By: Charlie Butler
Album Type: Split 12”
Date Released: 27/10/2017
Label: Holy Roar Records
Both bands deliver the best kind of cover
version; one that takes the source material and imbues it with their own unique
spirit to create something new and exciting.
An essential purchase for any fans of the UK heavy underground and maybe
it’ll turn some old Zappa and Beefheart heads towards the sludgier side of life
too
“Mothers Of The Beef And The Magic Of
Invention” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Slabdragger – “Muffin Man”
2).
Wren – “Electricity”
The Review:
Slabdragger and Wren are
a formidable duo of UK riff merchants. Bringing together the two slowest and
heaviest bands on Holy Roar to unleash a split
12” leads to exactly the mighty results you would expect. What is less expected
is that these behemoths manage to create characteristically earth-shaking
offerings in the form of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart covers.
Both
bands deliver the best kind of cover version; one that takes the source
material and imbues it with their own unique spirit to create something new and
exciting. Slabdragger take Frank Zappa’s
one riff wonder “Muffin Man” and throw
in a filthy radioactive swamp, only to have it emerge as a mutant
city-levelling Godzilla. The track is a perfect blend of modern dirty sludge
and retro jam band freedom. This ten minute monster is bookended by classic
monolithic Slabdragger riffage while the middle section
sees them really channelling the spirit of Zappa with every band
member getting a solo.
While
Slabdragger offer up a cover that sticks structurally and
sonically close to the original, Wren’s take on Captain Beefheart’s “Electricity”
is a different beast. The original song is one of the notoriously difficult Beefheart’s catchiest numbers, three minutes of raw, warped
funk. Wren take the source material and twist into
a new dark form that stretches over eight dark and powerful minutes. If you
listen closely you can hear the parts of “Electricity”
that Wren have dragged out to create a sinister
post-metal epic that would fit in seamlessly on their
amazing “Auburn Rule” LP. The
hypnotic elastic groove of the original is transformed into a huge lumbering riff
that ushers in the tracks punishing climax.
This
is a fine split from two awesome bands on crushing form. An essential purchase
for any fans of the UK heavy underground and maybe it’ll turn some old Zappa and Beefheart heads towards
the sludgier side of life too.
“Mothers Of The Beef And The
Magic Of Invention” is available here
Band
info: Slabdragger || Wren
