Album Type: EP
Date Released: 1/11/2014
Label: Bad Road
‘We Are Nothing’ CD/DD track listing:
1). Lung Remover
2). Them
3). Kontti
Gangrened is:
Owe Inborr | Drums
Jon Imbernon | Guitars
Andreas Österlund | Guitars
Ollijuhani Kujansivu | Vocals
Ari Kuorikoski | Bass
Review:
Next up is a short 3 song record from Finnish doom band Gangrened, their second after a split with
Blown-out speakers, amplifier worshipping, sloth-paced doom; this trio of exigent and iron-handed tunes have a cohesion, that are not simply three songs in a row but one record complete. The thickness of the tone and enveloping textures evoke backbreaking and brutality, and even when the party starts on the closer "Kontti" (named after a colloquialism for a 24 pack) they still drive home sledgehammer nihilism as well as some of the greats of the genre.
Yawning feedback gapes at every spare second of track 1, "Lung Remover." Between skull-smashing slugs of raw doom, speakers howl in pain along with vocalist Ollijuhani Kujansivu, over a deliberate, dismal plodding that feels like it stretches you out until you're pulled nearly apart. At the moment of snapping (7:16) a filthy breakdown bangs your head until your face is a bloody unrecognizable mess and a Supercoven-soaked wall of riffs kicks you over and over while you're down. As with many songs exceeding 12 minutes, it overstays a bit at the end, indeed I think it would have been more urgent and ended with some heavier tension, if just skipped the last 2 minutes, overall the song is a neck-wrecker nonetheless.
"Them" follows, upping the pace from funereal to sludgy. After a ridiculous sample about chasing a helicopter pilot, metal wastes no time. Churning riffs play off caveman drums, somehow dragging and kinetic at the same time. The halfway mark gets a jumpstart into dirty hardcore territory, bringing to mind Fistula's faster moments before a ruthlessly simplistic groove pulverizes the final minute to fade out.
‘Kontti’ is a tribute/almost-cover of Black Flag's song "Six Pack" from their ‘Damaged’ album. They effortlessly inject the grime of the Flag into a ripping stoner-groove mosher that won't let you stop bobbing your head, fist clenching a crushed can in the air.
25 minutes of bludgeoning. The restrained beginning of the breakdown in ‘Lung Remover’, followed by the swell into full volume, is one of the heaviest things I've heard in a while. These guys know how to make a racket and hopefully we don't have to wait another year for the next release.
‘We Are Nothing’ is already available on their bandcamp (gangrened.bandcamp.com) and in CD from Moscow-based Bad Road Records (www.facebook.com/badroadces). A cassette release will be issued via (https://www.facebook.com/swapmeatrecords) over the forthcoming weeks
FFO: Fister, Fistula, other Fist-based bands
‘Kontti’ is a tribute/almost-cover of Black Flag's song "Six Pack" from their ‘Damaged’ album. They effortlessly inject the grime of the Flag into a ripping stoner-groove mosher that won't let you stop bobbing your head, fist clenching a crushed can in the air.
25 minutes of bludgeoning. The restrained beginning of the breakdown in ‘Lung Remover’, followed by the swell into full volume, is one of the heaviest things I've heard in a while. These guys know how to make a racket and hopefully we don't have to wait another year for the next release.
‘We Are Nothing’ is already available on their bandcamp (gangrened.bandcamp.com) and in CD from Moscow-based Bad Road Records (www.facebook.com/badroadces). A cassette release will be issued via (https://www.facebook.com/swapmeatrecords) over the forthcoming weeks
FFO: Fister, Fistula, other Fist-based bands
Words by: James Harris
For more information:
