Available

Stratagem is the forthcoming, seven-track skull-crusher from grindcore/death perpetrators, FULGORA. A name representing the female personification of lightning in Greek mythology, FULGORA features members of Pig Destroyer, Misery Index and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Together, their output is vicious, painful and sadistic.

Set for imminent detonation courtesy of Housecore Records next month, Stratagem is a sinister collection of limited vinyl singles and samples. In anticipation of its release, today Decibel Magazine spews forth Stratagem in its scathing entirety noting in a recent 8/10 review of the record, "With Adam and John Jarvis (Pig Destroyer, Misery Index, Agoraphobic Nosebleed etc.) acting as the rhythmic backbone for guitarist/vocalist B.L. LaMew it's not a surprise that direct lines exist between those bands. Not that we're complaining. Adam's drumming ...unfathomably exudes space, breadth and surprising amounts of groove, while sounding like he's hitting everything at once. His frenetic style works well with LaMew's weaving of splashy discord into taut powerful riffs."

Strap on a helmet and check out Stratagem at THIS LOCATION.

And if you missed it, watch the visual companion to the track "Meridian," which American Aftermath dubs a "three-minute barrage of vile, grind mayhem," playing at Metal Injection at THIS LOCATION.

FULGORA will release Stratagem via Philip H. Anselmo's Housecore Records on March 24th, 2015. For CD preorders, visit THIS LOCATION. Vinyl lovers go HERE. 

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"FULGORA is cute" - Philip H. Anselmo

"...if Misery Index is a determined fanatic seething with the righteous rage of political revolution and Pig Destroyer is the lovelorn, desperate stalker of every woman's nightmares, then FULGORA is a mad scientist who is going to make you the middle section of his human centipede. FULGORA's music is unforgiving and furious, but it's also executed with surgical precision." - MetalSucks

Source: Earsplit PR

http://www.fulgoramusic.bandcamp.com

http://www.facebook.com/fulgoramusic

http://www.facebook.com/housecorerecords

http://www.thehousecorerecords.com 

The Sludgelord News: GRISTNAM: Cvlt Nation Hosts Two Traumatic Tunes From Louisiana Sludge Grind Assassins; Even Less Out Now Via Housecore Records

Even Less is the latest full-length from Louisiana sludge grind assassins, GRISTNAM.

Featuring former members of haarp and Omean, GRISTNAM lives by the grind-groove-repeat ethos spewing out billowing odes of revulsion, disease and chronic disenchantment. Out now on Housecore Records, Even Less is a duel bruiser that features five tracks from their 2013-issued Release 1 EP and six new violent requiems.

In commemoration of its release, today Cvlt Nation is hosting streams of "Guilt Runs Red," and "Copperhead" gushing, "Some music just doesn't have that 'feel good' factor, but instead has the make you feel sick to your bones feeling! This is the case with New Orleans' GRISTNAM - they are not trying to make friends with their brand of head-lock-of-death kind of sludge... this band sets out to punish the listener from the getgo. GRISTNAM succeeds in creating an album that is full scathing hate for all that is fucked up in this world... Pick up this diseased piece of sludge."

Feel the wrath, courtesy of Cvlt Nation, at THIS LOCATION.

The cumulative sound of a society gone rotten, The Sludgelord likens Even Less to, "an uppercut wrapped in barbed wire to the unsuspecting jaw, mixing together Superjoint Ritual, Eyehategod, and as much whisky and pills as they could find on the nearest truck stop bathroom floor," further observing, "The album smacks of anger and pissiness, grinding like early Eyehategod, with a sound that just pumps the blood up... a perfect balance between sludge and grind, with a deep, nasty tone, and a speed that isn't thrash, but a headlong rush of metal to the side of the head." Said Skulls 'N' Bones, "with roots in hardcore and grind, not to mention the expected sludge, GRISTNAM trudge through Even Less with reckless intensity... the music wallows in ugly anger, and each composition gnaws like an electric knife hitting bone. By the time frontman Shaun Emmons bellows, 'Mark my words, a funeral is coming!," on the album-opening 'Etch And Burn,' it is clear that these guys mean business." Zero Signal Magazine calls Even Less, "a beast of an album," noting bluntly, "GRISTNAMwill tear you from ass to front," while Thisisbooksmusic.com opines: "These guys sound like the New Orleans metal bastards they are, taking in the kind of crunch and dirges that come from some of the best metal bands out of the south, but also adding in a thick hardcore punk spirit that results in songs with a number of different texture and tempo changes. They remind of bands like Bone Dance, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Retox, but with their own richness that will help keep them low and high at the same time."

Even Less is currently available on orange wax (limited to 300 copies) and cassette (limited to 100 copies) via Housecore Records at THIS LOCATION.

Source: Earsplit PR

http://www.facebook.com/gristnam
http://www.thehousecorerecords.com
http://www.thehousecorestore.com

The Sludgelord News: EYEHATEGOD Issues Statement Regarding Cancellation Of Tour Dates In Australia And Mexico

On the heels of the recent cancellation of their Australian tour, EYEHATEGOD was regrettably forced to postpone their three-day run through Mexico as well.

In an official statement, the band notes: "We regret to have to cancel both our Australian and Mexican dates until further notice. Vocalist Mike IX Williams' mental stability and health are major serious issues at this point, and we are very, very sorry for putting our fans and business partners in this miserable position. We feel horrible about these empty spaces in our schedule and will make up these tours as soon as possible. The cancellation of these tours is in no way any fault of the promoters or foreign booking agents. We hope our fans understand."

Since part of the problem included long flights, EYEHATEGOD recently embarked upon two separate short runs of shows on the West and East coast, fully against doctor's orders. These shows were found to be physically draining and a detriment, performance-wise, to Williams. Williams - who is currently dealing with exhaustion and chronic fatigue from a near nonstop tour schedule over the last five years -- is resting, healing and catering to his health and will be ready to conquer Europe and the UK on tour this April.

Over two-and-a-half decades, EYEHATEGOD has helped define the NOLA sound: down-tuned, blues-inflected guitars awash in furious distortion, underpinning the tormented screams of Mike IX Williams over a thundering rhythm section. Following well over a decade-and-a-half between studio albums,EYEHATEGOD reemerged stronger and more determined than ever before with 2014's EyeHateGod, their first for Housecore Records, the album placing the band in even higher regards with critics and fans abroad. An exclamation mark on an already storied career, a statement of rebirth, catharsis, self-preservation and a sign of things to come, the chart topping album destroyed its way through the press, including dominating year-end lists everywhere, including the coveted #1 spot of Spin's 20 Best Albums Of 2014, the #14 spot of Pitchfork's Best Metal Albums Of 2014, the #30 slot of Decibel's Top 40 Albums Of 2014, the #14 position on Wondering Sounds' 25 Best Metal Albums Of 2014, #8 on OC Weekly's 10 Best Metal Albums Of 2014, #2 on Exclaim's Top Ten Metal And Hardcore Albums Of 2014 and countless others, proving that EYEHATEGOD continues to burn down everything in their path and remains one of the most important extreme music acts in the world.  

Orders for EyeHateGod can be placed via Housecore Records HERE.

http://www.eyehategod.ee

http://www.mikeix.com
http://www.facebook.com/OfficialEyeHateGod
http://www.thehousecorerecords.com

Source: Earsplit PR

Gristnam - ‘Even Less’ (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: Out  Now

Label: Housecore Records

‘Even Less’ CS//DD//LP  track listing:

1). Etch and Burn

2). Column

3). Embedded

4). Guilt Runs Red

5). Load/Depressed

6). Wake

7). Copperhead

8). Cells

9). Riding Home

10). Wallow

11). Oak Tunnel

Gristnam is:

Greg Bourgeois | Guitars
Steve Bourgeois | Guitars
Shaun Emmons | Vocals
John Miskimmin | Bass
Keith Sierra, Jr | Drums

Review:

In the 2000s, we have had the surge of weirdly non-metal metal bands and genres, some of which realized they weren't up to snuff and died out, and some of which decided to stick it out as a form of rebellion against taste and decency. And with these genres came fads, the like of which the 90s would never have dreamed of. And further problems happen when these fads make money and attract terrible bands like flies to a gutted corpse. Gristnam is not one of these bands, and frankly doesn't sound like they give much of a rat's ass about it. They are harsh, grinding, sludgy, and sound like they were born fucked up. 

Their new album, ‘Even Less’, is an uppercut wrapped in barbed wire to the unsuspecting jaw, mixing together Superjoint Ritual, Eyehategod, and as much whisky & pills as they could find on the nearest truck stop bathroom floor. The album smacks of anger and pissiness, grinding like early Eyehategod, with a sound that just pumps the blood up. The guitars are simply just violins set to Evil, with the whole arrangement sounding as if it’s a nightmare set to record at night. The way they just drive the music, without polish, ornate shredding, or anything resembling leads, absolutely speaks to the lizard brain, and just gets my headspace into JUST DO IT. It’s a perfect balance between sludge and grind, with a deep, nasty tone, and a speed that isn't thrash, but a headlong rush of metal to the side of the head. 

Vocally, it's basic animal brutality. Shawn Emmons has freakishly evil vocals for Gristnam, again in a very similar manner to Eyehategod, and newer releases from Phil Anselmo's various projects. It’s basic, screaming and growling like he's exorcising a particularly vicious demon. When combined with the voracious attack of the band, it makes for an onslaught of noise and grit that makes the air itself dirty.  It's almost feverish, and at times belies the heavier, earlier Mastodon, close to Blood & Thunder. Not quite the progression or complexity, but just a raw feel. 

If you want a jagged new release to subject you and your friends to, this is a definite frontrunner. Pair with Haarp, a nice heavy beer or some cheap whisky, and be sure to have some bail money ready. It's going to be a long night.

Words: Hunter Young

Even Less is currently available digitally via the official GRISTNAM BandCamp page HERE, on orange wax (limited to 300 copies) and cassette (limited to 100 copies) via Housecore Records at THIS LOCATION.

For more information:

http://www.facebook.com/gristnam | http://www.thehousecorerecords.com
http://www.thehousecorestore.com